Churches Use Advertising To Attract New Members

  From T-shirts in Connecticut to vehicle bumpers in Illinois and Florida and Web sites in California, “The Uncommon Denomination” slogan is becoming more, well, common. Since the first of the UUA media campaign materials went up on the UUA Web site in December, congregations have been using the materials for a variety of purposes.
The materials were developed for a UU media campaign in the Kansas City metro area a year ago and now are available to congregations at www. uua.org/uncommondenomination.

  When the Rev. David Weissbard of the UU Church of Rockford, Ill., did a sermon on growth in September, he handed out several hundred Uncommon Denomination bumper stickers. He has also used a media campaign TV spot and the campaign logo on his weekly half-hour Sunday morning television program. The congregation is considering billboards similar to those used in Kansas City.

  The 104-member UU Society in Stamford, Conn., made T-shirts. On the front is a flaming chalice and the congregation’s name. On the back is The Uncommon Denomination. “We wear them when we do community events, such as the Gay Pride march,” said the Rev. Ronald Sala. “They’ve been a hot item. They create a lot of good feelings about being part of our congregation.”

  Members of congregations in the Southeast Florida Cluster learned about the media campaign materials at General Assembly last year. They were inspired to go home and develop a plan to pool their money to put UU announcements on public radio. They also developed a cluster Web site, www.uuflorida.org, and re-examined their welcoming processes.

  Kip Barkley, with the UU Church of Fort Lauderdale, said the announcements ran for four weeks in December. As of January, it was too early to assess how successful the campaign was, but he said members of the congregation were energized simply by hearing the announcements. Members of the eight congregations contributed $4,000 for the announcements, mostly in $25 increments.“Our members were very impressed,” he said.

  The Florida cluster also had bumper stickers printed, using The Uncommon Denomination slogan and adding the cluster’s Web address. Barkley believes it’s important that the UU message get out into the community in a variety of ways. “We’re going on the premise that our visitors will be motivated by a series of contacts, not just one,” he said.

  Weissbard, at Rockford, agreed. “What I’ve learned over the years is that with advertising it’s hard to know what is productive,” he said. “At a former congregation I did a regular newspaper column. Ten years after I left, people were still coming in because of those columns. And here in Rockford we get people on Sunday morning who have watched my television program for years before they ever visited.”

  UU evangelism does not necessarily have to be expensive, said the Rev. Tracey Robinson-Harris, the UUA’s director of Congregational Services. She noted that while some congregations or groups of congregations may find it valuable to spend tens of thousands of dollars necessary for a complete ad campaign including billboards and radio and television ads (the media buying budget for the Kansas City test was $135,000 for the four-and-a-half-month test), many others can achieve significant results by simply evaluating and improving the ways they welcome and include visitors. “That’s really the place congregations should start,” she said. “There’s no doubt that advertising can bring visitors to our congregations. But there’s also a lot we can do without spending much money.”

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