Episcopal Church airs “Put Your Faith to Work” ads

Highlighting community outreach across the Episcopal Church and the theme “Put Your Faith to Work,” new print and video advertisements are scheduled to debut starting May 22 for a summer run in public media.

The first of a series of print ads — headlined “Get Closer to God.

Slice Carrots,” — is scheduled to appear in USA Today May 22-23. The accompanying video spot is targeted for the CNN Headline News/Airport Channel during peak holiday travel times, including the Memorial Day weekend.

The full story is here.

Two unrequested cents worth of commentary follows:

I am always delighted whenever any arm of the Church does advertising of any sort. It is a sign that at least a few people recognize that we need to employ new strategies in our attempts to reverse the declining numerical fortunes of our Church. I like the “hands on” theme of this ad, and appreciate that those who planned the campaign have managed to pull this off even though there is no dedicated line for advertising in the budget passed by the General Convention.

But there are a few things I hope we will consider in our next venture: Church leaders and communications professionals only learned that these ads existed last night. We’ve had no time to spread the word about them, no time to prepare our clergy and congregations for the questions that the ads might occassion. Generally an organization that is about to run national advertising preps its local affiliates on the campaign long before it appears, so the local units can participate fully in spreading the message. That hasn’t happened here.

I’m also wondering about the timing of this campaign. Perhaps those who planned it know something I don’t, but I was under the impression that Back to School, Advent and Lent were the best times to air church ads, and summer was the worst.

All that said, it’s good to see any organized energy viz. evangelism emanating from Episcopal Church Center. Two cheers!

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