Christianity lite (part 1)

Last year a childhood friend of mine used the term "Christianity Lite" in conversation. I asked him what he meant. Basically, he said the contemporary practice of teaching the Christian religion in such a way as to de-emphasize (or ignore) the stuff that's complicated, challenging or unappealing.

I've noticed the same thing myself.

There's a push I think, that's unmistakable, to make it all easier -- to avoid subjects at church and in Christian media that don't score well in marketing studies (allowing us to see, I suppose, what might have been had God had a PR consultant or editorial staff when He was inspiring Scripture).

There's no question that the discipline of marketing has become an important tool in the ministries of many contemporary churches. And many would argue that there's nothing wrong with that. And to a degree, I would agree with them, though these days I find I agree with them much less than I used to.

I have a bachelor's degree in marketing, so I know something about how the discipline works. As far as I can tell, there's nothing inherently wrong with marketing. Like anything, it can be used or misused.

At its foundation, marketing is the practice of evaluating what your audience wants, evaluating your product or service's features, and developing a message that conveys the intersection of the two. If all goes as intended, the audience will be attracted to what you want them to be attracted to.

At times marketing strategies include creating an intangible "image" (or reputation) in the public's mind that has only loose (if any) connection with the reality of the product or service being promoted. While this practice may sometimes be considered manipulative, it's not considered by most to be an egregious ethical violation.

Marketing generally emphasizes the important attributes of a product or service and de-emphasize the unimportant attributes, as determined by the perception of the audience. If your product is strong in attribute XYZ, but your prospective customer doesn't care about XYZ, you don't emphasize it. You find out what your customer is interested in.

In my mind, marketing, as long as it's truthful, is pretty okay when applied to commerce.

What draws my concern is when I see marketing techniques applied to efforts to make and grow Christian disciples. And furthermore, it concerns me that I don't see Christian leaders grappling with the question of whether or not such techniques are actually appropriate to apply to religion. (Religion and commerce, after all, are very different animals.) Unfortunately, it seems pragmatism rules the day, and an "if it works, do it" philosophy is almost everywhere to be found, from mega-churches down to home bible studies. (In fairness, I understand pragmatic concerns are not the only things being considered. But I think less is being considered than arguably should be.)

[to be continued]