manna?

Church Marketing Sucks: The Brand of Christianity

Posted by Mike Boyink

We’ve got to frustrate people and say the brand identity of Christianity that you are presenting is a terrible portrayal of who Jesus is and what Jesus is about. So that will cause some frustration. That will then require education and some motivation. Those are three good words from your web site—frustration, education and motivation.  Full Post >>

Does the Gospel need branding?  Do churches need branding?  On the one hand, if you’re looking for a church home, being able to quickly tell from a given church’s “brand” if you’d be comfortable there would be nice.  Especially in a place like Holland, where the “church-search” could take years if you were thorough.

On the other hand, I fear that getting caught up in branding a specific church begins to create a seperation between it and the big “C” church—since branding always involves calling out a differentiation from others providing roughly the same good or service.  How many times have we heard church members rallied or encouraged using the church name rather than as “Christians”?

When I put together this site, my inclination was to do a very generic site, because I wanted the words, the thoughts, the message to be the focus—not the pretty graphics, font faces, or color schemes. Maybe we need to “unbrand” ourselves, so that others see the Jesus in us instead.

Dave Miller at September Woods Friday November 5

Posted by Ed and Lois

Local artist Dave Miller performing. (In public)

Dave will be appearing (with band) Friday November 5 at Sept. Woods. He’ll be playing between 7:00-9:00 PM. I’m sure he’ll be taking requests so lets think obscure. Example: “The Theme From Bonanza”. Give this some thought as I’m sure Dave will be glad oblige. How about some Elvis? Madonna? Ernest Tubbs? 

The Curse Is Over Finally by Mike Dodd (USA Today)

Posted by Ed and Lois

The Red Sox win the World Series. The baseball season is over. (For everyone who watched The West Wing)

ST. LOUIS — The Boston Red Sox, the symbol of heartbreak and human foible to sports fans for nearly a century, are world champions. No more curses. No more moral victories. No more next year.

The Red Sox completed an unprecedented 11-day turnaround Wednesday night when they defeated the St. Louis Cardinals 3-0 to win their first World Series since 1918. (Related item: Game report)

The victory was as stunning as their inexplicable failures over the last 86 years — coming back from a three-games-to-none deficit against the New York Yankees in the American League Championship Series and sweeping the National League champion Cardinals, who won 105 games in the regular season.

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Sunday October 31,2004

Posted by Ed and Lois

Manna meets at 10:42ish at the Park Theatre

248 South River Avnue
Holland Mi. 49423-3201

Don’t forget to turn your clocks back one hour. (Fall back)

We’ll also be having a pot luck after the service. Check with Robin H. or Lois M. with questions.

Manna Book Club

Posted by Ed and Lois

We’re meeting Thursday Oct. 28 at 7:00 PM in the Barnes And Nobles coffee shop.

The last book we discussed was C.S. Lewis’ The Great Divorce. This week we’re looking at “How The Irish Saved Civilzation” by Cahill. Lois and I are still without book so we will be faking it. Greg is out of town so ther will be no grades handed out Thursday night.  Hope to see you there.