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

Abstract

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.

Marketing is increasingly being applied in non-business contexts, including religion. For example, within the field of marketing scholarship, the concept of ‘branded religion’ or ‘faith brands’ (Einstein, 2005, 2008; Twitchell, 2004) has been introduced to denote the use of marketing in a context typically not associated with business discourse and practice. However, the relationship between religion and markets is neither new nor novel; for example, Berger (1967) conceptualized religious pluralism as a market situation. This led to the economically based religious market model where religion is perceived as a ‘religious good’ or as Max Weber called it, a ‘salvation good’ (in Merz-Benz, 2008). Consequently, the proposition that religious organizations operate in a market has become widely acknowledged (Ahdar, 2006; Iannaccone, Finke and Stark, 1997).

In this research we are not concerned with the question whether churches should engage in marketing but with exploring how marketing discourse potentially changes church practice, drawing on two cases of mega-churches in Singapore. Mega-churches originated in the United States but they can be found in South Korea, Singapore, Indonesia, India and Malaysia (Ma, 2004) and remain under-studied despite their increasing worldwide prominence (Ellingson, 2010). A distinctive type of religious organization, they draw on popular discourses of consumer culture, technology, prosperity and self-help. They have been defined by their size, as any Protestant congregation with more than 2,000 attendees (Thumma and Travis, 2007), as well as by their emphasis on growth (Maddox, 2012), often achieving phenomenal membership increases in five to ten years. Growth is also reflected in church doctrine with its ideology of continual expansion, success and a forward-looking vision (Maddox, 2012). In the diverse and regulated religious context of Singapore, mega-churches have been very successful, blending theology, business and marketplace ideologies in ways that appeal to an aspirational and emergent middle-class (Chong and Hui, 2013). This paper draws on textual data and analysis of two of Singapore’s largest mega-churches, City Harvest Church and New Creation Church as well as field notes from participant observation by the first author over the period 2004–2013.

Religion and markets: marketing religion

There has been a longstanding normative separation between religion and commerce, yet in the last two decades there has been a growth in scholarship which analyses religion through an economic lens. More specifically, religion has been conceptualized as a ‘market’ where religious organizations compete to attract and retain religious ‘consumers’. In this section, we provide an overview of this perspective and then outline an alternative critical view of this conceptualization, which informs our own research.

The ‘economic analysis of religion’ sees religious institutions as constituting a market where suppliers and providers interact, compete and offer religious choices for the individual consumer that maximize their utility or consumer satisfaction (see Ekelund et al., 2006). This market paradigm is explained further by Iannaccone, Finke and Stark (1997: 351):

In speaking of ‘religious markets’ we implicitly model religion as a commodity – an object of choice and production. Consumers choose what religion (if any) they will accept and how extensively they will participate in it. […] Under competitive conditions, a particular religious firm will flourish only if it provides a commodity at least as attractive as its competitors.

This ‘Religious Market Model’ (Ahdar, 2006) is underpinned by economic rationality and scholars from this tradition believe that competition can increase religious participation overall, while monopolies of State Churches (for example in Scandinavian countries) result in decreased competition, restricted choice and lack of innovation. While the notion of rationality can be challenged (Van der Veer, 2012), the key point is that conceptualizing religion as a consumer product lays the foundation for the marketing of religion. There has been increased interest in religious marketing partly because it is seen as assisting churches to compete (Einstein, 2008). Such practices are also self-perpetuating: ‘increased marketing means increased competition, which in turn generates more marketing’ (Einstein, 2008: 21).

Rather than accept the idea that religion is a market, or advocate and advise religious organizations on how to market themselves effectively, we seek to explore how using marketing discourse affects the practice of religion. In order to do this, we first outline some of the basic assumptions and tenets of marketing before discussing some alternative critical perspectives on the spread of marketing into diverse areas of social life.

To engage in marketing is to differentiate; and all goods and services are differentiable according to Levitt (1980). Corporations strategize and communicate these differences in order to occupy a particular position in the marketplace. The American Marketing Association (AMA) defines marketing as:

an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating, and delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders. ¹

Because marketing is defined functionally as a series of actions and processes, it is an organizational practice that is predominantly outcome oriented (Moorman, 1987). Marketing typically seeks to achieve customer satisfaction, market share leadership, brand awareness and increases in repeat business. But the point is that an organization uses marketing because results – almost always about growth – are expected. This outcome orientation results in a preoccupation with techniques that will ‘work’ in achieving results.

Originating in the fast moving consumer goods industry, marketing is a ‘pervasive social activity’ that has spread to other contexts such as services, events, political elections, places, social causes and non-profit institutions (Kotler and Levy, 1969). Some researchers question whether non-profit institutions should use marketing (Abreu, 2006; Devlin and Sherman, 1999), while others claim that business models and market-based solutions are increasingly seen as the preferred way for non-profit and voluntary organizations to operate (Dart, 2004). This can be seen in the growth of church marketing, which, while a big industry in the United States (Mautner, 2010), may result in ‘uneasy’ tensions (Percy, 2000: 97).

One way of exploring these tensions is by analyzing the implications of the spread of marketing ideas and discourse. Morgan (1992) argues that marketing is best understood as a set of practices and discourses that reflects, produces and is constituted by a particular kind of society. Rather than accepting the existence of a ‘market’, we can approach the market as a social construction, that is to say, a way of conceptualizing social relationships that provides for, and perpetuates, certain ways of behaving consistent with the construction. For example, Du Gay (1996) views marketing as a significant force that legitimizes, produces and reproduces consumerism and managerialism, shaping organizations and contemporary society. Organizations that rely on marketing discourse automatically embed a set of values and priorities that structure social relations, power and identity. In particular, within this discourse organizations exist to package, commodify, monetize and materialize offerings to meet ‘consumer needs’.

Increasingly, market logic is being transferred to non-business contexts, resulting in ‘marketized discourse’ or ‘marketization’ (Fairclough 1993; Mautner, 2010). This process is a form of colonization such that previously non-market organizations adopt the language and practices of the market. According to Mautner (2010), this results in changes that are not merely superficial but substantive. Kitiarsa (2010) argues that when religion adopts the logic and language of the market, the result is religious commodification, which ‘turns a religious faith or tradition into consumable and marketable goods’ (Kitiarsa, 2010: 565). Importantly, this colonization has a circular dynamic: the discourse of a ‘market’ implies exchange, bargaining, negotiation and transactions, which necessitate the ongoing practice of marketing.

However, there has been little empirical analysis of how marketization affects the practice of religion. While some research on mega-churches has been conducted in America and Australia (Einstein, 2008; Maddox, 2012), mega-churches have not been extensively studied in Singapore despite their phenomenal growth throughout Southeast Asia.

Mega-churches and the religious landscape of Singapore

Singapore is officially a secular state, but it is neither ‘atheistic’ nor ‘anti-religious’ (Sinha, 2005). Indeed, 85% of Singaporeans profess to belonging to some religious faith, and religious pluralism is celebrated (Tan, 2008). Demographically, 44% of Singaporeans are Buddhists and/or Taoists. Almost the entire Malay population (15% of the total population) are Muslims while 5% of Indian Singaporeans are Hindus. Christianity is most diversely related to race and is practised by Chinese as well as Indian Singaporeans, standing at 18.3% (an increase from 14.6% in 2000) based on the 2010 census (Department of Statistics, Ministry of Trade & Industry, Republic of Singapore, 2010). The close relationship between religion and race is governed by the Maintenance of Religious Harmony (MRH) Act of 1990, which manages religious diversity (Sinha, 2005). This Act was devised in order to keep religion and politics separate, while at the same time deterring aggressive proselytization to preserve religious and racial harmony. In effect, the religious market and behaviour of religious suppliers is monitored by the State.

Despite high levels of modernization and rapid economic development, neither religious affiliation nor personal religiosity levels have decreased in Singapore. For example, Pereira (2005: 174) argues that ‘religion has been generally able to retain its market share in Singapore’. In particular, Christianity has flourished in post-colonial Singapore, a nation-state prophesied as the ‘Antioch of Asia’ by the American evangelist Billy Graham (DeBernardi, 2008: 120) and is substantively shaped by American Christianity (Goh, 2009). Yet there is diversity within the Protestant Christian ‘market’ in Singapore as well. While it is largely middle class, research by Chong and Hui (2013) found significant differences between those attending traditional denominations as opposed to mega-churches: Singaporeans who attended Anglican and Methodist churches could be characterized as belonging to the ‘established middle class’, whereas mega-churchgoers were part of an ‘emergent’, aspirational and upwardly mobile middle class, more likely to have been born to working class, non-Christian, non-tertiary educated and non-English-speaking parents. This latter group were less likely to separate spiritual from material or financial matters, seeing their own and their church’s prosperity as a sign of God’s blessing. This connection of personal faith with financial growth is consistent with the economic pragmatism (Chua, 1995) integral to the meritocratic, capitalist Singapore society. The pragmatic ‘growth’ message of the mega-church, with its emphasis on looking forward, leaving the past behind, and the integrated pursuit of material and spiritual growth and improvement (Maddox, 2012) clearly resonates with the cultural and social aspirations of this emergent middle class:

God sees a great future for you. He sees a great future for me. He sees a great future in 2013 for the entire City Harvest Church and our extended families. God sees us with a great future. Oh come on, if you want to clap, give the Lord a big clap. Come on, somebody scream, somebody go ‘Woooh!’ (Kong, 2013)

There are at least 19 mega-churches in Singapore. ² City Harvest Church, established in 1989, is often cited as the largest, claiming (on its corporate website) a congregation of 40,851 during its Christmas service in 2012. ³ Its reported growth has been phenomenal, at 15% yearly for a decade, peaking at 27% in 2000. Its founder and senior pastor, Kong Hee, is an honorary board member of a ministry started by David Yonggi Cho called Growth International. Cho is the founder and senior pastor of Yoido Full Gospel Church in Seoul, South Korea, once cited as the world’s largest church, with over 800,000 attendees. Kong Hee was also awarded an honorary doctorate in 2008 from Hansei University, of which Cho is the Chancellor. With its SIN$48 million [about US$38 million] ‘titanium clad’ church building (modelled after the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao, Spain), whose congregation has long since exceeded its capacity, City Harvest Church is considered one of the most dynamic, innovative, extravagant and growth-focused mega-churches ‘that may not have a rival in the history of Christendom’ (Miller and Yamamori 2007: 8). Its extremely modern approach to church production (Kong Hee was a computer science graduate from the National University of Singapore) has been compared to the process of ‘McDonaldization’, which combines scientific rationality, technology and a consumer ethic (Tong, 2008). It has 47 affiliate churches throughout the Asia-Pacific (Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Taiwan, Brunei, Japan, Australia) as well as a School of Theology ⁴ and a charity organization (City Harvest Community Services Association) that provides welfare services to various segments of the community.

New Creation Church was founded in 1983, Joseph Prince, son of Sikh and Chinese parents, being appointed as the senior pastor in 1990. ⁵ The church’s congregation grew phenomenally under his leadership. The church reported 12% annual growth over the five years from 2006 to 2010 and as at 2013 claims a congregation of 30,000. ⁶ Its main auditorium was located in Suntec City Mall above the hypermarket Carrefour from 1999 until 2012, when a purpose-built auditorium was constructed in a shopping complex. Despite this move, New Creation Church still conducts its services in multiple venues due to its mega size; these include a ballroom in the latest tourist haven of Singapore, Marina Bay Sands, which is a luxury hotel and casino resort that has shopping, entertainment and a convention centre. ⁷ Since 2007, Joseph Prince’s television ministry has been broadcast in Canada, North America, the United Kingdom, Australia and Israel. ⁸ A regular speaker at the annual Hillsong Conference organized by Australia’s largest mega-church, Hillsong Church (based in Sydney), he further solidified his presence in the US market by speaking in America’s largest mega-church, Lakewood Church in Houston, in 2011.

Mega-churches are often dominated by a single, senior pastor (Thumma and Travis, 2007); for example, Joel Osteen at Lakewood Church, Rick Warren at Saddleback Church, Brian Houston at Hillsong Church, Kong Hee at City Harvest Church, Joseph Prince at New Creation Church. Mega-church pastors tend to be charismatic ‘communicators’ who are highly telegenic and acquire ‘celebrity status’. They typically have a high public profile that is synonymous with the church and make an attractive subject and focal point for media coverage and marketing communication. The senior pastor constitutes a ‘human brand’ whose leadership, vision and charisma are not only transferred to the production of merchandise (music, books, audio recordings) but also used to co-enact the identity of the church, which is then marketed and positioned in relation to its competitors. While the senior pastor is symmetrically aligned to his church, he is also his own brand, which helps his ministry to grow (e.g. www.konghee.com, www.josephprince.com). The senior pastor’s brand draws on familiar and attractive ideologies (such as success, excellence, empowerment, professionalism, corporatism and leadership), shapes church practice (and becomes routinized) and promotes further marketing and development of merchandise such as books, teaching products and speaking engagements, which are usually expanded to other markets outside his home territory.

Commonly, the congregation of a traditional church has the authority to ‘recruit’ or even ‘dismiss’ a pastor. That is not the case in a mega-church; its congregation is made up of ‘attendees’ rather than members. There are no ‘membership rights’ and apart from volunteering and tithing, church attendees are not involved in decision-making about the church’s operations, structure or practices. However, church attendees are involved through participation in small ‘care groups’, which meet regularly outside the Sunday service and further reinforce the vision and teachings of the senior pastor. These groups are located all over Singapore and organized demographically according to age (adults over 30, youths, children), language (English, Chinese Indonesian or Japanese), occupation (including ‘expatriate’) and even a single parents’ network (ESPN – empowering single parents’ network in City Harvest Church). In New Creation Church, churchgoers are strongly encouraged to ‘volunteer’ in any of the ten available ministries: Chinese ministry, media communications, media resources, pastoral services, publications, children, service (labelled Royal Service), video and sound, visual arts and worship. Royal Service is a customer service ministry that exemplifies the customer-centredness of the marketing discourse: ‘From getting the service venues ready, to greeting you at the door, to moving the sound equipment on stage, we aim to provide excellent service to everyone who comes to church!’ ⁹

City Harvest Church offers even more choices of ministry (35) such as audio, bookstore, cheerleading, dance and drama, make-up, photography, marketplace (small/medium enterprises and businesspeople), security and visual communication. This variety of choices enriches the attendee’s church experience and fosters loyalty to the church brand. While many churches offer ministries for women and children, the extent of the variety offered by these churches and its focus on involvement as a mechanism for personal growth is distinctive, as demonstrated by the ‘cheerleading’ ministry:

This ministry will train and bring out the joy and excitement in you. It is your enthusiasm in the performances that will bring out the hype and atmosphere in any event to another level. You will be trained to dance [and] do gymnastics and various stunts involved in cheerleading. Not only will you be trained [in] these different skills, [but] cheerleading trains you to be someone who can work well and look out for [others]. ¹⁰

While commercially successful, the combination of corporate ideals and religion can be highly controversial to those outside the church. Both City Harvest and New Creation Churches explicitly acknowledge business ventures and invest in prime commercial property. City Harvest Church’s senior pastor, Kong Hee, describes himself openly as a ‘businessman’ who owns fashion boutiques as well as a company that provides corporate motivational training courses. ¹¹ A financial scandal involving the alleged misappropriation of SIN$24 million [about US$19 million] in church funds led to investigations into City Harvest Church in 2010. In June 2012, five of its staff including the senior pastor were arrested and charged with breach of trust and falsification of accounts (Low, 2012). While the legal proceedings are still ongoing and the scandal is beyond this paper’s focus, the effects of such a case reinforce the potential for controversy surrounding the mixing of religion and business.

The business entities of New Creation Church range from childcare centres to a travel agency. Its biggest business venture, though, is Rock Productions, which provides ‘convention services and facilities’. ¹² Since 1999, it has owned and managed auditoriums for ‘concerts and corporate events’ ¹³ , which are also used for its church services. The company owns Marine Cove, which is a beachfront food and entertainment complex in Singapore. Its most ambitious project to date was partnering with shopping mall developer CapitaMalls Asia to build a SIN$1 billion [about US$800 million] lifestyle hub called One North, housing an auditorium as well as shops and other typical facilities of a modern shopping complex, which opened in late 2012. Hence, in a mega-church, proselytizing the Gospel occurs alongside serving people with business operations in ways that reinforce the growth of the individual as well as of the church (Chong and Hui, 2013; Maddox, 2012).

Marketing and branding God – mega-church style

City Harvest and New Creation are independent Christian churches that do not directly belong to any denomination but develop their own ‘brand’ of church, differentiated from mainstream, traditional Christianity. However, like many non-denominational mega-churches, they resemble Pentecostal churches in practice. Said to have originated in the United States of America, Pentecostalism is one of the fastest growing Christian denominations internationally and in Asia (Ma, 2004). Goh (2010) further argues that Pentecostalism became popular in the 1980s as its ideologies were aligned to the developmental ethos of Singapore. The Pentecostal connection is apparent in both churches in the form of charismatic worship and preaching style, belief in miracles, speaking in tongues and emphasis on the Holy Spirit.

City Harvest Church is explicit about engaging with marketing practices. It is a client of BMCFerrell, a US-based church marketing consultancy that specializes in media placement, message impact development and identity development. The church features as a ‘client’ on the company’s website ¹⁴ , along with predominantly American churches. It is interesting to note that, following the 2012 arrests and charges, ‘advisory chairman’ Dr AR Bernard’s (founder and senior pastor of Christian Cultural Center, Brooklyn New York) made explicit use of the language of branding when addressing a leader’s meeting:

City Harvest has created a brand identity and now it has come under attack. But when it’s redeemed, nothing can destroy it again. You went through fire and did not get burnt, so you will never be afraid of the fire again. (Teo, 2012)

In a mix of business and Christian language, the financial scandal and the ensuing public relations crisis are re-framed as an ‘attack’ on faith and discourses of resurrection from hell (‘fire’) are used to motivate the church leaders. Marketing discourse (creating a ‘brand identity’) and the common Pentecostal discourse of an ‘attack from the devil’ are mixed strategically into a coherent narrative. This incident has also influenced sermons by the senior pastor Kong Hee, with titles such as ‘Life Building in the Midst of Crisis’, ‘Strong Faith in Tough Times’, ‘Shameless Persistence through Prayer’, ‘Breaking through the Shame Barrier’ and ‘Do not Look Back’.

Mega-churches are extremely technologically savvy in reconstructing church worship into a form of highly experiential and emotional performance through the use of live contemporary music (albeit Christian) and sophisticated equipment for special effects (Cruz, 2009). Both City Harvest’s and New Creation’s services are two-and-a-half hours long, scripted and ‘produced’, with strategic use of contemporary music, sound and lighting to create effects that are distinctly ‘unchurchlike’. For example, New Creation Church announced on its website an audition for ‘talented singers, dancers or actors’ for ‘upcoming productions’ ¹⁵ , as well as the creation of a ‘ministry of laughs’, which produces humorous videos for church services. City Harvest Church’s expenses on its audio and lighting ‘ministry’ exceeded its spend on the children’s ministry in 2009 ¹⁶ and it flies in international Christian bands on a regular basis in order to entice its congregation (Li, 2005).

Both churches hold simultaneous multiple services each weekend, as their ‘mega’ congregations usually exceed the main auditoria’s capacity. In City Harvest and New Creation, nothing of the exterior and interior conforms to traditional, common or expected stereotypes of a church. The spaces are modern, auditorium-style designed to meet conventional standards devoid of the Christian iconography more typical of traditional churches often rich in symbols. The auditorium-style setting and theatre-like seating facing a stage generate a sense of spectatorship from the audience, while broadcasting the church service to other rooms means that others ‘watch’ the performance of the charismatic senior pastor. The churches construct their own versions of Christianity based on contemporary semiotics and themes designed to appeal aesthetically and to be amenable to performances. For example, a ‘contemporary version of the Easter story’ produced by City Harvest Church in 2012 featured ‘Jesus wearing a handsome white suit instead of the usual white robe’ and featured narratives that ‘combined the social network elements of Facebook with the Lamb’s Book of Life (as stated in the Book of Revelations)’. ¹⁷ The church celebrated its 23rd anniversary in August 2012:

A beatbox-and-dance combination kicked off the service with a bang. Dancers in black tank tops and combat fatigues, representing the army of God, executed a killer hip-hop routine. For the second dance item, which was a modern dance piece, the performers glided across the stage with a limber ease that belied their many hours of preparation. (Lee, 2012)

With titles and themes such as ‘How to be a Culturally Savvy Christian’ (City Harvest Church), ‘The Year of Unceasing Fruitfulness’ ¹⁸ and ‘Unmerited Favor’ ¹⁹ , both churches draw on popular discourses, framed and blended with Christian discourses. At a City Harvest Church service on 6 January 2013, Kong Hee preached a sermon titled ‘Righteousness: Partakers of Divine Nature’. The 74-minute sermon focused on the righteousness that a born again Christian inherits because of what Jesus has done for humanity. This righteousness allows the children of God to ‘boldly’ ask for anything (for ‘the money to come’, for ‘total deliverance’). In the last 15 minutes of the sermon, the senior pastor finished by narrating a story of a recent trip with his wife to the UK, where they watched a soccer premier league game for the first time. He narrated with great enthusiasm the most ‘amazing’ experience of feeling the ‘intimidation’ of the Manchester United fans against their opponents, Wigan. He went on to commend the ‘boldness’ of the Liverpool fans in another game against Sunderland, where they expressed a heightened confidence that they would win. Drawing upon the popular appeal of soccer in Singapore, the senior pastor used this analogy to engage his congregation:

Now, you know being a pastor is not easy because our church is split [between support for Manchester United and support for Liverpool]. Of course, we have Arsenal, Chelsea and Everton [fans as well], right. […] but we have a lot of Manchester United fans and Liverpool fans so if I go to one game, I [also] go [to] the other game so everybody know[s] I’m a pastor to everybody! (Kong, 2013)

Through the ‘soccer story’, the senior pastor connected the fanatical behaviour of football fans (‘intimidating boldness’ and ‘confidence’) to the sermon’s theme of righteousness. He exhorted his congregation to model their behaviour on the soccer crowd:

You know what I mean; it was amazing. Forty thousand fans stood in worship of their team and the boldness they had in the stadium gave me and Sun goose bumps. They were so full of confidence, they could win. And they won 3-0. […] I tell you, righteousness… now we switch back to God… this is the real thing, right. Hallelujah, real thing; we got the real thing, guys… we got the real thing… now, righteousness should give us tremendous boldness in God’s presence. We should be singing and clapping and lifting our hands and cheering and shouting and standing in the presence of God with such confidence because we know who we are in Jesus Christ. Oh, come on, give the Lord a big hand. Somebody scream […] and when we come boldly into the throne of grace [sic], we know we can ask for anything and obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Come on, somebody; give the Lord a big clap this morning! Hallelujah! (Kong, 2013)

New Creation Church similarly draws upon the familiar and regularly criticized ‘prosperity Gospel’ that many mega-churches purportedly preach. This particular theology syncretically blends biblical doctrines with secular values of individualism, materialism and humanism with the aim of developing human potential and promising material blessings. Here prosperity is framed as an individual pursuit and Joseph Prince, with his distinctive emphasis on ‘grace and divine favor’ (Prince, 2010), argues that the ‘good life’ is available to all who believe because Jesus has already paid for it with his sacrifice:

God wants you to have a life filled with good days and an abundance of every good thing. So say, ‘In the name of Jesus, I command blessings, favor, health, provision, protection, dominion and power to fill my life!’ ²⁰

Our two cases are examples of branded mega-churches that actively engage in the discourse and practices of marketing in order to sell religious products and services. Marketing provides ‘activities and processes’ inherently focused on ‘the customer’, making churches that engage in it increasingly ‘managerially focused’. This is not to say that these churches are not Christian; but we are arguing that marketing discourse restructures church practices in a variety of ways. Marketing strategies and practices are geared towards achieving results, and mega-churches focus on increasing their size by using marketing techniques to attract and retain ‘religious consumers’. A mega-congregation generates mega-outcomes in all areas of the church’s operations, such as tithing and donations, and volunteering in church ministries and programmes, and presents a sizable market for other potential endeavours such as conferences, events, seminars and products. By using popular music and charismatic preaching that draws upon familiar cultural discourses, which act as a magnet for attendees and revenue, each church is able to sustain and even grow its ‘mega’ identity by perpetuating its brand of religion.

On the one hand, marketing discourse has at its centre the sovereign identity of the ‘customer’ or ‘consumer’ (Du Gay, 1996), and we can see how these two mega-churches focus their efforts on attracting and retaining the religious ‘consumer’. On the other hand, however, the individual religious believer is positioned in a way that enables them to exercise little influence on the decision-making of the church: they are not ‘members’ of a congregation but ‘attendees’, spectators and participants in the ‘performance’ of the church. Members of a church congregation traditionally have rights to participate in decision-making, even the recruitment or dismissal of a pastor. In these two cases, decision-making and authority are centralized in the figure of the senior pastor whereas attendees’ power is limited to the ‘right to choose’ among various voluntary church activities. In effect, while in theory the religious consumer is accorded the power to choose, in practice the influence of the individual religious consumer on the church is circumscribed.

Thus the market is not simply a process that facilitates exchanges but an all-encompassing social principle (Mautner, 2010) that leaves its imprint on the church and the individual believer. Religious practices such as worshipping and preaching become intertwined with marketing practices such as branding, scripting of sermons with market-friendly and individually appealing discourses, continuous selling of products and services, and practices that draw upon business ideologies such as investing in profitable business ventures and commercial property. Regardless of whether the function is to inform, convert sinners, empower or simply entertain, the church draws upon and mirrors the market. Marketing discourse thus transforms practices into production processes, with the consumer at the centre of the market and the focus of production. This dramatically repackages many practices associated with ‘established religion’ and has fundamental implications for religious practice, traditionally deemed to be ‘non-business’ in context and nature.

Conclusion

Churches have traditionally been involved in evangelism and proselytizing. But these Singaporean mega-churches openly embrace the practices and discourse of marketing, in the process transforming how they practise religion. City Harvest and New Creation Churches construct their own ‘branded’ version of Christianity, differentiated from common cultural understandings of traditional churches. While the cases are a demonstration of successful religious marketing, they also show how marketing does not merely concern the adoption of a particular terminology or set of strategies and techniques. In the process of transporting marketing discourse to the realm of religion (or any context, for that matter), the practice and substance of religion changes (Mautner, 2010). Mega-churches have been characterized as ‘growth churches’ with a ‘relentless emphasis on growth’ (Maddox, 2012: 148) and we argue that it is important to better understand how this growth is enacted. In this paper, we have shown how two Singaporean mega-churches use marketing discourse and techniques in ways that have enabled them to materialize their growth objectives and theology.