PyroMarketing Hagiography

PyroMarketing Hagiography By Discernment Group http://herescope.blogspot.com March 13, 2009

Index to articles by Discernment Group   Emphasis added in bold letters

---

“The pastor’s partners at
Reader’s Digest aren’t worried about readers being turned
off by a Rick Warren overload. On the contrary, they’re counting
on his global appeal. ‘He’s a powerhouse,’ says Alston in
explaining the publisher’s decision to take on the new title.”
—

TIME, 3/11/09
 

Definition:

hagiography: (noun) A biography that idealizes or
idolizes the person (especially a person who is a saint); the
writing and critical study of the lives of the saints.

---

In a
March 11, 2009 TIME magazine article titled

“Rick Warren’s Magazine: A Publishing Leap of Faith,” it
describes the next step of Rick Warren’s massive global marketing
campaign. Rick Warren has his own magazine, Purpose Driven
Connection, which is compared to

Oprah Winfrey‘s “O” magazine, which is all about self-promotion
for the well-known

New Age TV celebrity. In fact, the same Reader’s Digest
executive who launched Oprah’s magazine now oversees Rick Warren’s
magazine. Commenting that one article on Rick Warren’s ventures in
Rwanda “veers toward

hagiography,” TIME explains:

“The premiere issue features a
softly lit, smiling Warren on the cover (though his spokesman
Larry Ross is quick to make clear that the cover images will
change – ‘this isn’t going to be like O’). Inside, no fewer than
seven articles are written by Warren or his wife Kay.”

What is significant about the
launching of this magazine is that it is to
MEMBERS,
not mere customer SUBSCRIBERS. Rick Warren is still following the

PyroMarketing strategy laid out by Greg Stielstra in his book of
that title, which we reviewed in an article series called “The
Dopamine-Driven Church” in 2007 [here,

here,

here,

here,

here,

here,

here and

here.] The TIME article explains how this
membership formula works:

“The idea is to market the
magazine through Warren’s existing pastor networks.
Reader’s Digest has already sent out ‘pastor kits’ (with
copies of the new issue and DVD) to 100,000 churches that have
worked with Warren in the past and contacted an additional
130,000 pastors with e-mail pitches. . . . What Warren and
Reader’s Digest have created is essentially a new
marketing and distribution network for Christian small-group
materials, packaged in a glossy newsletter-on-steroids that
features full-spread ads from groups like Compassion
International and Regent University.”
[emphasis added]

The idea of “membership” it not
unrelated to the concept of

“Manifestos, Declarations and Covenants”  that we covered
several posts ago. By becoming a “member” you are not just a simple
“consumer” or “customer,” but someone who has joined up — a
psychological mechanism to get you on board with the whole
global plan and agenda.

As we pointed out in May 4, 2007, in Part 6 of “The Dopamine-Driven
Church” entitled

“The Goals for Coals,” each part of this slick network marketing
model is based on the previous media campaign. Here is what we
summarized and predicted:

PyroMarketing summarizes the
steps of Rick Warren’s first successful campaign:

• Rick Warren collected the “driest
  tinder” – the thousands of pastors who had logged onto his
  www.pastors.com website and registered as members.

• “When it was time to launch the
  Forty Days of Purpose Campaign, he sent a message to the pastors
  on his list and twelve hundred signed on.” (p. 207)

• At the end of this very experiential
  campaign, the final purpose was evangelism where “people were
  told to share the gospel with others.” This turned into people
  recommending The Purpose-Driven Life book to others. (p. 207)

• The Forty Days of Purpose Campaign
  kept a database of people (“save the coals”) who read the book
  and logged onto www.purposedrivenlife.com, and also maintained a
  database of over 20,000 churches that participated in the
  campaign. (p. 208)

“Knowing this successful format, it
can therefore be imagined that the next stage will utilize the
saved coals from the previous campaigns to launch the
forthcoming campaign. This is a no-brainer. Even political
candidates ‘save the coals’ from previous campaigns to build a
contact list of potential voters and donors in their future
campaign, often building on a precinct-level cellular operation.
Many non-profit and political action groups do the same. In
fact, when Tim Challies’ website documented the troubles that
Greg Stielstra was having with Rick Warren over the publishing
of PyroMarketing two summers ago
here and
here, he concluded that:

“But why does Warren fear
this book? From all I could find, Stielstra has never
written anything negative about Rick Warren or The
Purpose Driven Life. If anything, he has praised both
the book and the author and appears to respect Rick Warren
as a pastor and as a church leader.

“After two rounds of changes
that were subsequently approved by Warren’s agent it seems
clear that the book will be likewise positive in tone. What
would cause a person to knowingly risk interfering with a
contract made between two other parties?

“Based on the comments made
by his representatives, it would seem that the explanation
lies in Warren’s fear that his critics will misinterpret
the book and twist Stielstra’s words to prove that Warren is
not a pastor, but a marketer. He feels that people will
come to view The Purpose Driven Life as a marketing
success rather than a ministry success. This may also impact
Warren’s global P.E.A.C.E. plan which is in the beginning
stages even now. Perhaps when people become aware of
PyroMarketing techniques they will come to see themselves as
‘glowing coals’ and realize they are part of a larger
marketing campaign.”
[emphasis added]

The TIME magazine article
concludes with skepticism about whether this new Purpose-Driven
Connection magazine will fly. Maybe it will, maybe it won’t. But one
thing is for sure — Rick Warren will have saved a whole new bag of
coals with which to light the next stage of his global marketing
campaign.

The Truth:

“…I will spread My net upon
them…” (from Hosea 7:9)

---

Endnotes:

1.

The Pied Pipers of Purpose: Human
Capital Systems and Church Performance, p. 42.

2. The author of this post saw one of these
concentric circle documents firsthand in the autumn of 1986 when
Pat Robertson abruptly shut down his Freedom Council operation
in order to run for president. A Robertson operative came through
the state of Iowa and handed out this plan to a handful of Christian
Right leaders as he described the next phases of Robertson’s plans,
including his ambition “after he lost the election” to set up what
would become the Christian Coalition.

---

© 2009 by Discernment Group

http://herescope.blogspot.com

*  * 
*

Index to other articles by Discernment Group
 

---

Home
|
Articles |

Reinventing the Church