Church Uses Jon and Kate to Market Class

HOUSTON - If you drive by the Lazybrook Baptist Church in the Houston Heights area, you might spot something unusual.

The church is reaching out to the broken-hearted-- that's anyone going through a breakup or divorce. But while the concept of a church-sponsored support group isn't new, how the pastor of Lazybrook Baptist Church is reaching out to the community is new.

Dr. John Neesley is spicing it up a bit, using pop culture, and more specifically reality TV's biggest split up, as a marketing tool.

"Do you relate to Jon and Kate?" is the message drivers see while passing by the church located off 18th Street near TC Jester.

"There's so much hype over Jon and Kate. 'Whose side are you on?' or 'How do you feel about the whole experience?' Behind all that hype is a lot hurt," Neesley said.

So Jon and Kate now headline his marquee. It's a way of promoting Lazybrook's new Divorce Care group meetings offered at 7:15 p.m. on Wednesdays.

"Churches try to respond as needs arise, and in our community, there are a lot of single adults," said Neesley. "We want to reach out and help our community as well as our church."

Stephen Bugge runs the weekly sessions.

"It's all free. Anybody can come," Bugge said, "Doesn't matter whether they're divorced, single, have been divorced or just came out of a relationship that might have gone on for a couple of years."

Divorce Care is a Christian-based curriculum. Bugge, who divorced in 1983, has led church sponsored divorce groups many times since his split, but he says this one is different.

For starters, group members hear from relationship experts on video, not in person.

"They're not handing out business cards, or trying to solicit people to come to their practice," Bugge said. "We have thirty minutes (of video sessions), then they break up into small groups."

That's where group members get to talk about their struggles.

"Maybe (they've) lost the one who managed the checkbook, or the one who changed the flat tire, or the one who cooked the meal," Neesley said. "There's so many secondary losses."

Or maybe, as in the case of Jon and Kate, they've lost a top-rated reality show. By the way, when asked if their marquee headliners are welcomed at Lazybrook, Bugge said," they're very welcome. They're very welcome. Leave the cameras outside and get real."

--Learn More About Lazybrook Baptist Church: http://www.lazybrookbaptistchurch.org
--Learn More About the Divorce Care Program: http://www.divorcecare.org