At present I take it that you are one who would describe evangelism or preaching the Gospel as “marketing” Jesus.
>> At present I take it that you are one who would describe evangelism or preaching the Gospel as “marketing” Jesus. <<
I’d also emphasize that I don’t consider “marketing” an inherent evil. And, yes, I suppose some evangelization is a form of marketing: if a radio spot says, “Come hear the message of Christ, which can heal your spirit, and re-create your soul,” I’d say that that’s both evangelization and marketing. But I’d decline to call evangelization, “marketing” because it connotes an earthly purpose, not a spiritual one, even though churches — as an organization — fulfill certain earthly goals.
The reason I called this marketing is it seems like its trying to create a market niche, or to segment a market. It’s fine if a pastor decides he’d rather not register as a 501(c)3, but if a church were to announce to the world, “Westover Unregistered Baptist Church,” I could only presume that it was trying to appeal to potential new congregants on the basis that it was unregistered, which is marketing, since it has nothing to do, in my opinion, with theology, style of worship, or morality.
You’re free to disagree, of course.