Why I love being a member of the Unitd Church...

Ad campaign aims to fill the pews
Provocative United Church ad features bobble-head Jesus

PAUL WALDIE
From Tuesday's Globe and Mail, Posted at 4:41 am EST on 07/11/06

The United Church of Canada is launching the largest advertising campaign ever by a Canadian church in an attempt to spark debate about religious issues and encourage people to come back to the pews.

The series of advertisements poke fun at some traditions and tackle controversial topics such as sex and gay marriage.

One includes statues of two grooms on a wedding cake and asks, "Does anyone object?" Another features a can of whipped cream with the question, "How much fun can sex be before it's a sin?" Still another depicts a bobble-head Jesus on a car dashboard and asks, "Funny. Ticket to hell. What do you think?"

The $10.5-million project, to be officially unveiled today in Toronto, includes advertisements in magazines, community newspapers and on the Internet. It will also include the creation of a website called WonderCafe.ca which will feature discussion forums on a variety of social issues. The church also plans to hold seminars to teach its 3,500 congregations how to be more welcoming to newcomers.

The United Church of Canada is launching a $10.5-million promotional campaign that includes ads in magazines and the Internet, as well as a website.

"We are trying to increase the visibility and awareness of the United Church of Canada," said Reverend Keith Howard, who is heading the three-year project, called Emerging Spirit.
"We have become aware that particularly for people in the 30- to 45-age group, many of them do not even know that the United Church exists, much less what we stand for."

Membership in the church has been declining steadily in recent years and stands at about 573,000, still making it the largest Protestant denomination in the country.

According to Statistics Canada, while more than 80 per cent of Canadians say they believe in God, less than 19 per cent attend a place of worship regularly.

Dr. Howard, who is based in Victoria, said the church spent more than a year to research why people, particularly those between the ages of 30 and 45, have been turned off by organized religion.

It found there's a perception among many that followers of established churches are judgmental, arrogant and unwilling to listen.

For example, in a poll conducted by Environics Research for the United Church, 64 per cent of respondents in that age group claimed some religious affiliation, but 73 per cent said that "organized religion tells you what you have to believe."

"The United Church of Canada must establish its own unique positioning, promote its own values and help people break damaging stereotypes of organized religion," researchers hired by the church concluded in a recent report.

The church said it hired Smith Roberts & Co., a Toronto-based ad agency, to create a campaign that would attract attention without appearing too slick, too packaged or too evangelical.
Some seminars for congregations have already started to explain the rationale for the campaign and to help church members improve "the welcoming etiquette of their congregation," the church added, which can include everything from proper signage to whether coffee should be allowed in the pews during sermons.

The overall objective of the campaign is not to convert people to Christianity, Dr. Howard said, but to speak to Canadians who already consider themselves Christians.
He added a major focus of Emerging Spirit is to encourage people to visit the WonderCafe website and talk about ethical and religious questions such as "Does God hate me because I am gay?"

The site makes little mention of the United Church and it will be managed by an outside agency with content coming from a variety of sources. While the website has no direct contact with the United Church, it does include a list of United churches across the country and a small Web page for each one.

"Down the road, we hope that people will somehow become aware that the United Church exists and that we have something of value," said Dr. Howard, who previously was acting executive secretary of the church's B.C. council.

The ad campaign received overwhelming approval at the church's general council meeting in August, but some members have grumbled about the cost, saying the money could be better spent elsewhere.

Dr. Howard said the church is aware of the concerns. "It was a tough decision for the church because we know we live in a world in need and the United Church has always had a strong commitment to justice and social issues," he said. "I think, though, in the end the church sees this as an investment in our being able to equip a church that will be able to continue and grow in that kind of work."

Other churches have had varying degrees of success with ad campaigns. Two years ago, U.S. television networks refused to air ads by the United Church of Christ that depicted bouncers standing in front of a church door deciding who could enter. The message read "Jesus didn't turn people away. Neither do we." The networks objected, saying the ads highlighted the exclusion of gay couples and other minorities by other organizations.

The United Church's campaign will begin with a magazine ad aimed at the coming holiday season. The advertisement shows Jesus, instead of Santa Claus, in a shopping mall with a child on his lap. "Would you still take your kids? After all, isn't Christmas supposed to be about Him, not the guy in the red suit?"