Advertising and the Christian faith make strange bedfellows.

My wife and I are currently going through a small group study by Crown Financial Ministries. The study is intended to help families apply biblical principals to their money management. One of the points they make is that the more TV you watch, the more catalogs you peruse, then the more money you spend. Often needlessly. Honestly, that’s a hard pill for someone in marketing to swallow. How do I reconcile that? Partly in my choice of clientele and partly with honesty. Still, it seems like a fine line to walk.

Additionally, I recently read a bbc.com article detailing how more churches and ministries are using advertising to draw attendance. I have no problem with this in practice. And some of the ads are actually pretty good. What I am concerned about is churches and ministries RELYING on advertising as many businesses do. What if churches become more concerned with making sure their advertising is incredible than seeing that their ministry is effective? I also worry that while attempting to be clever, ministries may not be authentic in their advertising.

Advertising and faith. It’s like having dinner with Steve Jobs and Billy Graham. I respect both, but don’t know how they’d relate with each other… or how I’d fit in the middle.