Marketing Mainline Campus Ministry: “God Loves Everyone, No Exceptions”

Abstract

Sociologist of religion, John Schmalzbauer, offers us a case study of a progressive Lutheran campus ministry at a Midwestern public university. This chapter looks at how mainline Protestants promote their organization in a crowded campus religious marketplace. Drawing on field visits, media accounts, and interviews with ten students and two staff members, it looks at how a mainline ministry utilizes social media and material culture (sidewalk chalk, a gothic church, and a rainbow flag) to market itself. Utilizing a rhetoric of hospitality and inclusion, it has recruited students dissatisfied with more conservative campus ministries. Located in the city of George Floyd’s murder, the ministry has sponsored programming on racial justice and systemic racism. Despite these initiatives, diversity remains an ongoing challenge, reflecting the overwhelmingly white composition of the ministry’s parent denomination.

Department(s)

Language, Cultures and Religions

Document Type

Article

DOI

10.4324/9781003342229-14

Publication Date

1-1-2024

Journal Title

Selling the Sacred Religion and Marketing from Crossfit to Qanon

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