Showing posts with label washington times. Show all posts
Showing posts with label washington times. Show all posts

Monday, June 8, 2009

Rethink Church: Mainline Denominations In TV Ads

Here's something from the Blog--- Confessions of a Recovering Pharisee:

Protestant groups use ads to lure members
Posted at 4:00 am under church, denominations

[Washington Times]

Shrinking mainline Protestant denominations are turning to marketing to help stem decades of membership losses and stay afloat.

The United Methodist Church recently released a $20 million rebranding effort aimed at attracting younger members to the large but diminishing Protestant sect. The new ads will appear over the next four years as part of the denomination’s “Rethink Church” campaign.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has invested nearly $1.2 million in the past two years launching a similar branding effort based on the theme “God’s Work, Our Hands.”

The denominations are trying to bounce back from losses that began in the mid-1960s.


Interesting stuff! I just saw the United Methodist Church one, tonight---here it is:


Here is the ELCA one:


So are these ad campaigns a necessary consequence of the imminent collapse of American Evangelism from within or what? Do you think other denominations should follow suit? Will these ads help revitalize interest in the church and church life among the younger generation? What do you think?

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Americans leaving churches in droves

Americans leaving churches in droves
Julia Duin (Contact)
Sunday, September 21, 2008

"Quitting Church: Why the Faithful Are Fleeing and What to Do About It" (Baker Books) is the new book by Julia Duin, assistant national editor (religion) at The Washington Times. In this excerpt, she details her personal experience and survey numbers showing the difficulties evangelical churches have with keeping their members.

"You're not going to church?" I asked him.

It was his birthday, so we had met for dinner at the Olive Garden, one of our favorite Italian restaurants. He shook his head. "Matt," I will call him, was legally blind and unable to drive. That and a few other handicaps had not prevented him from having a decent-paying job with the U.S. government, from amassing a world-class library in his home, and from being the go-to guy with answers to all my questions about Reformed theology.

But here he was, disconsolate. A reporter by trade, I dragged his story out of him.

"I don't mind taking the metro to church, but you know me," he said. "I'm pretty Reformed, and the kind of church I like is always at least two miles from the nearest stop."

(Read More: Here)