ABSTRACT COMMUNICATING CHURCH BRANDING THROUGH ANNIVERSARY SERVICES Kate Mead, MA Department of Communication Northern Illinois University, 2017 Kerith Woodyard, Director This study provides an analysis of communication as presented through church anniversary services. The paper includes a discussion on organizational branding, which is then applied to religious organizations and, more specifically, the megachurch. Anniversary services to be analyzed originate from Willow Creek Community Church of South Barrington, Illinois and include those presented during the years 2011 to 2015. These services are employed as a case study through which communication is analyzed in two primary ways: first, as part of a church organizational branding process and second, through a lens of community-building ritual communication (per James Carey and Eric Rothenbuhler). Attention is given to how communicated messages are tailored to two main audiences: those who already ascribe to the Christian faith and those who do not. NORTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY DE KALB, ILLINOIS MAY 2017 COMMUNICATING CHURCH BRANDING THROUGH ANNIVERSARY SERVICES BY KATE E. MEAD ©2017 Kate E. Mead A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE MASTER OF ARTS DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATION Thesis Director: Kerith Woodyard ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I want to thank my thesis advisory committee for the support offered during this thesis writing process as well as in the semesters leading up to it. Thank you to Dr. Gary Burns for the feedback on the first, original version of this paper and to Dr. Mehdi Semati for the initial, informal recommendation of James Carey’s Communication as Culture. The encouragement received from you both was instrumental in encouraging me through my first year of graduate work. And finally, a huge thanks to Dr. Kerith Woodyard: For saying yes when an unknown student emailed you requesting a meeting, for discussing your research interests in fascinating detail, and for agreeing to direct this thesis. Thank you for your encouragement in the study of religious topics, especially those I began studying once I was (finally) able to take one of your classes. It was that class that has inspired me more than any others and directed me toward my favorite topics of study. And to Bryan. You know how much I love and appreciate words – but no number of them would adequately depict all you do for me. Thanks for being mine. TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page 1. LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................................... 1 Introduction ................................................................................................. 1 Brief Outline of Chapters ............................................................................ 2 Branding – A Summary .............................................................................. 3 Identifying with Religion ...................................................................... 8 Religion and Branding .......................................................................... 10 Christian Church Branding ................................................................... 12 The Megachurch ......................................................................................... 18 Willow Creek Community Church ....................................................... 20 Anniversary Services as Branding .............................................................. 22 2. STUDY AND FRAMEWORK .......................................................................... 24 The Study .................................................................................................... 24 Communication as Culture ......................................................................... 27 Community ................................................................................................. 31 3. BRANDING FOR A NON-CHRISTIAN AUDIENCE .................................... 37 Introduction ................................................................................................. 37 Sermon/Narrative Content .......................................................................... 38 iv Chapter Page Common Cultural and Historical References ....................................... 39 Universal Messages .............................................................................. 45 Arts and Entertainment ............................................................................... 49 Conclusion .................................................................................................. 55 4. BRANDING FOR A CHRISTIAN AUDIENCE .............................................. 57 Introduction ................................................................................................. 57 Sermon/Narrative Content .......................................................................... 57 Retellings of History ............................................................................. 58 Encouraging a Common Mission .......................................................... 60 Pointing out Disparity ........................................................................... 65 The Arts ...................................................................................................... 68 A Sense of (Musical) Nostalgia ............................................................ 70 Varying Art Forms ................................................................................ 72 Only God ..................................................................................................... 76 Conclusion ................................................................................................... 77 5. CONCLUSION ................................................................................................. 79 Summary/Findings ...................................................................................... 79 A Focus on the Non-Christian ............................................................... 81 A Focus on the Christian ....................................................................... 83 REFERENCES .............................................................................................................. 86 1. LITERATURE REVIEW Introduction The purpose of this paper is to consider the influence of branding on one particular Christian church in America through its recent anniversary services. Rather than assuming the church is immune to and without need of the capitalistic tendencies of sales and corporate competition, it is the intention of this paper to perform a case study that analyzes how Willow Creek Community Church of South Barrington, Illinois benefits greatly from a particular brand, particularly as expressed through recent anniversary services which act as a microcosm for the expression of over-arching church purpose. The presented brand serves as an observable and recognizable identity of the church which both identifies it with and isolates it from fellow churches. In addition, the brand also allows the church to identify with and isolate it from contemporary secular culture. What results is a church defined by a brand with a unique relationship to the collective Christian community as well as with the culture of the secular world. This paper will study several recent anniversary services of Willow Creek in order to identify particular branding messages that are postured to foster a religious community reaching those outside and inside the already-established church body. The two main research questions of this inquiry are: 1. How does Willow Creek Community Church use its anniversary services to brand itself as a church that identifies with and separates itself from secular culture? 2 2. How does Willow Creek Community Church use its anniversary services to brand itself as a church that identifies with and separates itself from Christianity in general? Brief Outline of Chapters Chapter one will begin with an overview of the study. A discussion of branding will be followed by its application to the religious world, with a particular focus on Protestantism in America. The chapter continues with a discussion of megachurches, including an introduction of the megachurch being studied, Willow Creek Community Church. The chapter will also focus on the choice of using the anniversary service as the text available for analysis. Chapter two will summarize the study’s method, as well as the paper’s approach to analysis. A theoretical framework will be built by combining Kenneth Burke’s concept of identification with theoretical literature on communication as ritual, as outlined by theorists such as James Carey, Eric Rothenbuhler, and Nick Couldry. This framework will be positioned to apply the use of communication as ritual as a tool for encouraging identification with the church message. The spoken and performed communication presented by Willow Creek’s anniversary services will then be analyzed through the lens of intentional community-building as enacted through various means of communication. Chapter three will provide an analysis of the anniversary services by seeking to answer my first research question: How does Willow Creek Community Church use its anniversary services to brand itself as a church that identifies with and separates itself from secular culture? Many contemporary and secular aspects of the anniversary services will be analyzed in order to 3 understand Willow Creek’s positioning