Getting the good word out

The United Church of Christ also has a TV spot. This one shows a gay couple and ethnic minorities being barred from a handsome old church building. "Jesus didn't turn people away. Neither do we," the ad says. The campaign, which has been shown initially in test markets, has increased visitors by a third in some cities, Pastor Warner says.

But the ads are only the beginning, she adds. The United Church of Christ has also conducted trainings to make sure members are indeed welcoming. "Because there's nothing worse than false advertising."

Some congregations don't feel the need to market themselves. "We are nice people, so people are attracted to us," says Drora Oren, administrator of Temple Har Shalom in Park City. "So we don't have to make too much of an effort." It helps also that the synagogue is the only Reform Jewish congregation in the Salt Lake City-Park City area.

Some congregations are too small to be able afford to market themselves.

And some are still trying to make sense of it all. The Rev. Tom Goldsmith, minister of First Unitarian Church of Salt Lake City, noticed the "take the ride of your life" brochure dropped on area doorsteps by K2, and devoted his pastor's letter in the church's weekly newsletter to some soul searching about it.

" . . . how well do we execute marketing?" he asked his congregation. "Have we even tried, and should we? Whom do we target? How jazzy and snazzy do we want our church to be?"

"Although we may abhor the idea of competing in the marketplace," the Rev. Goldsmith concluded, "do we have a choice?"

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