When you hear the term ‘public relations’, what is some of the first things you think of? Marketing, press releases to media, customer services, etc. The point I am trying to make is that you usually think of something from either the ‘corporate’ realm or from marketing consultants.

I thought it was ‘tacky and taboo’ when I found out months ago that the organizers of the Lakeland Revival hired a public relations firm from New York City to ‘blitz and saturate’ the media with ‘press releases’.

But now, I’ve heard it all….

I saw this article about a coffee shop birthed from a church. What really caught my attention while reading this article was not just ‘another church’ deciding to open ‘another Christian coffee shop’. What dropped my jaw was the fact that the article revealed that this church actually has a “public relations” committee when a member from the committee was quoted in the article.

I thought about committees in churches and their purpose within church government. Committees are something that has been in many church structures throughout the years. From staff committees, building committees, missions/outreach committees, christian education committees, and the much needed technology committee, meaningful contributions have come forth when people of a common goal come together and pool their resources to give God their best efforts at ministry and discipleship.

But the “public relations” committee is a new one on me. Sounds like the ‘old school’ mentality has merged with the ‘new school’ church growth programs….

When I ‘link surfed’ the church’s link from the news article and finally got to the church’s web page and found this page, my hunch was correct when I read the first line of…

Southside is a Purpose Driven Body of believers. Founded in 1894,…..

explains it all….. doesn’t it?