What Does It Mean for Pastors to Adopt a Market Orientation?

Marketing is increasingly discussed by marketers and church leaders as a tool for helping religious organizations achieve their missional goals. Unfortunately, in the past many other nonprofit organizations have experimented with marketing, only to ultimately discard it as inappropriate or ineffectual. This was at least in part the result of a failure to recognize that adoption of marketing techniques implicitly means adopting a marketing philosophy or market orientation. If pastors are to avoid the disillusionment with marketing experienced by some other non-profit leaders, it is important that they distinguish between the different orientations which govern the use of marketing techniques. This article seeks to describe the implications the various approaches lo marketing have for a church's ministry.