God's Perfect Timing

What a few years we have had!  It is hard to believe that we were introduced to COVID about two years ago, March of 2020.  For my part, I launched the acclaimed book Marketing God: Inspired Strategies for Building the Kingdom in the fall of 2019.  I could never have imagined the pandemic journey we were all about to take, just several months after the book launched.
 
Even as I was still launching the book, being interviewed, etc. things were starting to be cancelled.  Parishes and ministries did not know what to do as they were being shut down. Why would they need to know about marketing now?  Conferences were being moved to online.  The book had leveraged classic corporate marketing insights to help bring people to churches and ministries, and now no one could attend anything.
 
The marketing strategist in me was worried.  COVID caused everyone to change their habits.  Instead of going to Mass or adoration in person, people were doing it from the comfort of their easy chair.  There is nothing more difficult in marketing than to change a habit.  So, what were our churches and ministries going to do when things opened back up?  Would people return, or would they continue to go to “church” in their living rooms?
 
Then it hit me.  Maybe the book came out right before COVID so that it was all ready to help parishes and ministries right after COVID.   Faith-filled people, parishes and ministries would need something to help them think about how to re-open, re-engage when things settled down and the world opened back up.
 
Here we are, two years post COVID and many things are changing.  In an Ohio diocese, parish consolidation is underway.  In St. Louis, they are just beginning to explore what the future of the archdiocese should look like.  Meanwhile, I am in south Florida, where we are adding additional Masses to accommodate all the people returning to church.  No matter where someone is located, the issues everyone is struggling with are marketing in nature.  How do you re-engage?  What do you say?  What if something goes away?  Who are the people you reach and how do you reach them?  How do you get someone to kick the easy chair habit and return to church?
 
Watching all of this unfold, I kept wishing I could figure out how to help.  Different chapters in the book help with different situations.  But, what could we do?  In the end, we decided to launch a podcast and attach a worksheet for each topic.  Everything aligns with the book and all the podcasts, worksheets, tools (with the excpetion of the book), are free.  Perhaps in this way, everyone can get a little bit of help for their situation.
 
You see, marketing is so helpful to parishes and ministries as they seek to re-engage, but everyone is facing different challenges and situations.  There is not one answer that will work for everyone.  My hope is that by sharing thoughts in the podcast and the worksheets, that parishes and ministries will be free to explore possibilities and insights that can help them navigate these waters.
 
The podcast is split into different weekly topics.  The plan is to introduce the topic here at Catholic 365 each week, so that should the topic be of interest or helpful you can share it with the parishes and ministries that you support.  You will be able to find the podcast on any of your favorite podcast apps.  You can also find everything at Media.DonnaAHeckler.com. While we cannot solve all the issues with a podcast and worksheet, if these tools spur an idea or two that can assist a parish or ministry bring people back, we will be thrilled!
 
As COVID caused parishes and ministries to shut down, it also caused businesses including publishers to shut down.  The book Marketing God was released just before all the shutdowns.  God’s perfect timing in action I suspect.  Hopefully by bringing insights forward through the new podcast and tools, the topic of Marketing God can be used as intended, to bring more people to God and to offer insights that build His kingdom.