Seth Godin is a marketing expert, best selling author, popular speaker and renowned blogger. He was described as being "someone from outside church circles." But he was very passionate about wanting to help church leaders. He even gave us all (12,000) a free book. His session concluded that marketing is leadership. Here's what he means...

In the past marketing has been done by interrupting our lives. Commercials interrupt our entertainment. Signs interrupt our vision. Marketing stood in the way of where we are and where we were going.

But things have changed. Godin talked a lot about tribes. He says that tribes are different than crowds. They seek belonging. They rally around a common purpose. They help each other.

Godin noted multiple examples of how people now look to trust someone before they will embrace a product. He told about Garr Reynolds who has a huge number of people who follow his blog. These people like him and trust him. They are a tribe. So when Garr wrote a book about making good power point presentations, it became a top 50 NY Times bestseller. Who wants a book on power point? The point is that because people first trusted him and because he wrote a book, they bought it. He didn't have to interrupt their lives. They just had to find out that he did this, and then tell each other about it.

Which brings us back to "Leadership is the new Marketing." If we lead our tribe well, they will trust, network, be on board and tell others.

It's interesting because this is pretty much what Jesus did. He didn't have to market himself. He just led his tribe, and they learned to believe in his cause. And they were even willing to die for it.