It’s time to celebrate: mainline Protestant denominations are starting to get hip to the need to market themselves.  Dan Gilgoff reports in U.S. News: 

After watching its membership drop nearly 25 percent in recent decades, the United Methodist Church, which is still the nation's largest mainline Protestant denomination…[is] pouring $20 million into a new marketing campaign, including the website, television advertisements, even street teams in some cities, to rebrand the church from stale destination to "24-7 experience." 

The United Methodists aren’t the only mainliners that have caught the marketing bug: 

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, a major mainline denomination, has TV ads spotlighting the church's charitable work and encouraging Lutherans to take pride in and to share their faith with friends. And the Episcopal Church recently launched a website called "I am Episcopalian," where half a million church members have uploaded videos explaining their faith. 

This is good news.  Faced with dwindling numbers of congregants and increasing numbers of shrugs, mainline denominations have exactly one option if they want to avoid dying.  And that’s growing.  If that means taking a page out of the evangelical handbook and hiring ad wizards and branding experts, so be it.  The need is the need is the need. 

Now don’t get me wrong; I’m not saying we should be glad that spirituality today sometimes seems to be turning into a commodity.  But we should recognize the reality that people (a) are leaving mainline churches in droves, (b) too often perceive a false dichotomy between godlessness and right-wing religion (and understandably pick the former), and (c) increasingly have no idea what benefits a mainline, liberal-to-moderate Christian church could offer them. None of these are good things — particularly not (b) and (c), which tend to reflect misunderstandings of Christianity rather than considered rejections of it. 
 
Accordingly, mainline churches have not only the right but also the moral duty to communicate what's good about themselves. Otherwise, they’re effectively shutting out spiritual seekers who aren’t already familiar with what mainline churches do.  That’s hardly the kind of inclusive approach that most liberal-leaning denominations would like to pride themselves on.  After all, there’s more to being inclusive than leaving the front door open.  We also have to tell the neighbors that they’re invited to dinner. 

Of course, many mainliners are loathe to engage in anything that smacks of proselytizing, presumably because evangelicals have given the practice a bad name.  So fear not; I wouldn’t suggest that we start handing out tracts that ask people to choose between heaven and hell.  Nor should we resort to the soft form of conservative proselytizing that consists of “building relationships” with unsuspecting secularists over time so we can spring our “Come to Jesus” demand at just the right moment.  The former is mean-spirited drivel that I can't believe works on anyone (though apparently it does), and the latter is crass manipulation masquerading as postmodern sensitivity.  We must accept that there’s nothing wrong with people deciding that our religion is not for them. 

Still, there is something wrong with people coming to that conclusion out of ignorance. 

© Ian Brookes | Dreamstime.com

Some people actually want to find more spiritual fulfillment in their lives. Some people are seeking a third way between secularism on the one hand and conservative, anti-intellectual "belief" on the other. And there's little virtue in building an affirming, tolerant, enlightened mainline congregation if such seekers never hear about it. 
 
What we therefore must embrace is a humble yet authentic form of what we Christians call “witnessing” — explaining why faith matters in our lives.  We can be living testaments to Christ’s power in the world.  For those of us who bother having faith, there’s no good reason to be shy about explaining why. 

And the upshot is this: if mainline churches are to grow — or more importantly, if they are to help people who might actually get something out of liberal-leaning Christianity — they must engage in outreach, and they must be clear about what they have to offer the world.  They must, in other words, embrace free and fearless expression. 

In the end, what could be more liberal than that?  We liberals are all about vigorous expression in our politics and in our art.  To avoid it in our religion is a risk we would be foolish to take. 

Jesse Lava is a Chicago-based political activist with a focus on morality in the public square.  Now a public affairs consultant for progressive organizations, Jesse co-founded Faithful Democrats in 2006 and served as its director until 2008.  He will be starting a dual degree program in theological studies and public policy at Harvard University in the fall.