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What is the difference between promotion and marketing?

Throughout this website I make a strong distinction between promotion, which I believe can be an effective use of media within the church and her ministries, and marketing, which I believe has no place in the church at all. Though both of these activities--promotion and marketing--use similar tools, they are not the same thing.

Marketing is an economic discipline. As I explain in detail elsewhere on this site, marketing is a relatively new field and applicable only to a free-market economy. It's guiding principles revolve around satisfying the wants of a given base of consumers where supply is greater than demand. Christ-followers, on the other hand, revolve around glorifying Christ among all nations by sharing the gospel; meeting the needs of the poor, the oppressed, the needy and the church globally; studying God's Word; and worshiping God individually and corporately.

Promotion is a practical use of media tools. Though many modern media tools are used in marketing, most were not specifically developed for that purpose. In inventing the phone, Alexander Graham Bell was attempting to improve communication over long distances--I'm sure he never imagined telemarketing or he obviously would have also invented in the unlisted number at the same time.

Likewise, when the church employs media tools, we do so to advance the goals and agenda of Christ. Where marketing results in sales growth by reaching toward the desires of the consumer, promotion in the church results in glorifying God by risking everything in our desire for Christ. So our websites are not to present our vision but to spread God's Word. Our videos are not to impress or entertain, but to inspire others toward Christ. Our printed materials are not to catch the eye but to inform and motivate believers to involvement.

Promotion is a cultural phenomenon. We must view promotion of the church in the context of our North American culture. Most Christians in the world do not worship in large buildings, or have organized church programming for every age, or even have a website for their church, for that matter. For the most part, they meet and worship in their homes, are divided into very small groups, and have neither the means nor the need for mass media.

The United States is a media-rich culture. Our information-age economy envelopes us in a self-centered and fast-paced way of life. In this context, promotional media is helpful to congregations who number in the hundreds or thousands, and who generally live and work separated from one another most of the time.

Promotion is a secondary role in ministry. Though promotion helps us to communicate more effectively in our culture, it is not a primary avenue of ministry for the church. For an individual in the church, and for the church organization, participation in promotional tasks must not supplant making disciples, the study of the Word, worshiping individually and corporately, serving others, fellowship or any other biblical mandates for the body of Christ.