Show or story?

There's a shudder of horror that comes from making connections between "marketing" and "church" - "selling religion" sounds about as far from Jesus as it's possible to get...

Depends, of course, what you mean by "marketing".

Seth Godin's (see my earlier post on his forthcoming London gig) latest blog piece contrasts the "big show" (in this case, by big advertisers for the Superbowl) with what he would see as true marketing - most fundamentally the ability to tell a story that has its own legs...

Marketing is telling a story that sticks, that spreads and that changes the way people act. The story you tell is far more important than the way you tell it. Don't worry so much about being cool, and worry a lot more about resonating your story with my worldview. If you don't have a story, then a great show isn't going to help much.

And there's the point,of course - communicating Jesus isn't about putting on the best show in town, with the best band, facilities, wizzy videos, but telling our story - the one about the God who changes lives...

...and if you call that marketing, that's fine by me.