A brief history lesson on church marketing in the United States: The first church marketing conference was held in a church basement in the mid-nineteenth century. More than sixty years later, the first university for church marketing was established in the United States. The university was created in 1967 and officially opened in the following year. The university is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs.
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. There we go.
It was not until the late 1970s that the first church marketing university was offered. This was not the first church marketing university, but it was the first to focus on the entire church-marketing process. By the late 1970s, there were many church marketing schools in existence, but they were focused solely on the design of brochures and other promotional materials. This was the beginning of a long journey for church marketing.
Church marketing schools are not new. Church marketing began in the 1800s. In the early 1900s, Henry Van Dyke offered a few courses in church marketing to the Christian churches. While many of the churches took his courses, there was no school of church marketing. In the late 1970s, the church marketing industry was still very much a developing industry. There was no standard church marketing curriculum. This was the beginning of a long journey for church marketing.
church marketing schools began to take off in the early 1980s. In 1982, David Meade and Mark Stegink founded the Church Marketing Institute. In 1987, David Meade published the first church marketing book, “Church Marketing and Fund Raising.” The first church marketing schools were founded at the same time as the Church Marketing Institute and the first church marketing books.
Before church marketing schools, church marketing was a very new idea. In the world of church marketing, there was little understanding of how to work in a market, much less how to sell something. The Church Marketing Institute published the first books in 1983, and the first books on church marketing teaching came out in 1987.
Church marketing and church marketing programs have been around for a long time. In fact, church marketing has been around for over 100 years. But, until very recently, there has been no curriculum regarding how to sell church marketing programs to the church. The Church Marketing Institute has been publishing academic books teaching church marketing for over 35 years, and the church has been selling church marketing programs for over 30 years.
So why is church marketing taught to students at an unaccredited college? Because many people feel that church marketing is a form of marketing that doesn’t really work. They believe that church marketing programs that work are somehow superior to the traditional church marketing programs that don’t. So they’re willing to pay for the opportunity to teach students a way to teach church marketing without ever having actually been taught how to sell the church marketing programs themselves.
Church marketing school is a form of unaccredited college. A lot of people think church marketing programs that work are somehow superior to the traditional church marketing programs that dont. So theyre willing to pay for the opportunity to teach students a way to teach church marketing without ever having been taught how to sell the church marketing programs themselves.
It’s a bit like the college that teaches how to teach a blacksmith a trade without actually ever having been taught how to forge a hammer.
