monster truck church
March 3“This Sunday, Sunday, Sunday! It’s a sacramental showdown at St. Andrew’s Episcopal…”
I came across this radio ad from a blog I occasionally read called ““Church Marketing Sucks.” (what does this mean?).
A member of St. Andrew’s, in a spectacular tic of playful creativity, conceived the idea of advertising a High Liturgy (think ultra-traditional) service in the form of a monster truck radio ad.
Listen to it here: Monster Truck Church Ad (60 sec mp3)
This gave birth to another ad in the form of an airline safety lecture delivered by those wonderful flight attendants who seem to come up with the most amazing hand gestures.
Listen to it here: Airline Safety Lecture Church Ad (60 sec mp3)
Shakespeare never dreamed of such genius. I’d love to do something like this sometime.
March 7th, 2006 at 6:12 pm
Thank you, from the bottom of my ever-growing heart for your kind comments and posting regarding “Monster Truck Liturgy.”
It is a product from the bubbliness that comes from my renewed faith and never-ending fascination I have with the Holy Eucharist, and corporate worship with my fellow parishners at St. Andrew’s Episcopal in Birmingham.
I know that there are those that don’t quite appreciate the humor and that really is, sincerely, fine with me. For me, the real beauty lies in the fact that anyone who has stated any objection has been very diplomatic and has said so very loviongly.
After all, “Monster Truck” was not intended to be a marketing campaing of any kind. It was just created out of play, from a creative steam-blowing session. The only people I was trying to ammuse was my Pastor, Fr. Marc Burnette and a few other fellow parrishners.
Well, it grew legs and ran, didn’t it?
Love it, dislike it, or either wasy still not sure, people listen to it, debate it and pass it along to others.
I grew up in a church of a different denomination from the Anglican Communion. And when old enough to not have to go to church, I didn’t. 22 years later, I found myself back in church.
It is my conviction, based on my experience and almost 20 years of experience in the mass media that no matter what message we as Christians send out via mass communication, we are not going to convince others to drop either their pre-concieved notions or their feelings from past expereiences with the church.
They have to make that discovery for themselves.
However, what we can do, is do the right things that keep these issues in the forefront to where others will debate the issue within themselves or with others.
The message of the Gospel has it’s greatest impact when it is experienced by people, not observed. That’s why corporate worship is an interactive experience, not a spectator sport.
Although, there’s an idea….show actual footage of a very charasmatic worship service, and under the soundtrack have play-by-play announcers call the service, complete with the John Madden-like x’s o’s and arrow’s displayed on the screen.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm! who knows.
Thank you, not just for the posting this and giving kind complements, but also for this forum and opportunity for dialogue.
The Lord’s Peace
-Mike McKenzie
St. Andrew’s Parrish
Birmingham, Alabama
March 12th, 2006 at 9:35 pm
Yes, Mike’s “ad” is amusing…as it was intended to be, even if he never expected so many people would hear it.
But as the Senior Warden of Mike’s parish, am am coning to see something different at work here than just being able to laugh at ourselves. This silly meshing of a monster truck ad with the church I love, though the creative effort caught me a bit by surprise, has been for me a holy thing.
Monster trucks? I could not care less about them, though I do not fault the people who enjoy them. So why would I like this ad? Because in not only makes me step back to think about what the important points are, but because there are LOTS of people at least looking at the church at the moment, who might not have been looking otherwise.
This is a gift.
Though I can’t go into all the details of whom we are at St. Andrew’s at this moment, if anyone wishes to understand us better, search the other sites with monster trucks linked to St. Andrew’s and you are likely to find the many comments I have already posted.
Harold
March 12th, 2006 at 11:15 pm
[...] Many of you wrote that you enjoyed Mike McKenzie’s “Monster Truck” and “Airline Safety Lecture” faux-ads. Mike and the Senior Warden at his church, Harold Warren, were kind enough to leave comments on my post. They explained its origin, their thoughts on the piece, and also a bit about how it is affecting their church. I’d like to take a moment to draw attention to what they wrote. “Monster Truckâ€? was not intended to be a marketing campaing of any kind…It is my conviction, based on my experience and almost 20 years of experience in the mass media that no matter what message we as Christians send out via mass communication, we are not going to convince others to drop either their pre-concieved notions or their feelings from past expereiences with the church. [...]