Buying Data vs. Finding Engaging Moments for Your Church: Part 1
When you were last online, what item seemed to follow you from site to site? Ads for a recently searched pair of shoes? A just-purchased jacket? A sequel to the movie you watched last weekend?
In our technologic age, we know searches, demographic info and preferences can be used to paint a pretty holistic self-portrait.
From a marketing perspective, all those little bits of information can make it easier to target specific behaviors and potential buyers. As a consumer, sometimes that’s helpful – and sometimes not.
But what about when data is used for more than targeting a shoe sale or vacation destination? What is the ethical line between “helpful for what I actually need” and invasive or inappropriate?
A Wall Street Journal piece recently examined how some churches use personal data and online activity to target potential guests.
“Just as retailers or political candidates send out online ads to groups of people with particular characteristics–including demographics, browsing activity, purchasing behavior and other factors that advertising platforms allow clients to choose–churches can…show ads to groups of people they believe are most receptive to becoming members, or think they could help.”
The church can “predict the characteristics of people who might have a marriage in trouble, be suffering from depression or anxiety, or have a propensity for a drug addiction, based on data analysis.”
In some ways, this approach makes a lot of sense. Find people who (may) need our services or ministries, target them, connect people with service, and everyone wins. People get what they (may) need, and the church (may) get more members.
We’ve previously shared that we believe business and church are more similar than different. But, we also believe the use of data to target potential buyers vs. potential guests based on possible need is a place to create a hard line between the two.
The Role of Church
Our role as church is to welcome the people who come to our doors or livestream with validation, love and connection, not a membership sign-up card. When we try to target people we’ve never met based on life circumstances they might be experiencing, we’re skipping connection-building in a self-serving attempt to grow.
That attempt to grow using data in a stranger’s most vulnerable moments is different from a ministry opportunity that identifies a need and connects the person to an organization or trained professional for help. Sometimes that connection is within the church, but often not.
Churches have ministries for a lot of reasons: community outreach, pastoral care, making connections, helping people know Jesus better and live as a disciple, sharing His love with others. But, church is not the expert in all things people might need, nor is every potential need an opportunity to shove Jesus at someone in an attempt to raise attendance.
Good Data, Bad Data
You may be thinking, “But aren’t you a data company? Are you saying data is bad?”
Yes, we’re a data company. No, we’re not saying data is bad. We’re saying the type of data and the way it’s used matter. A lot.
Rather than purchasing data about people in a church’s neighborhood, we believe churches can (and should!) use their own data to become more self-aware. The role of the Church is to serve the community, but very few organizations are willing to hold up a mirror and ask themselves how well they are doing that work. Are we loving the way we say we should?
Gathering data about how many people are coming to services, who’s volunteering, who’s giving, what risks are being managed, etc., all help churches love their people and communities better. That’s not selling someone on a potential service; that’s providing hospitality to the people in front of us whom we’re called to care.
Looking to make your data more meaningful? Let’s get started.
