Should you be promoting your church on TV? Surf through these suggestions.

by Matt Donnelly

Pastor Jeff Elliott of Meadowdale Baptist Church in Lynnwood, Washington, wasn't sure what to expect when Impact Productions approached him about doing TV commercials for the congregation. As the part-time pastor of a church with only 55 members, Elliott says, "I wasn't sure if it was some thing we could handle. The idea of doing commercials just didn't seem feasible."

After Elliott watched a tape from Impact, he realized how commercials could fit within the church's plans for community outreach. He then presented the idea to his congregation. As a show of faith, Elliott contributed money to the project from his other job as an electrical engineer.

The congregation purchased exclusive rights to broadcast two commercials created by Impact and personalized for Meadowdale Baptist. Two commercials would run locally for two years and one for four years. In addition to paying $2,500 for the commercials, Meadow dale Baptist spent $3,500 for air-time fees to run the commercials three times a day, seven days a week, for one year, on local cable television.

The church has a Web site, but Elliott thinks television has more potential to build a local community presence. "Unless they're specifically looking for that church, Web surfers won't go there," he says. A Web site tends to be more international; TV, more local."

Visitors have shown up at Meadow dale Baptist each Sunday since the ads started running prior to Easter, Elliott says. But he knows the commercials aren't a magic bullet. "It takes a while for commercials to be out there and attract attention, but we do expect people to come to the church as a result," he says.

Television can be an excellent way to target a church's message to thousands of channel surfers in its area. Turn on the TV almost any day of the week, and you'll see live and taped church services from congregations in the area and across the country. With the sharp increase in the number of cable stations in the past decade, churches have many more outlets for their message—and at a cost most can afford. (Thirty minutes of air time from my local cable provider in California costs about $150 before volume discounts.)

But what about commercials? How can a church use a 30- or 60-second television commercial to spread the Word in its community?

If your church is considering television commercials, media companies such as Impact Productions suggest that pastors first sit down with their media teams and set goals for church advertising. Many churches that venture into television advertising have two main goals: sharing the gospel with the community and attracting spiritual seekers. Many church commercials run on popular cable networks such as CNN, Lifetime, or ESPN, and they reach thousands of viewers in local communities who may otherwise never hear the gospel. TV commercials offer churches the opportunity to present themselves as attractive, welcoming, and nonthreatening to people who aren't regular church attenders. Having a vision for your television outreach will go a long way in helping your church remain focused on its goals.

One example of an award-winning church commercial comes all the way from His People Church in Cape Town, South Africa. It shows a man returning to a store every week to buy a new pair of jeans be cause the knees of the jeans he bought the previous week keep wearing out. The logo "Prayers for Africa, seven days a week," then flashes on the screen, implying that the jeans are wearing out because the man is praying at the church every day.

On the technical side, a good commercial must look professional. If your church decides to produce its own commercials, invest in a digital video camera rather than a cheaper analog model, because an analog camera will tend to make your commercials look more like home movies.

Purchasing the right kind of air time can be a hassle, however. For example, Salt Lake City Evangelical Free Church ran a series of commercials in its area in 1999. According to business manager Paul Haraldsen, the commercials did not bring in any new church members. He suspects that's because the commercials did not run in prime time. He says the church didn't have the money to run spots on broadcast networks, so it ran them on cable channels with niche markets. After a disappointing year, the church pulled the plug on TV outreach.

Haraldsen advises churches contemplating television advertising to follow a few guidelines:

• If you have the money, advertise on broadcast channels such as ABC, CBS, or NBC. Otherwise, focus on first-rate cable networks such as CNN or ESPN.
• For maximum viewership, try to get your commercials to run in prime time (mostly mornings and evenings).
• Establish a method for judging the effectiveness of each commercial.

Image Technical Services has equipment that can be rented and shipped worldwide for producing commercials. Your local cable company may also have equipment and facilities that can be rented by the day or hour. Rental costs vary, but according to Jeff Schultz of Image Technical, a day of studio time with a film editor can cost $500, and a camera rental may be as much as $200 per hour.

After producing the commercials, your church will have to work with a local cable provider to place the spots on the right stations and at the best times. For help on do-it-yourself video editing and production, call TJE Productions (see Helpful Resources).

If your church plans to produce a series of commercials, consider purchasing video equipment. At a total price of around $10,000, the equipment costs half of what it did two or three years ago, thanks to advances in computer-based editing.

You'll need a digital video camera such as the Canon GL-1 ($2,300) or the JVC GY-DV500U ($4,995); and a video editing system, such as the D.O.V.E. (Digital Over lay Video Effects) video projection system up grade from Christian Video and Audio ($5,995). The D.O.V.E. upgrade includes the Matrox TR-2000 video editor and an integrated computer system.

A number of Christian organizations also offer ready-made 30-second commercials for a church to lease and personalize. Impact Productions currently has 70 commercials that are being used by more than 2,500 churches. A 30-second commercials can be licensed for less than $1,000.

Impact Productions also offers consultations with churches about television advertising strategy. And it can negotiate air-time rates with cable providers, place the commercials, and track when and where the commercials are aired. According to Kyle Thompson of Impact, the company's commercials have the capability of reaching as many as 2,000 homes with the gospel for every dollar spent.

Matt Donnelly (mdonnelly@truthmail.com) is a freelance writer from Pacific Grove, California.

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