Market Like an Evangelical

The world “evangelism” gets used so often in the blogosphere that sometimes, I think people forget where it originated. According to Answers.com, the definition of evangelism is, first and foremost, “zealous preaching and dissemination of the gospel, as through missionary work.”

Now, I don’t want to get into a religious debate on this blog. There are a lot of viewpoints when it comes to Evangelical Christians, especially given the Bush administration’s policies on faith-based initiatives and the like. But no matter where you stand on the political/religious spectrum, I’m sure we can all agree that Evangelical Christians have done a hecukva job marketing their cause, particularly in recent years.

This effort on their part is the subject of a recent book by secular, liberal, feminist journalist Lauren Sandler. In Righteous, she delivers a collection of informative if not entirely unbiased “dispatches from the evangelical youth movement.”

In her book, Sandler repeatedly portrays Evangelical youth as disaffected by American consumerist society. In chapter two of the book, pastor Mark Driscoll of Seattle’s Mars Hill Church tells her, “America has been marketed to so constantly and shamelessly that it has produced a generation of jaded cynics desperate for what feels real.”

This attitude is reflected later in the book in her interview with Ryan Dobson, scion of Focus on the Family’s James Dobson. In recent years, Dobson the younger has been podcasting to what Sandler calls the “Disciple Generation” in the same way that his father has reached out to their parents with his well-produced radio show.

Writes Sandler:

Ryan’s podcast is the Disciple Generation’s answer to his father’s airwaves. Podcasting feels more real, Ryan says, because of its low production values. He amps up those values on his show, answering his cell phone, having conversations off-mic. Its makeshift rec-room sound is what he says makes his message seem–and here’s the buzzword of this generation again–more “authentic” than his father’s programming.

It’s pretty clear that if you want to market to the under-30 crowd these days, you’re going to need more than a snappy jingle and a celebrity endorsement. You need that authenticity, that human connection to your audience. And one way to achieve that authenticity is to reach out through new media. The success of the Evangelical youth movement is another feather in the cap of passionate people using the Web to connect to a huge audience in a human way.

Keep that in mind the next time you start thinking about how to get the kids on board, no matter what your politics are.