What the Church Could Learn from Comic Con Part 2

"I look upon the whole world as my parish." - John Wesley

I learned a lot in just a few days at Comic Con 2019.  My eyes are always open to the different opportunities to glean a little something in the realm of marketing and promotions as well as customer engagement and overall experience.  In a nutshell, Comic Con offers all of that.

Build a Buzz

Comic Con does a great job of building a buzz.  They hype up panels with the Q&A sessions and the sneak peaks.  Plus, the fans keep the buzz going with trending streams of social media content, sharing selfies and quoting the panels with inside information.

Mayans MC panel in Hall H on Sunday offered an exclusive sneak peak of the season opener.

You got to love the way that it all plays out to fit into a media campaign that keeps buzzing before, during and well after the event itself has packed up and moved on to the next city.  People enter the event with an expectation, and their expectation turns into an experience that they feel compelled to share via social media.  

Imagine if the church generated that type of buzz about its special events.  Picture how much of a difference it would make to have streaming video of more than pulpit preaching for seekers.  It could truly turn out to help us in engaging the public.  If people have an idea of what type of experience to expect when interacting with our church, then they could make an informed decision about checking out the local church.  That opens the door for the gospel to be preached or taught.

We have to build a buzz to build up expectations of the experience.

Use Events as a Means for Recruiting Others

The event itself does not need to recruit many people.  However, the exhibit hall and streets are filled with opportunities to download or sign up for this or that in order to get a discount or an opportunity for a special experience.  There are numerous ways to play it, but playing it safe is definitely not the mantra here.

"Jesus turned everyone into recruiters." - Laurie Beth Jones

As the local church, we need to see our mission as recruiters as well as ambassadors.  We want people to feel a certain level of connection that they cannot get simply streaming church worship services on the Internet.  We want to tap into the inner yearning that drives people to seek to do so much more with their lives than simply sit through church.  We need to serve as a conduit for people to give more of themselves in order to make a difference in the world around them.

We need to see that every event and service is an open opportunity to get people involved in what we are doing within the community.  If it is a golf tournament, what is the charity that benefits from having foursomes fill the golf course? If it is a food giveaway, how are we adding value to the lives of those receiving food beyond just the food itself? Yes, Jesus met the need but He also professed to be the Bread of Life that would make it to where they hungered no more.  We need to recruit people by helping them attach to more than just doing something.  We need to recruit people to make a difference where they fit in and offer their best.

Face the Feedback

Like any organized event, sometimes people drop out and do not show up.  The showrunners of "Game Of Thrones" did not make it, leaving some of the cast to defend the final season that did not go over with much fanfare.  Cast members took the negative feedback from fans in Hall H, but the truth is that we all need to face the feedback.

The truth is perfect, but the people who are followers of the truth are nothing but imperfect.  Therefore, we need the Savior.  If that's the case, the same people who run the local church are just as imperfect as the people who make decisions about episodes and camera shots to bring those story boards to life on the screen.

Facing the feedback is not easy.  It reveals our imperfections.  It stings a little bit, even a lot at times.  Yet, if we take it in, we can begin to make some necessary changes and provide some quality that matches with expectations.  Plus, it boils down to something super simple: people are able to vent and feel that they have been heard.  I learned early on in ministry that we cannot truly help them if we have not truly heard them.  Accept the feedback and act on it accordingly.

After 50 years, Comic Con appears to still be going strong.  It initially started with 300 people.  Nowadays it just takes over the entire downtown of San Diego with swarms of cosplayers and gamers as ell as geeks and super fans.  Add to that the people watchers and the onlookers as well as the freebie chasers.  That's an entire melting pot of folks.

If that is the five-day frenzy over comic books and related media, we should accomplish so much more with the truth of the gospel.