Creating Movements or Creating Disciples that Create Movements?

I ran across this post on a Y Gen website I found intriguing and very applicable to the Church today:

Is Giving Away Free Ford Fiestas Really A Movement?
Posted by anastasia
Brands using young ambassadors to help get the word out about a new product is not new. Student rep programs have been around for a while, and there are agencies that specialize in setting up these types of programs for brands. Over the weekend Ford Fiesta announced that it was going to create a "movement" around the launch of its new small car by giving 100 lucky millennials a free Fiesta in exchange for chronicling their driving adventures (and promoting Ford Fiesta) on "social media" sites. The company told MediaPost (reg. required) they have over 1,500 applications already.The article also mentioned that the key to making this effort work is finding the right young people -- you want young people who have extensive social networks and are comfortable with writing, tweeting, creating videos, taking photos, etc. But you want the content to be fun, compelling and offer something of value vs. Ford gave me a free car so I'm holding up my end of the deal and writing about it.What bugs me is Ford's use of the word "movement." Maybe it's the high school/college activist in me, but I find brands co-opting the word movement to be slightly distasteful, especially when there really is nothing pro-social about what they're selling - I mean I guess a Fiesta is better than an Explorer in terms of environmental impact, but it's still a new car. Pepsi tried to do this with its Obama-like marketing and "Yes we can" messaging. Yes we can, do what? Change the world one sugary Pepsi at a time? Giving 100 young people free cars to drive in order to promote your brand is not a movement either - it's a marketing campaign orchestrated by a huge brand. Maybe it will be effective. Maybe it won't.I don't doubt that young people have emotional relationships with certain brands, but it feels creepy to me for Ford to describe this as being a movement. Especially when movements tend to happen from the bottom up, i.e. they spring up organically in a grassroots way. If there were already a group of young, hard core Ford enthusiasts who were so excited about the Fiesta they began (on their own) organizing Fiesta launch parties, or making their own Fiesta ads or art - that might be more of a movement, no? If that doesn't exist at all, then will Ford's attempt to artificially stimulate it with free cars come across as "delivering authentic and genuine messages across a broad spectrum of media"? What do you think?For more coverage of youth marketing, check out the Ypulse Youth Marketing Channel sponsored by Youth Marketing Connection.


The part that I found applicable to the Church was the line that said “…it feels creepy to me for Ford (the big institution) to describe this as being a movement. Especially when movements tend to happen from the bottom up, i.e. they spring up organically in a grassroots way. If there were already a group of young, hard core Ford enthusiasts who were so excited about the Fiesta they began (on their own) organizing Fiesta launch parties, or making their own Fiesta ads or art – that might be more of a movement, no?”
As churches, and particularly as church leaders, we have a desire to start “movements” within the Church (the big institution): getting people to attend our events or participate in our life-changing courses on evangelism and discipleship. We hope that people, through our self-created programs, will be motivated to join our movement. But, the fact is, a movement DOES tend to happen from the bottom up and not from the “leaders” of the institution, which we are perceived as being. It begins when a group of individuals (a Bible Study class or men’s group or youth ministry or single mother of two kids) catch a vision for ministry and become the driving force behind it. As leaders, we should be spending less time developing movements, and instead, encouraging our people to fall in love with their Savior and being obedient to His calling on their lives. Only then can a movement truly happen that is organic and grassroots in its foundation. The institution can’t make that happen; individuals do.