Jeff Marsell

In Tyner United Methodist Church's weekly online newsletter, Pastor Robert Haskins discusses the upcoming UMC annual conference, information is offered on church events and new members are welcomed.

And Tupperware is advertised.

After funding was cut in several areas of Tyner's budget earlier this year, the congregation began allowing advertising in its newsletter. The June 2 newsletter has ads for legal services, candles, cosmetics, beauty products and, yes, Tupperware.

"It gives us a little additional income to operate in the areas we're responsible for," said Dianne Kelley, administrative assistant and church member at Tyner.

The church will receive $1,200 per year for the local ads, which are coordinated through Heavenly Printing Co. of Spokane Valley, Wash., a church spokeswoman said.

Although some Catholic churches have used advertising in their newsletters and Mass bulletins for years, Protestant churches haven't been as quick to turn to such a source of money.

Despite the recession, which is crunching many churches' budgets, it still is difficult to convince some churches that advertising can help them, said Jeff Marsell, co-owner of Heavenly Printing Co.

"It's not about money," he said, but advertising "doesn't get churches all excited. They're more concerned with God, religion, the Bible and all that good stuff."

BOOSTING BUDGETS

St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Dalton, Ga., uses Diocesan Publications of Orlando, Fla., for ads in its weekly Mass bulletins, according to bookkeeper Sarah Campione. The parish has used the company for 10 to 12 years, she said.

With his steady promotion of the ads, a previous pastor helped increase their numbers, and the advertising has maintained the same level since the economic downturn, she said.

Ms. Kelley said Dr. Haskins was contacted by Mr. Marsell, who had been servicing an account in Nashville and trying to get more business in the state. She later brought up the ad pages at a staff meeting and suggested the money might be used to supplement the budgets of children, youth and family life programs, where budgets had been trimmed.

Since the church agreed to partner with the printing company, the areas that were cut now rotate in receiving the money each month, said Ms. Kelley, who heads the congregation's Family Life committee.

Michael Dzik, executive director of the Jewish Community Federation of Greater Chattanooga, said the federation newspaper, The Shofar, has used advertising for perhaps 20 years. He said the revenue the ads bring in doesn't come close to covering the cost of printing and mailing the newspaper or the salary of its editor.

"It helps offset some of the cost," he said, "but it's also a way for businesses to show support for the Jewish community, and it's an opportunity for people in the Jewish community to know what's out there."

He said B'nai Zion, a local Jewish congregation, also uses advertising in its monthly bulletins to members.

Ralph Christiana, business manager for Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church on Moore Road, said his congregation has been using ads in its weekly Mass bulletins for more than 15 years. The church signs a yearly contract with Diocesan Publications of Dublin, Ohio, which covers the weekly printing cost of its bulletins.

Mr. Marsell said he has 42 church clients in 17 states. He recruited only one new church in 2008, but has picked up four new ones in 2009, he said.

"It's not a huge number," he said. "Our success rate on getting churches is really slim. Philosophically, a lot of (churches) don't want to go down that road."

To get one church in Chattanooga, Mr. Marsell said, he had to make 30 or 40 calls.

"Once we get them, they usually stick with us year after year," he said.

Churches, according to information on the Heavenly Printing Co. Web site, sign a one-year agreement to run the advertisements, do not have to collect from advertisers and have final approval over ad content.

Amanda Finch, a Mary Kay consultant for six years, said she pays $32 a month to have an ad in Tyner UMC's newsletter. She said the money is tax deductible and the effort approved by Mary Kay.

"I knew it could be of good service," she said.

Other ads in the newsletter promote beauty, food, gift, containerware, fitness and legal consultants as well as service providers such as Chattanooga Funeral Home and Hospice of Chattanooga.