Native Trends

The Popcorn Report by Faith Popcorn, Doubleday, $22.50.

Reviewed by Bruce L. Shelley, preaching team pastor, Bear Valley Church, Denver, Colorado

Popcorn is the hottest name in marketing.

The Popcorn Report is the latest product of consultant Faith Popcorn for her Fortune 500 clients and other market-driven companies. Faith is the prophetess who gave us, in the mid-1970s, the term cocooning for the stay-at-home syndrome. She also predicted the bust of New Coke, the rise of 4-wheel-drives, and the home-delivery rush.

But what is this marketing wizard doing in the pages of LEADERSHIP?

The Popcorn Report may be the best available summary of today's social tastes and trends. Popcorn calls them "psychographic shifts."

Some may question the wisdom of church leaders consulting marketing experts. "Isn't that like consulting a psychic?" Some consider the mere suggestion of marketing ministry as defiling the holy place.

And I am prepared, even eager, to grant that a ministry driven only by ...