Branded: Sharing Jesus with a Consumer Culture [Paperback]

Tim Sinclair (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2, 2011

The church spends $1.5 million for every one new follower of Jesus. Apple sells 26 iPads every minute. What is it that makes Apple so exciting and Jesus so boring? What is it that compels someone to bring their iPod everywhere and their Bible nowhere? In a word: marketing. Jesus is a life-changing product with lousy salespeople-people who are intimidated and embarrassed by the word "evangelism" and who show more enthusiasm for their gadgets than their God. What would life look like if we could market our faith like Nike and Apple market their products--sharing relationally, from person to person? Using examples from these and other successful companies, author Tim Sinclair challenges Christians to throw out their casual attitudes toward faith and sign on for a marketing campaign for the Savior. Written with the wit and wisdom of an experienced marketer, Branded peels away the feelings of fear and shows readers how to share their faith in ways that are honest, authentic, and, most importantly, effective.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Convicting at times and outright hilarious at others, Branded is a simple plea for all of us to be true to the artists God created us to be."

--Dave Frey - lead singer of Sidewalk Prophets

"Anyone who is interested in representing Jesus well in our day needs to read this book."

--Joe Stowell - President, Cornerstone University

"Well-researched, well thought-out, and well-written, Branded has given this generation of Christ-followers not just something to think about, but something to do."

--Will Davis Jr - Pastor, Austin Christian Fellowship, author of Pray Big

"Tim Sinclair is a top-flight communicator, period. Here's hoping we all have a growing passion, like Tim, to communicate Christ as clearly as we can."

--Brant Hansen - Syndicated Radio Host, Mornings with Brant

"Sinclair takes a light approach that makes his "pep talk" both urgent and fun...the boost readers need to tackle the decline in church attendance."

--Publisher's Weekly (June)

From the Back Cover

How do we market Jesus?

We sport "Jesus Saves" bumper stickers on our cars and "WWJD" bracelets on ourselves. We post Bible verses on our Facebook profiles and Tweet profound quotes from Christian thought leaders. But when it comes to sharing our faith verbally, we become tongue-tied. What would life look like if we stopped mass-marketing Jesus and started marketing our faith by sharing relationally, from person to person? Using examples from our consumer culture, author Tim Sinclair shows Christians that sharing Jesus has nothing to do with our trinkets or our Tweets. It has everything to do with being personally branded by Christ. With being forever changed by Jesus. With being permanently marked by our Savior. Witty but true, Branded offers motivation and inspiration to put our God above our gadgets and share our faith in ways that are honest, authentic, and--most importantly--effective.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Kregel Publications (May 2, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0825438942
• ISBN-13: 978-0825438943
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #940,508 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Tim Sinclair has a passion to engage the culture in real and relevant discussions about faith, and he's using his background as a radio personality and marketer to do just that.

One half of "Mornings with Tim and Pam", Tim has twice been nominated for "Air Personality of the Year" at the Radio ECHO Awards in Orlando, Florida. He has also been helping radio stations and various other businesses creatively and effectively market themselves for well over a decade.

Tim lives in Illinois with his wife and two boys.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Do People See Jesus When They Look At Us?, July 13, 2011

By 

RandallWMann (Raleigh, NC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Branded: Sharing Jesus with a Consumer Culture (Paperback)

Tim Sinclair believes Christians have a problem. With an introduction sub-title like "pretending or living?" it is not hard to see where he is going. Following up with the quote, "It's weird. I'm a Christian, and even I don't like us very much," removes all doubt. Sinclair says "many Christians have an `-ing' problem. We're pretty good at say-ing, but not so good at do-ing. We're pretty good at act-ing, but not so good at be-ing. We're pretty good at pretend-ing, but not so good at truly liv-ing." (11) Simply put, many Christians, intentionally or not, are hypocrites.

According to the author, Christians have failed to address the situation at a heart level. Instead, Christians have attempted to address this problem by adopting a superficial "branding" approach, complete with "Christian" bumper stickers, slogans, bracelets, etc. So what does Sinclair offer as an alternative approach? Questions. Rather than laying out a definitive plan of action, Sinclair's contribution to this discussion is to illustrate several facets of the problem, leaving the reader to consider various ways to address the problem. As he puts it, "Branded, by design, is a pep talk, not a playbook. It's motivation, not mechanics. It's inspiration, not instruction. It's the start of a very long, perhaps never-ending, discussion that's desperately needed." (15)

The remainder of the book is the author's attempt to illustrate his claim that Christians have taken a superficial approach to a heart-level problem. Further, Sinclair illustrates the situation in such a way as to lead the reader toward discovering practical ways of addressing this issue. Sinclair's use both of wildly creative and vividly descriptive language can have the reader laughing out loud at one moment due to his choice of words, yet cringing under the weight of conviction at the very next moment due to the accuracy with which he paints a not-so-pretty picture of the way many Christians live from day to day.

Sinclair offers twelve chapters describing different ways Christians have wrongly gone about "marketing Jesus." In each case he offers at least a critique, if not a corrective, for each approach, often illustrating his point with some kind of effectively used marketing strategy from the secular arena (i.e. Apple's use of white headphones as a unique brand identifier). In the end, rather than offering hard and fast prescriptions for correcting Christians' failed attempts to superficially "brand" their Christianity, Sinclair takes the approach of offering some "food for thought" questions, causing the reader to consider possible ways to "market" a more authentic Christianity before a skeptical, watching world. Above all else, Sinclair wants to see Christians living lives that are "branded" by Jesus Christ - transformed by the power of the Gospel - instead of simply applying superficial "Christian" "brands" to mask their inauthentic lives.

I believe much of what Sinclair does in this book is fresh and healthy. He uses his creativity and artistic expression to address this issue in a way that will force people to think outside their stereotypical Christian box. The consistency with which he maintains the "branding" and "marketing" concept, however, may prove to limit his overall effect upon his audience, as some readers may simply find the concept of "marketing Jesus" so far out of the box that they reject it out-of-hand. In some ways, this response would simply serve to illustrate Sinclair's point, that many Christians have a commitment to a stale, lifeless Christianity that refuses to adapt to today's contemporary culture and in so doing renders itself voiceless and impotent for impacting people who do not know Christ.

One problem, for me, is found in Sinclair's concluding chapter. In calling for Christians to think outside the box in terms of how they express their Christianity to a watching world, some of Sinclair's suggestions, in my opinion, swing the pendulum too far. For instance, he asks, "What if we created our own, personal churches for the next month?" suggesting that people could invest their "time for the next few weeks in being a part of the church without going to a church." (111) While I strongly agree that Christians need to leave their "holy huddles" and lay aside a "fortress" mentality of gathering at the church building to remove themselves from the "wicked world" into which we are called to go as salt and light, I do not believe an appropriate alternative can ignore the biblical admonition not to forsake our gathering together. (Hebrews 10:25) The solution need not be either-or. It can be both-and; gathering corporately for vibrant worship of our great God and then intentionally going forth with passion and conviction to live as Christ-followers in the world. Again, in his suggestions, Sinclair is not seeking to be prescriptive, but simply to make people think outside the box. I would just add that our goal should be to get people out of their "religious rut" box, while not encouraging them to consider possible alternatives that would take them outside the biblical box.

One other problem is that the book seems to suggest that many more people would come to Jesus if His followers were not as ineffective at "marketing" Him. This kind of idea fails to acknowledge the necessity of the Holy Spirit in drawing people to a relationship with Christ. I do not at all think the author believes a person comes to Christ simply by being overwhelmed at our example of living for Christ. Sinclair could have simply been more straightforward in making the Holy Spirit's role clear, while at the same time encouraging Christians to consider the ways in which their lives might be a hindrance to, and not winsome for, people facing the issue of trusting Christ.

Overall, I think this book is a pretty good illustration of how to contextualize the biblical Gospel in a contemporary way, using a theme such as branding/marketing to challenge Christians to live the Gospel in an authentic and winsome way before a hurting and watching world.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Marketing Jesus, June 22, 2011

By 

MasterAP (Maryland, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Branded: Sharing Jesus with a Consumer Culture (Paperback)

It took me one day to read this book. I might take another day to go back and read it again to soak in the message.

Tim Sinclair asks the question: How Do We Market Jesus?

In this consumer culture, how do we tell others about Jesus effectively?

If you're like a majority of Christians (or people in general) you don't get too excited when you hear the word, marketing. And Christians have been raised to object to the idea of "marketing Jesus". It's not like we're selling him they might say.

I felt the same way. And I think I still do to some extent; but after reading Branded, I was confronted with the reality of the times and since we are in postmodern times, it bodes well to understand how the term, marketing, has been assumed to mean something not so positive.

The chapters are very short which helped speed me through the book.

Tim offers words of wisdom via companies that weren't sure how to change with the times (i.e. Circuit City, Movie Gallery, Walden Books). He suggests that Christians need to change tactics but keep the message. Try letting go of the "turn or burn" tracts or the megaphone screaming.

I found this book exciting as I endeavor to lead people to sharing their experience with Jesus.

The What If chapter was good enough for the entire book. Tim offers ideas as questions to spur your creative juices and some of them are explosive:

What if we sold our church building and rented a theater or school to help save resources, what if we went to a bar with our friends one Saturday a month (seeing as we want them to come into our place, why not enter into theirs as well.)

This is a terrific book.

This book was provided for review, at no cost, by Kregel Publishing.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Musings from a Young Marketer Sometimes Miss the Mark, July 12, 2011

By 

BiblioFiler - See all my reviews

This review is from: Branded: Sharing Jesus with a Consumer Culture (Paperback)

Hmm. Youngish husband with kids (the voice of experience to singles about the kinds of discussions old married folks have--ahem), professional marketer, PK*, immersed in Protestant church culture from an early age exhorts 21st-century Christians to relate authentically (always advisable), drop off-putting Christian jargon (of course) to reach unbelievers around them--in short, to market Jesus differently.

This book is part of a growing genre of popular titles from Christian publishers encouraging the development of caring, honest relationships with those outside the Church. Important and beneficial, naturally. What distinguishes this title from the others is the marketing rhetoric. On occasion, ideas seem forced to fit neatly into this theme. And while the author explains his rationale for using the words marketing and Jesus in the same breath . . . it can be disconcerting. I was uncomfortable with ad world language used to describe One who is the spotless Lamb of God (1 Peter 1:19), One who is the radiance of God's glory (Hebrews 1:3). The author may suggest I'm missing his point. I'm not.

As someone whose upbringing and cultural milieu is markedly different from the author's . . . as someone who regularly relates to those who consider Christianity irrelevant (and offensive) . . . as someone whose interest in the book's subject matter is more than passing, I didn't resonate with several of the author's assumptions about Jesus' followers today. Perhaps my experiences are the exception and his are the rule.

Of course (as the author reminds us), we're to be all things to all people (more about this in a moment). The gospel may come as an offense . . . we just need to ask God for help in making sure we're not the offense (which, I'm guessing, is the author's main point, though he didn't say it that way).

However, some things can't be "marketed" differently, consumer culture aside. Some truths will never be popular no matter how they are branded/packaged/marketed . . . whatever word one chooses to use. (The author maintains it's just semantics. Not always.) The New Testament is replete with examples of preaching an unpopular gospel . . . unpopular regardless of how culturally relevant the presenters were. And sometimes (again Scripture contains examples) there are occasions when authentic relationships aren't a prerequisite for "sharing Jesus" (though one could argue how short or long it takes to develop authenticity). And that's where things get tricky. One person sees an issue as supra-cultural. Another sees no room to budge. One person's "I need to wait until I have more of a relationship with so-and-so before I share Jesus," or "I do it without words," is another's "now is the time, what are you waiting for?"

Churches in countries outside the United States are growing . . . often where persecution is greatest. A pure gospel is being preached. The Good News is the power of God for salvation. We need to be careful not to throw out the baby with the bath water (irrelevant forms, off-putting lingo). No doubt, the author would agree . . . but I didn't get that from the text. God has always used fallible believers who bungle things--in every age and culture, consumer and otherwise--to bring people to himself. From the text, one might glean that the drop in Protestant church attendance is merely due to faulty methods of communication and archaic forms. Revamp your methods and churches will fill up. Not. Other influences abound.

Other issues I found problematic in a book about communicating the Good News (isn't that what "Sharing Jesus"--the book's subtitle--means?):

What was *glaringly* missing from the text were any words about the work of the Holy Spirit in drawing people to God. From the author's explanations, one would think that everything is up to Jesus' followers. Market Him correctly, think outside the box in the way you relate to the culture around you and you'll see results. There was no mention of ongoing spiritual battles, that the minds of unbelievers are blinded by the god of this world (2 Cor. 4:4).

Relating authentically, relating in love and being all things to all people are not novel concepts. (Though I do take issue with the author's statement that 1 Corinthians 9:20-22 might be written differently today. Au contraire, Mr. Sinclair. That kind of thinking leads to spiritualizing Scripture. Paul's heart for his Jewish people is evident throughout his writings. A Gentile Christian writer, having grown up in a Midwestern Protestant enclave, with perhaps, little association with other cultures, including Jewish people would--not surprisingly--make a statement such as that one.)

But the omissions didn't surprise me. The author isn't a pastor, isn't a theologian, isn't a missiologist, isn't an experienced evangelist . . . he's a marketer. (That gives him a unique perspective but it also means he misses crucial aspects of the issue.) What surprised me was how Kregel's editorial department missed seeing the importance of including certain scriptural truths in this text about "sharing Jesus."

Sinclair states from the get-go that his book is a "pep talk" and "not a playbook." But his audience may not read the text with his understanding of the gospel message. He's not specifically telling people how to do it, or what to say . . . just tossing out food for thought. Some of the morsels are tasty and flavorful . . . thoughtful and bold ideas--beneficial for those who've been trained to stick to a formulaic gospel presentation or are clueless about moving beyond established comfort zones. His wit comes through when he describes, for instance, prayers for "traveling mercies." And there were several laugh-out-loud descriptions of pompously pious attitudes.

Despite its faults and the author's blind spots, I give the book 3 stars. While Sinclair's ideas for authentic relating and suggestions for moving into the worlds of others have been presented elsewhere, there are many for whom the discussion will be new and thought-provoking. The book seems to be written for a twenty/young thirty-something audience.

*pastor's kid

A complimentary copy was provided for review by the publisher, Kregel Publications.