Jeaney Yip

‘We aim to provide excellent service to everyone who comes to church!’: Marketing mega-churches in Singapore

The discourse and techniques of marketing have permeated many non-business areas of social life, including religion. In this paper, we explore the implications of this trend for the practice of the Christian church. Using two cases of mega-churches in Singapore, we show how marketing fosters a re-conceptualization of religion where religious organizations seek to build their ‘brands’ through diversified offerings. Marketing may enable religious organizations to grow, but the cases also show how it can fundamentally change the practice of religion itself.

“Whatever Works” The Marketplace Mission of Singapore’s City Harvest Church

Despite predictions that organized religion would decline with modernization and economic development, some forms of Christianity are thriving, particularly evangelically-oriented churches in the Southern hemisphere. However, their doctrine and strategies are not without controversy. Megachurches, Protestant churches with congregations exceeding 2000 members often embrace marketing and preach a version of ‘prosperity gospel’ where material success is taken to be proof of spiritual blessing. North American in origin, this form of religious organization has expanded throughout South East Asia. In this paper, we use a case study of a megachurch in Singapore – City Harvest Church – to explore how their involvement in marketing and the marketplace is constructed. Using a discourse analytic methodology, our findings show how the church purposefully uses the normative dichotomy between the sacred and secular to frame the meaning of their involvement in the marketplace, targeting particular types of enterprising and professionally-oriented individuals to embody their mission. Further we show how this construction reflects the pragmatism, entrepreneurial and business orientation of Singapore. Our research suggests potential for further study of the way the relationship between religion, markets and marketing are constructed, using methods that incorporate an understanding of context.

'To build a generation of stars: Megachurch identity, religion and modernity in Indonesia

Against the backdrop of dominant Muslim presence, an aspiring middle class and the modernisation of Indonesia as an emerging market, we explore how a contemporary megachurch in Indonesia constructs a corporate identity and examine how ‘Western’ ideals and modernity influence organisational practices and communication in a religious setting. We deploy discourse analysis as our approach, which includes a critical reading and semiotic analysis of corporate artefacts to understand their underlying structures and discourse in enacting the corporate identity. We examine how discourses of self-empowerment, Westernisation and modernisation, business and nationalism coalesce to construct a marketable corporate identity for the megachurch. From this perspective, we argue that corporate identity is fluid and is shaped by meaningful choices taken to discursively construct a particular image for its intended audience(s).