Saratoga News

Photograph by George Sakkestad

Jeff Gunther, Diane Green and Steve Geiss participate in the patio service at Saratoga Federated Church.

Market Place

These days, churches in the know go after target audiences the way big business does

By Sandy Sims

There was a time when people were baptized and died in the same church. "I'm Episcopalian," or Catholic, or Lutheran was an allegiance to ancestors, even to the "old" country. That's when going to church meant wearing our "Sunday best."

Today, especially here in the Silicon Valley where technology reinvents itself at least every three years, that tradition has crumbled. People shop for a church, trying on this one and that one in their search for the right spiritual message and list of community services. There's little allegiance to a particular denomination or even to the Christian religion. Once they select the church, people can even choose the style of Sunday service that most suits them--contemporary, traditional or youth-oriented. Although an estimated 96 percent of Americans believe in God, only 29 percent attend a religious service regularly. Where once the church was the center and people looked to serve it, the church today has become the servant.

"We're dealing with a consumer market," says the Rev. Lamar Allen, the "caring and assimilation" pastor at Calvary Church on Los Gatos Boulevard in Los Gatos.

So how does a church carry a spiritual message to the market place? "The church must reach out nowadays. It can't be passive," says the Rev. Russ Ikeda, associate pastor at Saratoga Federated Church.

One way the church reaches out is by trying to meet social needs in the community. At Calvary, for instance, high-schoolers can learn how to fix their cars. Parents can enroll children in day care and after-school care, or in the large basketball league. There are support groups for weight loss, divorce, grief, single life and overcoming addiction.

To expand youth services even more, Calvary decided to build a two-story gymnasium with a multipurpose room and classrooms. The process began five years ago and pitted the church against many of its neighbors, who were still unhappy when the town, just three weeks ago, finally granted Calvary its architectural and site permits.

While Calvary depends on contemporary marketing techniques to retain current members and to reach out to prospective ones, and its facilities couldn't be more contemporary--some might call it downright flashy--the message it wants to convey is a basically conervative one: that the way to salvation and everlasting life is through Jesus Christ.

So conscious of marketing is Calvary that several years ago, it dropped "Baptist" from its name, even though it is still affiliated with the Conservative Baptist Association, headquartered in Wheaton, Ill. The thinking was that the church might appeal to a broader segment of the community if it did not appear to be limiting in any way.

Much less flashy than Calvary is Skyland Community Church-United Church of Christ (UCC) in the Santa Cruz Mountains, a traditional small white, steepled church that looks like a New England transplant. Skyland, has kept a traditional service but offers a more liberal message. "What we provide here is a safe place for our parishioners to find their own inherent spirituality," explains the Rev. Steve Glauz-Todrank, the senior pastor at Skyland. This idea that church members have to carve out their own spiritual ideas from many sources is the liberal approach to Christianity.

In sharp contrast to the successful marketing efforts of more conservative churches in recent years, Glauz-Todrank admits, "The liberal church is boring. We have no real point of view, nothing newsworthy."

Though Glauz-Todrank's church and the UCC denomination has grown, the liberal church in general has been shrinking.

Glauz-Todrank and other liberal clergy, however, have been working toward a new, more universal message, one less about salvation and more about universal love. They hope this message will have a broad appeal.

Most of those who attend services regularly are Baby Boomers--those born between 1946 and 1964.

Several new concepts have impacted the Boomers' religious thinking. Ram Dass and Alan Watts, among others, brought Eastern religions home to them in the '60s. In the '70s evangelical and charismatic ministers preached to them over the television, and in the '80s the New Age spiritual programs brought them a new multidimension.

Other forces have influenced this group: the Vietnam War, 12-step programs, EST and the proliferation of self-help books that promise nirvana and perfect health--even the G.I. Bill, which created an more educated overall population after World War II.

After the Immigration Act of 1965 and an infusion of immigrants, religions other than Christianity and Judaism became more a part of American society. Mosques and Buddhist temples began to dot the landscape. American institutions began to specifically accommodate these religions. We now have Buddhist and Muslim chaplains in the Army and Navy. In 1991 a Muslim gave the opening prayer for a session of the House of Representatives. In 1993 the Girl Scouts proposed and sanctioned that a Girl Scout could use the word God or whatever word fits her spiritual beliefs when saying the Girl Scout Promise. In spring of 1996 Hillary Clinton invited a group of Muslims to the White House to celebrate Ramadan, and she called this holiday an American tradition. Harvard Divinity School now has an Interfaith Team Ministry. This only serves to widen the choices for the unaffiliated Christian.

What has evolved from these years of change is a group of Christians who are basically seekers, most of whom don't attend church. Unaffiliated Christians are the ones the churches are hoping to draw into the fold. But what the churches are finding is that these people are not interested in doctrine, don't even like the term "religion, preferring "spirituality" instead.

"They see things in terms of their own contentment," says the Rev. David Breuer, senior pastor at St. Luke's Episcopal Church. And Wade Clark Roof, in his book A Generation of Seekers, says that "almost three-fourths of the returnees [to church] say people should go to church not out of duty and obligation, but if you feel it meets your needs."

The high-tech world, where many Boomers work, has little need for God. They believe they can figure things out for themselves. "That world is so seductive that it can completely absorb the lives of people in it," Breuer says. They aren't aware of their spiritual needs until they hit burnout or failure, have children, get sick or are looking for community.

"We have to have a program that interests them [when they reach that point]," says Breuer. We want St. Luke's to be a safe spiritual home. There is no checklist of things his congregation has to believe." However, he points out that the churches with a checklist are the ones that are growing because they give the people a clear outline.

Kent Lawrence, interim senior pastor at Los Gatos Presbyterian, says "We have to update the language and understand the media and the technology of today in order to carry the message," which he says, is unchanged--the love of God.

Changes are taking place in small increments. Churches are moving slowly away from the old language and music and coming more in line with the '90s.

Services even in the more liberal churches now include more and more of the uplifting and feel-good, praise-God songs. The organ and choir these days are taking backseat to drums, guitars, brass instruments, recorders and ensemble singing groups.

Another change is the addition of contemporary services. At Saratoga Federated, the 8:30 a.m. "Family Service" is held on the patio. "There's more singing and a looser, friendlier atmosphere than the regular service," says a church staffer.

At the 9:30 a.m. service at St. Luke's--after traditional hymns and sacrament in the sanctuary--the priest moves the congregation to the parish hall. Then he preaches his sermon while the congregants munch cookies and sip coffee. When he's done, the audience discusses his sermon.

Los Gatos Presbyterian Church-goers gather around the piano before their early service for an uplifting sing-along.

At Calvary the 9 a.m. contemporary service is virtually a performance. Drums, recorders and saxophone accompany an ensemble of singers who lead the congregation in hand-clapping and songs of praise. Words flash on a screen above the stage. Between the singing and the sermon, there's a skit or a dance that rivals any professional performance. The minister's sermon is accompanied by a power-point presentation that on Father's Day included a clip from the television show Touched by an Angel. This church uses all the latest technology.

Churches also have borrowed the idea of small groups from the corporate world to help create community. This is a concept the Rev. Alexander Larkin, pastor at Sacred Heart Church in Saratoga, says is a good way for new members to get to know the church and is a place for people to bring their friends. In fact, the most effective way to bring people into the church is through friends. Some 70 percent of new members at Calvary come in with a friend. At Saratoga Federated, one member said her ongoing small-group Bible study had become very important to her. "We get to know each other and share our difficulties, like medical problems or concerns about our children. We pray for each other. It's really a time of healing," she says.

Saratoga Federated borrowed another corporate idea--focus groups. The congregation is searching for a new senior pastor. Since it is an interdenominational church with members who have come from various denominations, members used focus groups to come to some consensus about who they are. They are sending this information to the pastoral candidates.

The other market segment the churches are targeting is Generation X, a group that has even less interest in church than the Boomers.

Generation X--those born between 1964 and 1980--makes up part of Mike Mckay's youth ministry. His research took him to the marketing books that have attempted to define this generation. Some of his findings: Xers have shifted in core values from previous generations. They have no absolutes and learn from experience. They don't share the old work ethic as it is expressed in our corporate world. They want to do it their way. They like to experience things, which means when they listen to music they like to feel it.

"That's why you hear that boom boom boom of the bass when the cars pass," McKay explains. They like to have fun. They're entrepreneurs who bend all the rules. Some of the famous ones are Bill Gates, and the inventors of Yahoo and Amazon.com.

McKay used this information to plan a program for the Sunday-evening "Real Life" service for Generation Xers and to set up a Web page. His Generation X group does its own marketing by posting fliers that read, "Real Life, a new way to do church," where they work or at places where they gather, like the local gym. All this effort seems to be working because in a relatively short time, the service is already attracting about 100 Xers.

Some churches are going to any lengths to bring new members into the fold. In Pennsylvania, one minister spent $80,000 on billboards and print ads to draw people into his church. Another church somewhere outside the Bay Area offered water bottles in exchange for checking out their church.

Many of us remember those days when the church was the hub of the town, when there wasn't much else competing for our attention. Sundays were quiet. All stores, even grocery stores, were closed. Not much TV. No big sports games. Sundays meant church in the morning, a Sunday drive in the afternoon and maybe even a church social or Bible study in the evening.

These days, it's hard to count all the things that vie for our attention every day of the week--even on Sunday.

Modern churches, taking a cue from marketing-- once the exclusive realm of the business world--are working hard to make sure their messages are the ones that get heard.

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