Niche Marketing. . .

Terry Mattingly called it niche-market journalism.  It is an apt and sad description of what has happened to the news media.  Reporters seem to be driven less by the objective facts than by an appeal to what the management has considered their market.  It is not quite that they are propagandists but they definitely are influenced by the market in how they view and what they report of the news -- something true of both right and left. We listen only to those who agree with us and then we wonder why we are so divided.  We are also content to live within the bubble of like-minded folk more than we want to engage others.  The rhetoric of our public conversation is design to confront and not convert.  So it is no wonder that we do the same thing in the realm of religion and faith.

The conversations of religion have become rather narrow and they seem to be headed toward an even more narrow audience and appeal.  In Lutheranism, for example, the forums that truly engage all flavors of Lutherans have become angry shouting matches between those who hold their line no matter what.  In the meantime, those forums that cater to a perspective seem to be doing fine.  Even in matters of faith, we would rather listen to those who agree with us than to risk learning from others.  I admit that this is true of me although I would also admit that I lurk on many forums whose theological perspective is vastly different from my faith.  I do so to learn but also find myself sharpening my faith by working through the challenges of those who disagree.  That said, I am more likely to be found in the less toxic conversations where the argument is won by Scripture and tradition than on those where he who shouts more or loudest is judged the victor.

This is true even of such things as our taste in religious music.  We listen to the playlist of the contemporary Christian music stations as the soundtrack of our daily lives even when we have a very different musical offering inside the Church on Sunday morning.  It is no wonder that we seem to have more interest in and more loyalty to what fits our taste than we do the sturdy hymns old and new that speak doctrine.  It points out the problem of trying to live with feet in two worlds.  It is hard enough to live in the world but not of it but to have the tension of faith pulled from very different ends of the spectrum is even more difficult.  So I have found that those who tend to listen to contemporary Christian music in their ear pods during the week will eventually find their way to a place that sounds like that on Sunday morning.

How well is this niche marketing serving the faith?  Probably no better than it serves us as a society and nation.  We engage people who sound like us but fail to engage those who have not heard or have not yet believed the Gospel.  While it is probably more of a challenge for a pastor who serves a congregation to regularly engage those outside the faith, those in the pew do it all the time -- out of necessity.  At work, at leisure, shopping, and in our entertainment venues we are always around people  who do not share our faith.  As that public square becomes increasingly hostile to the sound of religion and faith (at least that which stands for Scripture and within the catholic tradition), we find the opportunities to speak the faith even more limited.  With cell phones that go to voicemail and email that goes to trash or spam folders and ring doorbells that allow us to watch who is there without opening the door, the niche marketing becomes our only source of information and the faithless become even more insulated from the Gospel while the faithful become more secure in their little refuges away from the world.  It is not a good thing.

Of course, Protestants have pushed this to the limits.  Bible studies and small groups are situated for the narrowest of criteria.  I knew of one young woman who was let out of her Baptist small groups because she had gotten married and the group was for singles only.  There is the Protestant churches are children's church for certain ages and worship services that are offered especially to those with children or those without, to those of one generation or those of another, eschewing the idea that one size fits all.  Marketing has become a way to appeal except through the Gospel itself.  This is not a good thing. The Gospel is precisely for the mass market -- for those of every age, ethnicity, marital status, economic status, and every other thing used to divide.  We are sinners one and all to be saved by Him whose blood cleanses sin.  Or is there some other kind of church?