Honorable Influence–A Christian’s Guide to Faithful Marketing

The purpose of Honorable Influence is to help move the needle on marketing morality and ensure that the field’s impact is more consistently positive.  Sure, it would be nice to see marketing occupations move up the ranks in Gallup polls, but that change is the lowest priority.  More importantly, our world needs more marketers who take very seriously the persuasive power they hold and who seek to use it in ways that genuinely benefit others, especially given the far-reaching impact the discipline has on individuals, organizations, and institutions, including the Church.  Everyone has a stake in the game, not just the marketers.

Of course, for Christians there’s an all-important stakeholder, God, who asks that we do everything “in the name of the Lord Jesus” (Colossians 3:17, NIV).  That everything includes marketing.  Yes, it’s very important that marketing’s influence honors people, but what God thinks matters more than Gallup poll results, which of course is a huge understatement.  If Christian marketers are not influencing honorably, they’re failing to fulfill their Christian calling, and they’re missing a great opportunity to make a very unique kingdom impact.  Fortunately, God’s Word provides the keys to influencing honorably.  Even though a Bible concordance search for “marketing” produces no hits, scripture is replete with timeless principles and instances of proper influence.  It’s also helpful that over millennia many, many marketers have practiced the tenets of their field faithfully, providing countless examples of marketing done right.  Honorable Influence is about celebrating and encouraging such successful influence.