Have you ever heard of “viral marketing”? It’s a technique designed to “use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives (such as product sales) through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of pathological and computer viruses.”

Huh?

Perhaps an example is in order.

Let’s say you have a product you want to sell. You could hire a high-priced marketing firm to come up with an advertising campaign. They would define your audience—who you want to reach and persuade. They would design ads to run in magazines, commercials to air on TV, posters to splash across billboards. They would produce a calendar that carefully charted what should happen when. The only thing they’d need from you is the product and lots of money.

This is traditional marketing. It drives trillions of dollars in business every year. And it lives or dies on large advertising budgets.

But what if you don’t have lots of money and can’t afford full-page ads in the New York Times? That’s where viral marketing comes in.

Viral marketing depends on word-of-mouth, person-to-person, friendship interactions to spread a message. Think of someone with a cold, sneezing into his hand and then touching the next person he meets. Think of germs spreading, rumors circulating, a fad catching on. Focus on the power of testimonial.

Viral marketers “plant” messages through phone texting, blog sites, e-mails, product placement, and even games. They long to see those same messages pop up around the water fountain, at the coffee shop, in the gym. They want to hear their message coming out of the mouths of people they’ve never met and haven’t hired. Their goal is to get people excited, start them talking, and then watch a message spread exponentially. “These jeans are cool.” “This weight-loss program really works.” “I couldn’t live without my iPhone.”

If viral marketers can get people talking, they are convinced sales will take care of themselves.

I see churches struggling to get their “product” to market. We have a message. We want to communicate and persuade and “sell.” But how do we do that?

Many churches are taking the “traditional” marketing route. Nice buildings. Dynamic assemblies. Articles in the newspaper. Christmas programs. Bigger budgets. High-profile ministries.

And that’s good. Nothing wrong with that.

Only that’s not how Christianity won the world in the first century. It’s not how the gospel spread through “Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the world.” And I suspect it won’t be the most effective way to spread the gospel in our culture today.

The first Christians were “viral marketers.” They had no budget, no ad campaigns, no calendar. Just a testimonial and a willingness to share it. “This is who I was. This is what I found. This is who I am now.” They “infected” others with the gospel, planting their message in the marketplace and in homes, in prisons and beside rivers, on roads and by wells. Word-of-mouth. Person-to-person. One-on-one. They went everywhere gossiping the gospel. They were convinced that if only they could start people talking, sales would take care of themselves.

What will it take for people of faith to make a dent in this broken world? How can God’s people ever make a difference? Do we need better programs, bigger budgets, deeper knowledge, wiser leadership? Does God need to raise up another great leader? Should we sit down and come up with a logo, a tag line, a media campaign, a series of events?

What if the best way to spread the gospel is, in fact, the old-fashioned way? Catch the Jesus germ. Sneeze into your hand. And then touch as many people as possible. Let Jesus infect you. Pay attention to your symptoms. And then talk about your “illness” to whomever will listen.

Ah, but that assumes Jesus is in us. It assumes we actually have symptoms of his presence to notice and talk about. And it assumes we can muster the courage to open our mouths and testify to the difference faith makes. Viral marketing doesn’t work unless there is a message . . . a testimonial . . . a personal endorsement. It takes people who are excited about what they’ve found, excited enough to tell others. It takes people who are willing to say, “I couldn’t live without Jesus.”

I long for the day when we can use “pre-existing social networks to produce increases in Jesus awareness and to achieve other spiritual objectives through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of pathological and computer viruses.”

Until then our options are pretty limited. Until the church can send out legions of the infected, all we have left are buildings and events. Until the church can commission its people to gossip the gospel, we’re stuck with sound-bites and programs. |L

OTHER COLUMNS:
November 8, 2009 - Why I believe in God
October 25, 2009 - Commuting in days of evil
October 11, 2009 - Poets and don’t know it
September 27, 2009 - How Hollywood proves abortion is wrong
September 13, 2009 - Significance
August 30, 2009 - Dance alternatives
August 16, 2009 - Gluttons for gossip
August 2, 2009 - Truth from Twilight
July 19, 2009 - Visitor-friendly churches
July 5, 2009 - The Shack
June 21, 2009 - When forgiveness fails
June 7, 2009 - Re-imagining Education (Part Six)
May 24, 2009 - We are not alone
May 3, 2009 - Re-imagining education (part five)
April 26, 2009 - Conviction
April 12, 2009 - Re-imagining education (part four)
March 29, 2009 - An evangelistic proposal
March 15, 2009 - Re-imagining education (part three)
February 15, 2009 - Re-imagining education (Part Two)
February 1, 2009 - Spiritual insecurity
January 18, 2009 - Re-imagining education (part one)
January 4, 2009 - Church and politics
December 21, 2008 - Heaven’s music
December 7, 2008 - The church and marriage
November 23, 2008 - God and the president
November 9, 2008 - A time for courage
October 26, 2008 - Likes and dislikes: the Prince Caspian movie
October 12, 2008 - What’s that noise?
September 28, 2008 - Modesty matters (part two)
September 14, 2008 - All it takes is some TLC
August 31, 2008 - Modesty matters (part one)
August 17, 2008 - What would you fight for?
August 3, 2008 - Staying through the credits
July 20, 2008 - Honor to whom honor
July 6, 2008 - Tyler Perry and the movies you’re missing
June 22, 2008 - The peaceable kingdom
May 25, 2008 - Another generation grew up
May 25, 2008 - Technology and the Bible (part two)
May 11, 2008 - Technology and the Bible (part one)
April 27, 2008 - What is truth?
April 13, 2008 - And the geek shall inherit the earth
March 30, 2008 - A charactered God
March 16, 2008 - The college choice (part two)
March 2, 2008 - Good news can be hard to hear
February 17, 2008 - The college choice (part one)
February 5, 2008 - Ten suggestions for a godly standard of living
January 20, 2008 - Expelled: that “Bueller” guy’s pro-God movie
January 6, 2008 - Choosing a lifestyle
December 23, 2007 - Teachable TV?
December 9, 2007 - Owners or stewards?
November 25, 2007 - Christians teaching Christians to change TV and film
November 11, 2007 - My money is God’s business
October 28, 2007 - Navigating under the radar
October 14, 2007 - The things God values
September 30, 2007 - Movie moments
September 16, 2007 - God’s economics
September 2, 2007 - The best books to read
August 19, 2007 - There’s a rat in ‘separate’
August 5, 2007 - The art of reading
July 22, 2007 - Atheist chic
July 8, 2007 - Why books matter: the sequel
June 10, 2007 - Books: why they matter
June 3, 2007 - The non-impact of “The Lost Tomb of Jesus”
May 27, 2007 - The universal gospel
May 13, 2007 - Loving Muslims through culture
April 29, 2007 - Hope
April 15, 2007 - God in the dark
April 1, 2007 - The gospel goes to the movies
March 18, 2007 - What the Bible movies can teach us
March 4, 2007 - What will you hurt for?
February 18, 2007 - Why Heroes . . .
February 4, 2007 - Give peace a chance
January 21, 2007 - When fairy tales are true
January 7, 2007 - WYSIWYG lives
December 31, 2006 - What’s coming next?
December 17, 2006 - Mercy, mercy
December 3, 2006 - Proof of evolution!
November 19, 2006 - Hungering for God
November 5, 2006 - Violence and government, war and peace
October 22, 2006 - The mighty meek
October 8, 2006 - The Battlestar and the Bible
September 24, 2006 - Soap for the soul
September 10, 2006 - Right vs. cool
August 27, 2006 - The painful truth
August 13, 2006 - More Lies Hollywood Tells
July 30, 2006 - Christian counter culture
July 16, 2006 - The lies Hollywood tells