Nascar + Church Planting = ?
I can’t hide it anymore. At least I can’t, if I want to write this article for the blog. I’m a redneck. I prefer postmodern redneck, but really what I am is a high-tech redneck. As such, I spent today at the Nascar race in Atlanta. It was actually a Busch race. Nascar is huge business. Matter of fact it is the second most popular spectator sport in the world! As I was walking around the track today, I can’t help but notice some of the things that I thought were working to make this sport transition from a small time southeastern sport into a huge international sport. As I was thinking about these things, they struck me how Nascar gets “it” a lot better then we the church do.
So I thought I would share some RANDOM thoughts. These are just some things I thought the church should pick up and are in no particular order.
1.) NASCAR GETS MARKETING
The first thing you notice when you get to the track is the acres of souvenir trucks. They literally sale anything you could want with your favorite driver and their sponsor. I could buy shirts, bags, hats, cozies, die-cast cars, baby clothes, bandanas, bumper stickers, etc. The funny thing is Nascar fans PAY the companies to advertise their stuff. As I was walking around, I couldn’t help but notice how saturated Dale Earnhardt Jr. stuff was. Every where I turned I saw his stuff. It got me to thinking about our advertising in the church. To most new churches, bulk mail is our ticket. If it works, we get a crowd. But how effective is it? The number don’t lie, it isn’t that effective. The average mailer costs about $6,000 with postage. What if we spent that $6,000 on shirts, hats, window clings, baby clothes, etc.? In a town like ours, if we did that, you would see our name everywhere. Would that be more effective? It might not draw the large one time crowd but I do think long term we would see much better results. People would begin to learn our names because everywhere they would turn, it would be there.
2.) NASCAR GETS BRANDING
Not only do they get marketing, they get branding. There were 42 drivers running today. Yet it was very easy for me to tell the fans and the cars apart due to the image they had put together. From their company logos, to the font they used for their number, to their color, they all had their distinct brand. Church plants and churches don’t much money to spend on marketing. That is why branding is that much more important. Have a logo created and use the logo and colors until you are ready to scream. Get that image in their mind. Make sure your advertising all has the same vibe.
3.) THOSE WHO SHOULD WIN DO AS WELL AS THOSE WHO SHOLDN’T
There were some big dogs in the race today. There were guys with big time money and big time equipment. However, the mom and pop guys fared just as well. In racing anyone can win. You never know who is going to crash or who is going to blow an engine, so the “little” guys keep on keeping on. The same is true for church planting. We think those with the most money or most people before starting have the greatest success. Fact is, that isn’t true. In the town I pastor in there have been two heavily funded church plants in the last few years. Both were lead by “superstar” planters and had strong backing. One has closed down and the other is doing very little compared to what was expected. My point is not that I want to see anyone fail, however I do want guys to do what God has called them to do regardless of how much money they raise or how many people they have. Do what God called you to do and let him worry about the rest.
4.) NASCAR KNOWS THEIR DEMOGRAPHIC
It is very clear that Nascar is targeting a certain lifestyle. Notice, I didn’t say a certain age. There were people there from babies to 90 year old people. However, Nascar knows that its demographic for the most part is blue-collar to low white-collar people and they cater to those people. They aren’t trying to be something they are not. Church planters and pastors need to learn this. We are not called to be something we are not. LEARN your area more then anyone else. I get asked a lot what I see as the #1 reason behind our success. Besides God, I think it is because we are Canton, Georgia. I fit the area and I know the area. I love North Point and Fellowship but everything they are doing will not work in my area. I eat the meat and throw away the bones. I use what I think will work in my town and do it. What I don’t think will work, I try something new until I figure out what will work. Before trying to build a church, get out and learn your area. Figure out who you are going to be able to reach and be yourself.
5.) THE NASCAR COMMUNITY COULD TEACH THE CHURCH COMMUNITY SOMETHING
I watched people today who were really great guys. I expected it to be a bunch of drunks running around acting like fools. However, I watched 100,000+ people sit in traffic, stand in long lines, and never lose it. They talked about interests and talked about families and talked about jobs. They were some of the nicest people I have ever talked too. You can’t say that about most Christians and most churches.
6.) THE NASCAR DEMOGRAPHIC IS WIDE OPEN
You would be surprised who in your neighborhood is a Nascar fan. They are not the white collar boomers everyone is trying to reach. They are not the artsy pomo crowd everyone is on a kick about. They are just the average Joes. They are the majority. They are people who need people like us to keep planting churches that are doing things in creative ways and creating environments where they can hear God loves them.
Will I go to another one? I don’t know.
But I do think we can learn something from their success.