Church Marketing Gone (whisky) Sour
So Jeremy put this article up on Facebook. It's about a pastor in Iowa who made shot glasses with his church and cell phone number on the side. Local bars will give them out to patrons who order shots. I thought, "Oh, another church marketing scheme."
Then I checked out the comments at the bottom of the page. They centered on the end of the article, which states that the pastor never thought through what to do if someone actually drunk-dialed him or called when the bars close asking for a ride home. The article states that he will simply turn off his cell phone at night. Wow, is there an uproar in the comments section! The general consensus is that pastors need to put their money where their mouth is, and he should leave his cell phone on with the intent to pick up or sober up anybody who calls asking for assistance.
Now, I understand the idea of boundaries around family/ personal time and all that. It's necessary, and I'm sure I'll be making some strict rules to allow for *ahem* "family fun nights" throughout my ministry. However. This guy was dumb enough to put his cell phone number on the glasses. I understand that it's a church plant meeting in a high school auditorium and they don't have a building, much less a landline. But that's when you put on a church website or your personal email address! I'd call this pastor a dumbass, but he's ordained in the UMC and that just wouldn't be polite. Lesson learned: think through whatever you do before you do it. Also: church marketing sucks, because anyone can spot a phoney miles away. If you're going to be Christian, be geniune or go home.
Would any of you like to weigh in? What do you think: is the pastor's response reasonable, and all those commenters are just hating on the Church because they allowed past experiences to make them bitter? Or does the pastor now have the same responsibility to all these strangers as he does the parishioners to whom he gives his cell numbers? Is it reasonable to expect that any number of the shot glass recipients will eventually become parishioners?
Then I checked out the comments at the bottom of the page. They centered on the end of the article, which states that the pastor never thought through what to do if someone actually drunk-dialed him or called when the bars close asking for a ride home. The article states that he will simply turn off his cell phone at night. Wow, is there an uproar in the comments section! The general consensus is that pastors need to put their money where their mouth is, and he should leave his cell phone on with the intent to pick up or sober up anybody who calls asking for assistance.
Now, I understand the idea of boundaries around family/ personal time and all that. It's necessary, and I'm sure I'll be making some strict rules to allow for *ahem* "family fun nights" throughout my ministry. However. This guy was dumb enough to put his cell phone number on the glasses. I understand that it's a church plant meeting in a high school auditorium and they don't have a building, much less a landline. But that's when you put on a church website or your personal email address! I'd call this pastor a dumbass, but he's ordained in the UMC and that just wouldn't be polite. Lesson learned: think through whatever you do before you do it. Also: church marketing sucks, because anyone can spot a phoney miles away. If you're going to be Christian, be geniune or go home.
Would any of you like to weigh in? What do you think: is the pastor's response reasonable, and all those commenters are just hating on the Church because they allowed past experiences to make them bitter? Or does the pastor now have the same responsibility to all these strangers as he does the parishioners to whom he gives his cell numbers? Is it reasonable to expect that any number of the shot glass recipients will eventually become parishioners?