There is so much the church can learn from big business. I have been reading a lot about this trying to see where we can glean from big business. The one thing that stuck out most to me was marketing and branding. These are the biggest tools for big business. Businesses live and die on the ability to communicate their message. Successful businesses create a “brand” that is recognizable. They leave you with something memorable, whether it is a logo, jingle, or "awesome" customer service. The church needs to own that. Our ultimate goal is to help build the Kingdom and spread the gospel, we must be develop and offer something to the world's mind for consideration and challenge. If we cannot rise to this endeavor, we will have lost our place in the most critical platform to win souls to Christ. This is going on on the East and West coasts. Who will rise to the challenge here in the midwest?
It needs to be more than pretty billboards and a few lines of black and white in the local paper. Attention getters, something that makes you go "Hey, I need to check these guys out!"
 

When you say "attention getter", what do you mean? What have you seen or would you like to see that would pull your attention to a church, or to a business
 

By "attention getter" I mean the out of the norm stuff. If I get one more hand written or poorly computer generated flyer stuck to my car windshield or taped to my front door, I am going to scream. Technology has come a long way. How hard is it to make a nice impact card and have them printed? The bars and concert promoters do it why won't churches. Is it that we don't want to spare the expense or are we ignorant of the advances in technology? I recently saw an article where a church (out west) rented a flatbed truck trailer, parked it on the side of the road and advertised the opening of a new facility. It looked similar to a parade float with the people and everything. Their numbers increase tremendously because people were intrigued by their ingenuity. People say it’s not about the numbers. But, it really is… What sense does it make to open church doors for 40 or 50 years and win maybe 15 souls to Christ? We can’t effect society if we don’t adapt (not conform to) some of their tactics. We will continue to be just that church over there on the corner that the ones who need Christ just drive by on Sundays because they have no idea what’s going on inside. We have to actively show the world that there is a better way. Would you wrap an expensive gift in used newspaper and give it away? No, but that’s what we do with the gifts God gives us to reach nations. They don’t want our old, stale, worthless looking gifts.
 

I agree 100%. Churches must innovate in ways that show the secular community that we are not in the dark ages...thanks for your input!