Some of you may have noticed this link to on the right of the page, maybe not. Church Marketing Sucks is a blog written for the Center for Church Communication, and has a bunch of different stories and commentary on examples (good and bad) of church marketing strategies and also offers some advice on how to market church.

I always thought that the words “marketing” and “church” were supposed to be separate, that only weird churches put stuff on billboards and made goofy looking signs they put in their front yards. But I’ve come to realize that all the time we represent Parkcrest in what we do. Sometimes it can seem contradictory, because a church shouldn’t be about trying to sell itself, but it’s important that the church presents its message in a clear and positive way. People will always form their own opinion of Parkcrest, but marketing is letting people know who we are and what we’re about.

So go check out Church Marketing Sucks. Right now on the front page there is a story on how to be an “anti-welcoming church” (a nice easy ten step program on alienating people that come to your church), and if you scroll down, there are a couple stories on churches that have put up billboards with a different spin from the normal guilt trip billboards, i.e. “Jesus Cries When You’re Not in Church” (I should say that I don’t actually know if that billboard exists, but it sounds like a good example). I especially like the billboard that says “Church Doesn’t Suck”. Short and sweet and to the point.