Unity Church Marketing

Go back in time for a moment and think about praying. The simple, yet powerful act of praying hasn’t changed for the most part during that time. There certainly is a lot of evidence that when we pray either by ourselves or in group, that there is power there.

But the way in which we make our requests for prayers has definitely changed!

When you were young, you might have written a letter (perhaps to God him/herself) and dropped it in the mail. That would eventually evolve to calling a voice mail to be able to ask for prayer for a loved one or yourself.

Later on as you grew up and went to church regularly, your church might have had a prayer request box that you would submit your requests into. Some churches as well as hospitals had personal chaplains who would hold a sacred space and pray with you.

Then there were Mastermind groups that would gather regularly to pray together when we had either challenges to overcome or joys to celebrate.

Along came the internet and countless churches had online prayer requests on their websites that with a click of a button, people either across the street or around the world could jointly pray with you.

Don’t think for a second that the technology has reached its’ zenith in ways that churches are now taking our requests to either help people cope, care for a loved one or to rejoice in what life has provided for them.

People’s lives are different so the way we request prayer has to as well!

Because let’s face it. We are a mobile society. So why wouldn’t the way that we ask for support progress as well?

The answer is that it has. There was an article in Rueters recently that told of an individual who took your prayer requests on Twitter and placed them on the crevices of Jerusalem’s Western Wall

Become a “TwitterPrayer” church!

If you are looking for some buzz about your church, you might give some thought to becoming a “TwitterPrayer” church. Set up an account on Twitter, decide how you are either going to process, pray over and then perhaps pass those on to an organization such as SilentUnity who will also pray over those requests for the next 30 days.

Seems like a perfect fit!

I have written other articles about the church being a part of their community rather than just being in a community. I indicated that in order to be a part of their community, they have to fulfill a need. Can you tell me a single community that doesn’t need or want prayer?

Using Twitter in this manner is a cost effective church marketing tool that helps to build your church brand!

This is a great way that a church can show that it cares. You are also reaching out to the right demographic in that if you want more youth in your church.  What better way of telling the GenY demographic (for one, but certainly others will resonate with this service)  that you have something to offer them by implementing a technology over half of them are using currently? They don’t have to go out of their way to use this medium. As such, they are more likely to embrace your offer and perhaps your church as well.

The point of this article is that as technology evolved, many churches have adapted to it and the way we worship.

To get the most bang out of this marketing wise, I would put everything in place (twitter account, how your church is going to handle and pray over the requests, etc) and then put together a press release in conjunction with getting ahold of your local paper. I think you will get some great mileage out of this if you are an early adopter.