Big Church: Purple Cow

Great Hills Baptist Church on Jollyville Road in Austin has one of the greatest Purple Cows I've ever seen a church produce.

According to Seth Godin, author of the Purple Cow, and many other business marketing books, the Purple Cow is the prize in the cereal box - it is the little extra something you weren't necessarily expecting when you purchase a given product. Great Hills Baptist Church's Purple Cow is it's playgrounds - for both child and adult.

For Calves and Cows

When you walk into the main entrance of GHBC, you are greeted by Noah's ark and Noah himself. Noah's ark is a nine-plus-foot plastic boat that look likes it sailed into church from one of Disneyland's adventure rides. Inside - because it is hollow and even adults can easily walk right into it, which is important to note - is a giant, lit up fish tank.

My kids say "hi" to Noah and the fish every time we go in and out of GHBC.

GHBC's child check-in area looks like a ticket booth from Disneyland - complete with pagers for each parent and photo identification. Behind the booth, right at the entrances is a biblically-proportioned, Noah-theme indoor playground behind glass. The playground design is so fantastical - a full size boat with ramps, slide and giant, plastic animals - that even adults stand against the glass, peering in on the playground in awe.

GHBC also boasts outdoor playgrounds, a tall tube slide decorated like a rocket that goes down between the escalators, giant fish tanks everywhere and a performing arts center including stringed instrument lessons and fine arts camps.

The adults enjoy a coffee bar - not to be confused with a pot of coffee on a snack table - before and after each service, a full-fledged library, numerous member service stations, a cafe that looks more like a food court and more. As is done in many churches, everyone is greeted at the door, but GHBC also prints and provides glossy, content-rich sermon outlines and note taking materials in the backs of the pews. The staff makes regular announcements via a giant movie screen at the end of each service, which really works for attention-getting.

With all these perks and novelties, what better way is there to convince a congregation that giving up a Sunday morning can be duplicitously fun and soul-healing? With everything religion competes against these days, even a good church needs a little marketing now and then to sell the word of God.

When I leave, I feel like I've walked out of the Starbucks of churches or even better, God's Theme Park. And I want to go back. Congratulations on your Purple Cow, GHBC.