Should the church do telemarketing?
This morning I was at home taking some time off after missing my off day over the weekend. It was about 10:30 AM when my phone rang. When I picked it up there was a slight delay that clued me into the fact that a recoreded message was coming.
Sure enough, this is what I heard. “Hello. We would love to let you know about an exciting new church starting in your area. To learn more about it, please press one.”
I was disgusted that a church would telemarket and started to hang up the phone. Then as the phone was about back on the hook it occured to me that I would really like to know what church it was. So I quickly pushed one. As I pushed it I heard, “I am sorry. I did not recognize your command. Good bye.” I assume I was either to slow or mistakenly pushed the wrong button.
Later that afternoon I e-mailed the staff at my church and asked if any of them had received the same call. I also mentioned how anoyed I was by the phone call.
One of our staff members e-mailed me back and told me they had recieved the same call. They did listen to the rest of the message (I guess pushing one did work) and said it did not say a whole lot but gave a web site to go to. They gave me the name of the church so I went to the web site to learn a little more about them. (Sorry, not going to give it out.)
When this staff member e-mailed me back they told me that they were suprised I was somewhat offended by the call and shared that they thought it was very tastefully done. I also had to admit that given the affordablity of VIOP, it was a very cost effective way to get your name out.
Their reaction caused me to think about why I was so bothered. Here were the main problems I had with it.
1. Telemarketing is not often associated with upstanding businesses. I don’t want the church lumped in with them.
2. It is an uninvited interruption. An ad in the paper or direct mail piece can be ignored.
3. By not giving the name of the church right way, if a non-christian was offended my church gets lumped in with it.
4. The legalities of it are questionable. I am on the do-not-call list and while non-profits (and politicians!) are exempt, this seems to be at least somewhat in conflict with the spirit of the law.
But here is what I want to ask you….am I wrong? Is it acceptable for a church to do this? Am I just stuck in an old fashioned rut on this issue? What do you think?
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February 26th, 2008 at 7:32 am
Unfortunately the “Do-Not-Call” laws are yet another example of how politicians bend the truth to make themselves appear more effective. A handful of states have more accurately labeled them “No sales solicitation” laws. Both the intention and spirit of the law is (if the truth be known) about prohibiting un-requested sales solicitation.
Congress and the states have recognized the number of people employed in the industry, the value to the economy, certain constitutional protections, and the legitimate need to do business by phone. Many states have at least 25 exemptions from the requirement to suppress numbers on the Do-not-call list.
There are more people employed in telemarketing than there are school teachers and truck drivers! And yet, the press releases by vote hounding chest thumpers has given the impression that upstanding businesses don’t use telemarketing. The fact is, that this massive amount of employment could exist without widespread acceptance by legitimate businesses and charities.
Virtually all of the major charities rely upon telephone based appeals (in one way or another) to support their need for research and program funding. Quite a number of churches reach out to members by phone to promote their church calendar and other fundraising initiatives. Churches are specifically exempted from the requirement based on the first amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech…”
Reaching out to community neighbors by telephone to build attendance, promote bible school, announce growth or outreach missions, or whatever role you deem of importance, really isn’t “telemarketing” according to the law or the common perception. Even though the church is specifically exempt, it’s always best to build in a way to honor the wishes of this who prefer not to be called again. That means having a way to logging the phone number and storing it on your own “do-not-call” list to suppress against any future campaign.
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February 26th, 2008 at 7:38 am
I meant to say that the amount of employment in the channel could not exist without legitimate business support. In case it’s of any value, there are at least two studies that have concluded that consumes perceive a call from a church or a charity quite differently than an call for commercial purposes.
God Bless you and your congregation.
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February 26th, 2008 at 8:33 am
I’ve known at least two churches that have done this and their results were horrid. Neither one knew of anyone that actually came because of the phone calls.
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February 26th, 2008 at 9:48 am
Jim – Your information was very well thought out and informative. Thanks for the addition.
Shawn – Thanks for sharing the results the churches you are aware of had.
Another issue I had with this is that they do not discriminate between people who do not know the Lord vs those who attend other churches. I would think that the only people who might respond would be Christians. Now, I realize it would impossible to target only non church goers in this kind of set up, but any positive result would probably come from other churches.
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February 29th, 2008 at 11:30 pm
Hey Jeff! I hope its alright that I’m reading this!
I definitely share in your response.
Over and over again this year I have been learning about the importance of incarnational ministry. Building relationships and sharing in joys, sadness, needs and just plain life seems to be so close to God’s heart. I think that a recorded message that sends people to a website to learn about Jesus, while good intentioned, is rather sad. It completely takes our relationship and connection with people out of it. And as Christians, the light and salt of the world, the body of Christ, I really think we need to represent the Lord’s love for the people around us to the best of our ability… with all of the strength we can possibly draw from Him. So making a website and recording a message, though they are well intentioned and most likely do indeed present the message of the gospel, don’t seem to truly live out or represent the it at all.
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March 1st, 2008 at 8:03 am
Thanks for reading, Sadie. The incarnational piece is a good point. Hope you are dodging raindrops in Seattle okay.
Of course you can read it. In fact, please tell every pastor you know about it!!
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March 27th, 2008 at 7:51 pm
I tend to disagree, however you may not appreciate it’s a medium God can use to reach people, sometimes we put God in the box of what He can use to reach people, don’t forget He did make an ass speak!
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March 27th, 2008 at 8:08 pm
Jim…agree with you that God can use any medium He so chooses. Still not sure if we should choose this one. Regarding God speaking through an ass, well, lets just say I count on that every week.
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May 22nd, 2008 at 9:40 am
I agree that the telephone is a medium that God can use. The recording seems to be a unintrusive as possible from how it was described. The listener gets the chance to hear that it is a call from a new church that is offering it’s website if they would like it. Very brief and to the point, not seeming secretive at all.
I also agree that most gains from this would realistically come from current church goers. The holy spirit could stir at anytime to get someone who hadn’t been at church in a while to go back to church though, or many other possible scenarios.
Telemarketing is a very sad area for the church in my experience. I’ve called churches for the past year and a half with no other intention or objective than to ask the vision for the future regarding major capital projects. In the process I’ve been dehumanized, scorned, yelled at and you can throw in any demeaning adjective you can think of by pastors, layman, secretaries and the like. No particular denomination or church has stood out. But, turning this telemarketing conversation around and looking at the vice versa of a telemarketer calling a church- there is a huge responsibility for ministry and all those involved to show the loving, compassionate, merciful, tender heart of God to each person. Jesus may have eaten at the telemarketers house in modern times.
Just throwing in my 2 cents, Lord bless you all, sorry about posting so late after the blog was written!
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