Mormonism, marketing, and the Gospel

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The recent thread about the LDS belief in a “great apostasy” had me thinking about what the LDS church is like in the 21 century. How it presents itself to today’s cultures in comparison to what it was like back in the 19th, early and even mid 20th century.

It’s been said that the LDS church runs very much like a corporation. I expect that is true for many a Christian denomination. And that would include various forms of marketing strategies in getting it’s message out.

Made me think. Does God need to use marketing strategies of men to get His message out? In order to save His people, does the Gospel have to be “marketed”?

I know that when Christ ascended into Heave that the Great commission was giving to go to all the world proclaiming the good news. And His promise that He would be with us always, even until the end of the age (another scriptural reference,BTW, someone pointed out as evidence against an apostasy; He promised He would always be with us. So, He never left) Clearly we need to do just that; Proclaim the good news, IE the Gospel. But do we need to employ marketing techniques in order to fulfill that great commission?

Like I said, it just got me to thinking, and I am in the beginning stages of meditating on it. Would love any insights and thoughts others may have.

(Just a comment in case someone brings up the scripture about how Christ said to Peter, “and upon this rock, I will be my church”: it’s important to remember that the word church comes from the word “ecclesia” which means more accurately “assembly” and not what we have come to understand as the word “church”. When the Apostles went to spread the Gospel to all ends of the earth, various assemblies, communities, began to grow in the various locations. It would be sometime before an institutional church emerging. That is if my understanding of the early Christian communities is correct)
 
Made me think. Does God need to use marketing strategies of men to get His message out? In order to save His people, does the Gospel have to be “marketed”?
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It doesn’t hurt. I mean say what you will about the Mormons theology, about their practices, etc… it’s at least pretty effective at maintaining their existing overall numbers and potentially growing unlike most other Christian or near-Christian faiths. The JW’s are even better at it by some accounts. And both use that more business like model in terms of their churches.

That said they do have high turnover so while marketing may get them in the door, it doesn’t necessarily keep them in the church after they come in. Same for the JWs again. And come to think of it Non-Denominational Christianity depending on the church sometimes does something similar in that their presentation is more “marketable” in some ways. But again they also have a farily high turnover rate, particularly the larger churches.
 
Marie5890 said:
The recent thread about the LDS belief in a “great apostasy” had me thinking about what the LDS church is like in the 21 century. How it presents itself to today’s cultures in comparison to what it was like back in the 19th, early and even mid 20th century.
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Cool. 👍 Good topic.
It’s been said that the LDS church runs very much like a corporation. I expect that is true for many a Christian denomination. And that would include various forms of marketing strategies in getting it’s message out.
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I agree. They’ve got billboards, popups, banner ads, featured videos on youtube, door-to-door “salesmen,” slogans, tracts, pictures, beautiful buildings, memes, and people who go overseas to spread their message around the world.
Made me think. Does God need to use marketing strategies of men to get His message out? In order to save His people, does the Gospel have to be “marketed”?
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God doesn’t need to use anything human to get His message out. He Did choose to use Some human things: the human voice, people who go overseas, and writings. In my opinion, it is also okay to make a pro-God billboard. Or a pro-God slogan. Or really any of those things. If they teach something true, good, and beautiful, and don’t do the bad and annoying stuff that many marketing devices do, then I think pro-God marketing devices can be good.
I know that when Christ ascended into Heave[n] that the Great commission was giving to go to all the world proclaiming the good news. And His promise that He would be with us always, even until the end of the age (another scriptural reference,BTW, someone pointed out as evidence against an apostasy; He promised He would always be with us. So, He never left) Clearly we need to do just that; Proclaim the good news, IE the Gospel. But do we need to employ marketing techniques in order to fulfill that great commission?
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I think the answer is No, assuming you mean using billboards and ads and stuff. We don’t Need to do that, but like I said above, if you can spread a good pro-God message through that stuff, I don’t think it’s bad.

One Could say that there Is a form of marketing we have to use: word-of-mouth. As any marketer will tell you, word-of-mouth is like the best marketing tool. And we are commanded in the Bible to do that.
Like I said, it just got me to thinking, and I am in the beginning stages of meditating on it. Would love any insights and thoughts others may have.
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I hope my thoughts are helpful.
(Just a comment in case someone brings up the scripture about how Christ said to Peter, “and upon this rock, I will be my church”: it’s important to remember that the word church comes from the word “ecclesia” which means more accurately “assembly” and not what we have come to understand as the word “church”. When the Apostles went to spread the Gospel to all ends of the earth, various assemblies, communities, began to grow in the various locations. It would be sometime before an institutional church emerging. That is if my understanding of the early Christian communities is correct)
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I think the Church had institutional elements from the beginning. Within the New Testament we already see a kind of corporate structure, in my opinion, with priests in charge of local “branches” and all of them reporting to a headquarters in Jerusalem. The Jerusalem church seems to have had several features of being like a headquarters of an institution – in Acts 16:4 they send out instructions to be followed by all the “branches,” and in several Epistles there is evidence that money was sent back to Jerusalem from all the local churches. Plus Acts 15 shows all the Apostles gathering together in Jerusalem to make decisions for all the local branches. It looks pretty institutional to me.

:twocents: I hope that makes sense. God bless!
 
Padres1969 said:
It doesn’t hurt. I mean say what you will about the Mormons theology, about their practices, etc… it’s at** least pretty effective at maintaining their existing overall numbers and potentially growing **unlike most other Christian or near-Christian faiths. The JW’s are even better at it by some accounts. And both use that more business like model in terms of their churches.

That said they do have high turnover so while marketing may get them in the door, it doesn’t necessarily keep them in the church after they come in. Same for the JWs again. And come to think of it Non-Denominational Christianity depending on the church sometimes does something similar in that their presentation is more “marketable” in some ways. But again they also have a farily high turnover rate, particularly the larger churches.
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(in reference to the bold) Im not sure how accurate that really is to be honest. If anything I think it’s the whole marketing thing, or perhaps even more accurately, PR strategy, that makes it look like that. From what I hear, their activity rate is just as low as any other here in the USA, and Europe.

And, again if accurate, their numbers are inflated or artificial or something. They may have 15+million members world wide on the books (and lets fact it, that is minute percentage in a world of over 6 billion), but there is no way that anywhere near that number is showing up in their pews and temples.

I do understand that just a couple of years ago they changed the ages for eligibilty for their young missionaries and that substantially added to their missionary force. But the number of converts really didn’t increase.

I remember years ago when I was LDS, it was almost a badge of honor with Mormons were a “peculiar people” but not so much anymore. Yes, their theology is still very markedly different, but they also have made moves to be see as more mainstream. Take for example how they are beginning to make more of Holy Week. Last year they had a marketing campaign with an interactive website where people could go and click on each day and review what was happening to Christ on that particular day of Holy Week.

Now I read that some Mormons actually participate in the Lenten tradition (which I think is great, BTW).
 
dmar198 said:
I think the Church had institutional elements from the beginning. Within the New Testament we already see a kind of corporate structure, in my opinion, with priests in charge of local “branches” and all of them reporting to a headquarters in Jerusalem. The Jerusalem church seems to have had several features of being like a headquarters of an institution – in Acts 16:4 they send out instructions to be followed by all the “branches,” and in several Epistles there is evidence that money was sent back to Jerusalem from all the local churches. Plus Acts 15 shows all the Apostles gathering together in Jerusalem to make decisions for all the local branches. It looks pretty institutional to me.

:twocents: I hope that makes sense. God bless!
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Would that have been true, too, though of the structure of Judaism of the time? Wasn’t there some sort of loose structure with in the various sect of Judaism at the time of Christ?

I just got a book called “What Every Christian Needs to know about the Jewishness of Jesus” written by Rabbi Evan Moffic. Im looking forward to it.
 
Marie5890 said:
And, again if accurate, their numbers are inflated or artificial or something. They may have 15+million members world wide on the books (and lets fact it, that is minute percentage in a world of over 6 billion), but there is no way that anywhere near that number is showing up in their pews and temples.
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The Catholic Church claims 1.2 billion members. Would you call that number “inflated or artificial or something?” I’m sure the number of those in the pews each week is much smaller.
 
Bonnie said:
The Catholic Church claims 1.2 billion members. Would you call that number “inflated or artificial or something?” I’m sure the number of those in the pews each week is much smaller.
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Oh absolutely agree. There are no where NEAR that in the pews. But we don’t act like it’s otherwise. And you don’t hear the Vatican coming out every year making pronouncement at how many members there are and how many converts we have gotten and how many dioceses and parishes etc etc All these things, Mormon leaders do make a big deal of. You know, like a corporation giving out its stats to it’s shareholders sort of thing. Except they do it to their membership. Every year

Mormon leadership is very big on pronouncing how many members they have, how many converts they get, etc etc.

They are big on talking numbers number numbers. It comes up in their GC every April.
 
In the multiple sermons given in the book of acts, no one is ever promised they would go to heaven. At the time saved referred to receiving the HG. Receiving the HG wasn’t marketable so saved began to mean going to heaven. Those in charge made up a list of things to do to get to heaven, which would also provide benefit to themselves by increasing their importance.
 
Paul became all like all people that by doing so he might save some. The Gospel is not a “brand.” At the same time there are cultural and other elements which are not essential to its’ advancement. The corporate mentality lacks the love of a family, nor is the truth of the Church a numbers game. My two cents.
 
Bonnie said:
The Catholic Church claims 1.2 billion members. Would you call that number “inflated or artificial or something?” I’m sure the number of those in the pews each week is much smaller.
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PEW Research Center survey has 1.1 billion Catholics in 2010 and they don’t go by the CC’s claims but look at censuses and nationally representative surveys. In this methodology the individual is the one who says I am, or am not Catholic. The church does publish it’s own statistics on membership which like LDS do not always match self identification.

Take Brazil for example, the Catholic church estimated the Catholic population of Brazil at 163,269,000 in 2010 but, Pew Research based on 2010 census data estimates that there were 126,750,000 Catholics in Brazil in 2010. The LDS church said that in 2010 there were 1,138,740 LS members in Brazil, but the census indicates that there were 225,695. So the Catholic church was wrong about 23% of the people they claimed as Catholic and the LDS church was wrong about 80% of the people they claimed were LDS.

Over all for 2010 PEW says 1.07 billion Catholics the CC said 1.19 billion Catholics, in contrast there is nothing from an outside source for world wide LDS membership only the claims of the LDS church.🤷
 
Marie5890 said:
Oh absolutely agree. There are no where NEAR that in the pews. But we don’t act like it’s otherwise. And you don’t hear the Vatican coming out every year making pronouncement at how many members there are and how many converts we have gotten and how many dioceses and parishes etc etc All these things, Mormon leaders do make a big deal of. You know, like a corporation giving out its stats to it’s shareholders sort of thing. Except they do it to their membership. Every year

Mormon leadership is very big on pronouncing how many members they have, how many converts they get, etc etc.

They are big on talking numbers number numbers. It comes up in their GC every April.
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that is true. The number of parishes in the USA have dropped from 19k to 17 in the last few years It is suspected that less than 20% of proclaimed Catholics attend weekly Mass in this country.

Frankly, all denominations are seeing decline.
 
I believe the Catholics and Mormons are about the best at marketing. They market in different ways in different areas.

As to the Apostasy…Jesus promised He would be with us always. He did not say His authority would be
 
Marie5890 said:
It’s been said that the LDS church runs very much like a corporation.
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I’ve always thought this. Their main Sunday service is called a ‘Sacrament Meeting’. This service is held in a Meetinghouse. Their Sacrament Meeting is run like you would run a meeting at work. IMO they don’t go to worship on Sundays, they go to meet.
 
Honus said:
I’ve always thought this. Their main Sunday service is called a ‘Sacrament Meeting’. This service is held in a Meetinghouse. Their Sacrament Meeting is run like you would run a meeting at work. IMO they don’t go to worship on Sundays, they go to meet.
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I see this a coming from the influence of Quaker converts to Mormonism, during Mormonism’s beginnings.
 
Honus said:
I’ve always thought this. Their main Sunday service is called a ‘Sacrament Meeting’. This service is held in a Meetinghouse. Their Sacrament Meeting is run like you would run a meeting at work. IMO they don’t go to worship on Sundays, they go to meet.
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I suppose it is in how you look at things. We meet, sing a hymn, have announcements, have a prayer, conduct any business like ward callings (like when I was called as a Sunday School Teacher). Then we have another hymn, we have the emblems of the Sacrament blessed, then passed and taken. Then we have chosen speakers who give talks on topics like Repentance, Christ, Forgiveness,…you know…religious topics…we may have a Special musical number…then we have a closing prayer.

To me…that is worship. I could give my opinions on how others worship and knock how they do it like you knocked how we do it…but I find Christ rarely enjoys it when folks do that. Right?
 
RebeccaJ said:
I see this a coming from the influence of Quaker converts to Mormonism, during Mormonism’s beginnings.
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I see it as worshiping…but I guess I just do not have the ability to tell others how they worship is wring…
 
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