Abracadabra: Using AI to Imitate the Creator

Rebranding can be a tough conversation for some churches, especially when it comes to financial costs. But if you’re like many pastors, you see the value of starting with a clear, cohesive identity that your congregation can rally around and take pride in. How do you manage budget constraints while still investing in your brand? Well, if I had to design a brand identity from scratch with only $100, here’s what I would do: I would use ChatGPT. Yes - seriously! I created this prompt based on my experiences with ChatGPT and it’s surprisingly good go through the entire rebranding process: Act as a high end creative agency that’s going to help me design a visual identity for my church. I’m going to give you my church name and our distinctives, and you’re going to ask any probing questions you need to start putting together the building blocks of our visual brand. This will be an extensive project, so don’t jump into creating images just yet. Our interaction will be conversational and rely on feedback to refine and guide your creative direction. The project should generally follow this 4 step process: 1. Discover - you’ll get a sense of where my vision for the church and generate a brand vibe report with tone of voice, brand strategy, and target audience avatars. 2. Define - you’ll create separate mood boards that we can use to choose a visual style and general direction for the brand aesthetic. 3. Develop - you’ll get input from me on any symbolism from the church’s history, things our region/city is known for, and iconic parts of our building. Then you’ll present text-based logo ideas based on that input. If any of them resonate with me, I’ll ask you to generate images of logo concepts of that idea. 4. Deploy - you’ll generate a full bespoke suite of mockups of branded social media campaigns, video thumbnails, website homepage, stationary, merch, signage, and banners. These mockups should be done one at a time, and shown to me for feedback before we move on to the next. They should be brand-aligned and use the brand elements we’ve developed so far. Paste that into ChatGPT and follow the process through to the end. Don’t be afraid to give it feedback like you would a designer. Pro tip: Buy a month of Premium for faster image generation and access to versions of ChatGPT with the most in-depth reasoning. If you’re not satisfied with the outcome, that’s okay. You’re only out $20 and you probably have a much better idea of what you don’t want in your branding. This is tremendously valuable information if you do go to hire a pro.

Something I’ve only mentioned briefly in this newsletter thus far has been AI. It seems like that’s all anyone talks about these days, so I’ve tried to steer clear, lest I add to the noise. That said, there are some things that AI is extremely good at, one of those being communication strategy. I’m convinced that if you’re not using them, you’re handicapping yourself and your ministry. AI tools are not going away, in fact they’re getting more powerful and more accessible (aka FREE) all the time. So, let’s put it to the test with an upcoming event in your church. This could be an outreach event, a members-only potluck, or a community worship night - the sky is the limit! Tell ChatGPT something like: “You’re an experienced marketer and event promoter with a specialization in working with churches. When I give you information about my church’s upcoming event, I want you to help me come up with an event name, a tagline or short memorable description, and a promotion strategy that one person could reasonably execute. Start by asking for event details and things specific to my church like brand tone of voice.” I’m continually blow away at how effective ChatGPT is at brainstorming. Whether you’re a church of 100 or 1000, AI is an indispensable tool for planning, naming, and developing messaging around events or campaigns. Try using this prompt for your next event and see what happens!

Podcast logos are different from regular branding because they don’t have to work in as many contexts, at least not early on. Much of the skill in logo and identity design is making something extremely flexible. With a podcast that exists only online, you don’t need that level of flexibility. All you need is memorability. Unlike an organization or business, you probably won’t be printing, stitching, or putting your logo on top of other graphics and photos very often. This means your podcast can have a full color photo or graphic with plenty of detail. SO… follow these steps if you want a podcast logo that’s eye catching, memorable, and free. Distill the big idea Decide if it needs to match your church brand Identify who it is for and what they like Feed all that information to ChatGPT and ask it to write a Midjourney prompt that will give you a podcast logo Plug the prompt into your AI image tool of choice Refine the language in your prompt if needed Remember, all you need is memorability, so don’t be afraid to go outside the box!

The Evangelical Press Association just revised its publishing ethics code to account for AI-generated content. Some organizations like The Voice of the Martyrs have stated that they won’t use AI tools in their process whatsoever. Are small churches expected to follow suite? The reality is that AI can save churches huge amounts of time and resources. There are no ethical reasons I can think of not to use it. ChatGPT has made content calendars and meeting summaries a commodity rather than a luxury. Midjourney has made beautiful backgrounds and sermon series graphics readily available. These tools help you tend your brand - use them! Are y’all using AI in your church? Reply and let me know.

In every sport, industry, and field of study, there are “the greats.” Basketball has Michael Jordan, Lebron James, and Kobe Bryant. Theology has Jonathan Edwards, John Calvin and Augustine. Depending on what part of the world you’re from, branding and design industry has its own greats. In the US, there’s Motto, Clay, CGH, and Matchstic. In the UK, you might know Pentagram, Landor, and Wolff Olins. Every designers dream is to apprentice for one of these legendary firms. However, there’s something that separates the greats from the rest of us that can’t always be taught. Sometimes it helps to get insights from those who are a few steps ahead of you - insights those already crossing the finish line at world-record pace may have forgotten. For some of us, myself included, we need it explained to us like we’re five. These legendary firms at the pinnacle of achievement have better things to do than dumb down their processes for me to understand. All that said, I’ve been spending some time to research approaches used by the (somewhat) newer faces in the branding and design world - firms like Koto, How&How, and DESIGNSTUDIO. In the coming days, I’ll be sharing key insights that you can apply to your church branding today. See you in the next one!

Let’s talk about First Baptist Aurora. This was a church that once thrived but found itself dwindling in numbers and energy. That is, until Pastor Robert stepped in with a vision to create a community where high school dropouts and doctors, recovering addicts and homeschool moms, could all worship side by side. He wanted people to feel like they truly belonged. The church started to grow again, but there was a problem: their visual identity didn’t match the new life happening inside the walls. So, I partnered up to help them rebrand. Two words shaped our entire process: historic and urban. We pulled colors from the church’s own brick, molding, and stained glass to create a palette that felt timeless yet fresh. The church’s beautiful stained glass windows inspired a modern logo and sparked a key design element: the arch. We used arches everywhere, from logos and icons to social media graphics, creating a look that felt unified and deeply tied to the building’s architecture and story. The result? A brand that bridges the old and the new. Today, First Baptist Aurora has not just a growing congregation but a clear sense of identity. Visitors connect more quickly, and the leadership has tools to keep building momentum. Here's the takeaway for pastors: A good rebrand isn’t just about looking pretty! It’s about helping people see what God is doing in your ministry are and inviting them to be a part of it. P.S. You can see the full case study here, including our in-depth process and more images/video.

I recently came across a church in Arizona called Ironwood. I’m absolutely enamored with the elegant simplicity of their brand, so I thought I would share it here as inspiration. The idenity of this church is centered around the idea that Jesus called his followers to have a soft heart and a steel spine - a rewording of the command to “be full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). How cool is that? In their branding and church culture, they committed to have tender hearts, overflowing with love, genuinely interested in people’s stories, quick to forgive, and humble enough not to take themselves too seriously. At the same time, they aimed growing spines of steel, with bold courage, unshakeable conviction, resilience in a world that pushes back, and a reverent fear of God. The symbol they chose to represent that was the native Ironwood tree, which is a slow-growing, incredibly strong and resilient species. These trees become a haven for desert life, and things come near them for life and protection. They also designed the logo to be viewed as from God’s perspective, which was a nice touch. Finally the coolest thing about Ironwood in my opinion, is that they had an actual, 80 year-old ironwood tree transplanted to the front campus. It can be seen on their map here: This is one of those brand identities that I didn’t get to work on, but wish I had. Hopefully you can also appreciate it’s elegance and effectiveness too.

I often talk about capturing your unique vision and church identity in a brand identity. However, when people hear “brand identity” they immediately jump to thinking about the logo. Hackney Church of London is proof that a generic logo can work (and shine) when it’s part of a well-executed design system. The church worked with London-based design firm OMSE, who was clearly capable of designing a much more nuanced and complex mark, so why did they do something so plain? They explain in their case study notes: We worked with Hackney Church to design a new identity that could flex across the breadth of their activities. From formal and often sobering occasions, to joyous celebrations. {{ comp.video({ src:"/img/hackney-church-logo-by-omse.mp4" }) }} Their choice of a minimalistic approach was strategic and intentional. Maximum flexibility was the highest priority - not explanatory power. If you take the time to review their rebrand case study, you’ll see how a logo doesn’t have to capture your entire vision, vibe, or identity. It just needs to be an entrance point. In other words, the brand identity is the house, and the logo is just the cornerstone. Here’s what Armin Vit, founder of the BrandNew blog had to say about Hackney Church’s new mark: In a way, it’s almost an overly generic icon that could apply to dozens of churches around the world but not only is the execution flawless in this case it also goes hand and in hand with the overall personality and vibe of the church both in its physical presence and its range of activities. What can we learn from this? Your logo doesn’t have to be so perfectly unique that it’s entirely unmistakable. In fact, it’s quite easy to paint yourself into a corner with a rigid, inflexible brand identity (speaking from personal experiences). Instead of relying on your logo alone to do the heavy lifting, copy OMSE’s approach with Hackney Church and focus on making your branding beautifully simple.

We often think of form and function as a dichotomy. Sacrificing beauty for efficiency is putting function over form. Making something sleek and attractive at the cost of performance is putting form over function. Here’s my hot take: The form-function dichotomy is wrong. Form and function are two sides of the same coin. The name of the coin is elegance, or more simply “goodness.” And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. — Genesis 1:31a We don’t assess beauty in a vacuum. If a thing doesn’t accomplish its purpose, can it be beautiful? The Roman aqueducts were built with masterful craftsmanship and still stand to this day, 2000 years later. They transported millions of gallons of water over a hundred miles, making them extremely functional. But would they be beautiful if they didn’t work? If a thing’s only purpose is to be beautiful, does it matter if it can do anything else?

Okay, so the title is a little hyperbolic. But picking colors really is one of the most mysterious and notional aspects of branding. That’s why today I want to help demystify this part of a church rebrand. Demonstrating intentionality is arguably the most important part of any church rebrand, and that applies not just to color but to every design choice. If you can show a proven, meaningful process was used, it can generate tremendous buy-in and overcome objections. In this post, I’ll overview that proven, meaningful process. We’ll look at where to find good colors and how to harmonize them, ultimately creating a pleasing, God-glorifying palette. A color palette built with this process is hard to argue with! Where to Find Good Colors The short answer is: in God’s created world! I recently was listening to this podcast episode about color, painting, and art (not as boring as it sounds). The guest, Forrest Dickinson, talked about how Scottish tweed makers will go out into the countryside, capture a swatch of colors from their environment, and use those colors in their designs. What’s stopping us from doing the same thing? Find or take a photo of your church building, its surroundings, or something in your environment that fits the aesthetic you’re going for. This is going to be your reference image. How to Harmonize Your Church Colors Color is light. And much like sound, it has different wavelengths that represent different parts of a spectrum. When those wavelengths align in certain patterns, they harmonize. A great place to start is by choosing what I like to call “Core Colors.” Your core colors are the duo, trio, or quartet that glue your whole brand together. Start by choosing a light and a dark. This could be white and black if you’re going for a very bold and edgy vibe. I like to choose an off-white or pastel from the highlights in my reference image and a dark color from the shadows. Then, choose one or two more saturated colors between your light and dark in terms of brightness. These should be more vibrant and pop a little more. Type out your church name in a Word Doc or in Canva. Make the background one color and the text another color from your core color palette. Try different combinations for the text and background. Is the text readable in most of them? If not, you may want to adjust the values until they have better contrast. If you follow these steps, you’re more likely than not to come up with a pleasing, Christ-honoring harmony of colors that will be functional in print and digital spaces! Try it for yourself.