Growing Corporate Sponsorship in Christianity

One of the newest and largest Christian festivals – Megafest with Bishop T.D. Jakes – hit Atlanta for the third time last week. This year's lineup of superstars included Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin, Queen of Gospel Pastor Shirley Caesar, Donnie McClurkin, Kirk Franklin, and Steve Harvey among other stars. Also in the lineup for 2006 corporate sponsors were The Coca-Cola Company, The Clorox Company, Delta Air Lines, Bank of America, Kraft Foods, and General Mills among others.

|PIC1|Megafest has drawn up to 150,000 people a day in the last two festivals and with big name artists, advanced technology and a grand stage set-up, corporate sponsors have been "a big help," said Megafest spokesman Jeremy Blume. He added that Jakes is excited that large corporations are embracing Christian events.

The world-renowned evangelist Luis Palau also hasn't been shy to utilize corporate sponsors for his evangelistic events; costing $3.45 million, Last October's DC Festival was supported by major contributors such as Amtrak and the Washington Capitals.

Business sponsorships began at the local level for the Luis Palau Evangelistic Association. Festivals were held in Portland, Ore., where businesses around the local area showed interest and began partnering with the Palau team. Since then, major corporations such as Chick-fil-A, Wachovia and Coca-Cola have added their support.


Remaining Cautious...

|AD|"Doing what we do is costing more money now than it ever has before – to rent the larger venues, to pay for premier bands ... and premier sound systems, and just to do the event first-rate, top-notch, as well as anybody else even [what people] outside of Christian circles would do," noted Michael Brazeal, senior director of Harvest Crusades, the evangelistic event headed by megachurch pastor Greg Laurie. "We want to have that same caliber. It just costs more money than it has in the past several decades."

Still, old-timers like Harvest Ministries and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) are choosing not to place the big corporate names on their sponsor lists. Their support comes solely from the area churches, donations and the hosting church or association itself.

"For us, there's a balance between not compromising what we stand for in our principles," Brazeal commented. "We don't want our message to be compromised by it being too commercialized. So we just have a very cautious attitude towards that."

Brazeal said Harvest Ministries is not opposed to corporate sponsorships and is keeping the door open to it. However, the ministry is remaining cautious of it and wants to "keep it in good taste."

Harvest has drawn 100,000 people every year for the past 17 years to Anaheim for its crusades, which are known for their cultural relevance. This year's crusade budget for the Southern California event in August is $980,000 – the largest budget for the largest yearly event attendance-wise for the ministry, according to Brazeal.

The BGEA, born in the late 1950s, is one of the oldest and widest-reaching ministries of its kind and serves as a model for many younger evangelistic groups. Yet in its 50-year history, the association has yet to utilize any corporate sponsors.


'Revamping the Methodology'

|TOP|Now headed by Franklin Graham, the BGEA is leading more outreach events and drawing more people than ever, but the long-time ministry continues to follow traditions with support from local churches and offerings from the crusades and festivals. Brazeal noted that Harvest Ministries follows more closely in modeling the BGEA than other Christian organizations.

But just how ministries are approaching evangelism with various methods, whether it be in a closed stadium venue or an open beach, the way these groups handle event budgets are also diverse.

"Times have changed from the early Billy Graham days, from the Billy Sunday days, going back 100 years ago," said Brazeal. "Society is faster-paced ... and people have a higher expectation from an event than they ever had before. They expect technology, top-notch performance, and the delivery of whatever to be comparable to what they can find elsewhere in society.

"So as churches and Christian organizations, we just need to keep up with what society is expecting."

One thing is clear though, as Brazeal indicated: "Our message does not change but our methodology does need to be revamped periodically."




Lillian Kwon
Christian Today Correspondant