Accidentally Sending the Wrong Message

A pastor scheduled a call with me last month to talk about a new congregation his church is planting next year. I can’t tell you the name right now, but it was a church who was running over 500 and was starting to struggle with shaping the culture and collective mission of that many people. If they didn’t get their branding and a visual identity in place before the plant, rebranding would have just gotten more expensive and difficult. They didn’t want to miss the opportunity but they lacked the confidence to rebrand with their internal team alone. Where do you start? To even begin a branding project, we needed to figure out the problem they were trying to solve. Did this church need to… REFRESH their existing brand? REPOSITION their identity under a new vision? or REACH OUT with their message? The church had just undergone a name church that was being announced later in the year. Their leaders were trying to cast a vision that was outward-focused and kingdom-minded. At first, this made me think it was a REACH OUT case, but the more I dug in, the more I realized what they actually needed was to REPOSITION. Why? Well, let’s look at their goals. The outward focus was a culture they wanted to create in their church body. While they ultimately wanted to reach out with their message (all churches should), they couldn’t do that effectively until they first grounded their church in a collective vision that included more than just their immediate membership. Their brand didn’t reflect the long term vision for the church, and it needed to visually align before both congregations could shift their focus to their region and community. Hopefully you can see how the REPOSITION approach was needed for this case. Instead of jumping in trying to scale up misaligned branding, we needed to build on their values and rework the brand identity from the ground up.

How do you describe and brand your church without scaring visitors away or pretending to be something you’re not? Pastors will try, and most of the time the result is something like “We’re a church for everyone.” Or in more words, “We’re a welcoming community of people who love God and want to see the gospel reach every nation.” That’s great - so is every other Protestant church! This is a mistake I see pastors making all the time with their distinctives - stop it! What church leaders are trying to communicate (most of the time) is something like “we won’t turn you away because you’re different,” or “we’re welcoming and not judgmental.” But being hospitable and welcoming are just general marks of a Christian community, not distinctives. It’s great that you can say those things about your church, but they’re not something your congregation will rally around. Those things don’t give people a sense of unique belonging or identity, because they describe every other church. When you say, “We’re a church for everyone,” what you’re actually saying is, “We don’t know who we are.” I can hear some of you thinking “But we’re just your average church. The only thing distinctive about us is our street address!” I’m not saying you should pretend to be something you’re not. And I’m also not saying that every church should be trying to put their own spin on the gospel. Here’s my point: God is uniquely using your church to reach a specific group of people who are, by definition, not “everyone.” Rather than blurring the edges of that calling to be more inclusive or not scare people away, lean into it! Be known for your distinct church identity!

Let’s Imagine a young couple building a house. They’ve worked with a builder and picked a colonial style for the exterior. It has the white columns and the wide porch with two rocking chairs. It has the tall windows and the warm wood trim. But suppose this couple is handy and has decided to finish off the interior on their own, with the help of YouTube University. They browse Pinterest for inspiration and find a style of rustic modern kitchen to set their hearts on (you know the kind I’m talking about - with the subway tile, white marble countertops, and stainless steel accents). Then, in their hunt for inspiration, they come across those industrial living spaces with exposed brick and black steel. They haven’t begun to feel overwhelmed yet, and so they save this style for their living room. One Pinterest board at a time, they add layers of paint colors, textures, and styles to the interior plans. Before they know it, the inside of the house looks like a Picasso: an uncomfortable collage of pieces that would otherwise be beautiful on their own. It’s easy to fall into this trap with any kind of design, and branding is no exception. Before someone starts piecing together visuals for their church, the smart thing to do is to consult a designer who specializes in brands and get a set of guidelines nailed down. We have names for styles because certain textures, colors, and shapes work together to create a particular curb appeal. Switch it up too often, and curb appeal turns into confusion.

If you’re a church that does sermon series graphics, then you might have struggled with how far to push the envelope in those visuals. Do you download the latest free template from Free Church Media or Ministry Designs dot com? Do you design them in-house? For us creatives, it’s enticing to explore and use new visuals every few months. But I want to encourage you to curb that impulse. Here’s why: Those unbranded templates and graphics can ultimately work against your brand. But wait, they’re not permanent - what’s so bad about them? Over time, these graphics become part of your brand, whether you like it or not. Using templates that are fun, fresh, and modern might feel like a good way to keep things interesting, but over time that variety adds up into noise. Over time, too much variety accumulates into noise. Instead of your sermon graphics reinforcing your brand, they can start to pollute it. They start to appear disjointed and random when you sample them as a whole. To protect your brand, you need a common thread woven throughout. This is why brand guidelines are so important. They provide a fixed scope for visual styles. Robust brand guidelines will tell you not only what that common thread is, but how it should be integrated in different contexts. If you’re worried about your sermon graphics polluting your brand rather than reinforcing it, check your brand guidelines to see if there’s a way to bring that free template into alignment. If you don’t have brand guidelines, consider having some created. It’s a great way to get the most out of your existing logo and can help you add variety to your church’s communications, without feeling random.

Most churches try to stay away from politics: We don’t want to offend anyone. If we offend them, it should be with the gospel, right? Yes, and amen. But… In a post-Christian culture, One that is hostile to biblical family values One that is proud of their depravity One that calls good evil and evil good … any effective outreach requires that our speech be as salty as it is sweet. Does it take wisdom? Yes. Should we seek a clear conscience? Yes. But these guardrails do not exclude bold, unapologetic, and sometimes even provocative messaging in our church communications. Reasons like “We don’t want to give people more reasons to avoid church” and “We want to cast a wide net” have lead to many churches dialing back their true convictions in outward facing marketing. This feels safe, but here’s what it really does: Dilutes the message Waters down your unique congregational identity Speaks to no one in particular Gets lost in the sea of noise The solution to this isn’t to be inflammatory for its own sake. There are enough provocateurs out there already. Rather, the solution is to build a crystal clear message and brand around your church’s unique history, theological convictions, and context.

When a church skips the brand strategy and message clarity step and runs straight to design, the result can feel hollow. Visitors may walk away asking, “What do you actually stand for?” But when a church begins by clarifying its message rooted in God’s redemptive story, everything else clicks into place. The logo, the website, the campaigns, and the Sunday morning announcements all point back to the same simple truth: we are part of God’s mission to redeem people and renew the world. That kind of clarity resonates. It helps longtime believers stay focused, and it gives newcomers an easy on-ramp to understand what you’re about. A Better Starting Point So before you pour energy into design, start with this simple question: How does our message reflect our part in God’s redemption story? When you can answer that clearly, the rest becomes much easier. Your branding won’t feel forced or hollow, because it will be anchored in something bigger than trends or preferences. It will be anchored in the greatest story ever told. Here’s the key takeaway: Being clear is being a good steward of the attention people are entrusting you with. Ultimately, the message you bring in your church brand should be the same as what you preach from the pulpit: the Gospel of Jesus Christ. If it’s not, then we are squandering chances to preach the good news through branding before someone ever sits down in the pew. And when your church communicates its role in God’s redemption story with simplicity and conviction, people don’t just remember your brand. They remember the good news you’re sharing.

It’s tempting to jump straight into designing a logo, refreshing the church website, or launching a new social media campaign. Those things matter, but if the message behind them isn’t clear, all the creativity in the world won’t connect with people. That’s why one of the key principles from StoryBrand is so important: “If you confuse, you lose.” Before you design, you need clarity. For a church, clarity doesn’t come from brainstorming catchy taglines or trendy mission statements. It comes from remembering the story we’re a part of: God’s story of redemption. From Genesis to Revelation, Scripture tells a unified story of a God who rescues, restores, and redeems. Your church is not creating its own isolated narrative. Instead, your identity, mission, and message flow from being a small but meaningful part of God’s larger story. That’s what gives your message both clarity and power. People don’t just need another community group or service organization. They need to know that your church exists because God is writing a story of redemption, and you’re inviting them into it.

There’s a dirty word in the church communications world: “Marketing”. We’ve all seen the clips of megachurch pastors dressing up like Disney characters or posting the latest memes on their Facebook page. Some people call it “outreach” or “creative evangelism,” but we all know what’s really going on. How do you cut through the noise, rather than blending in to the sea of generic marketing people are flooded with today? While you may not be recording TikTok dances for Jesus, you’ve probably been tempted to copy the latest church marketing fad at one point or another. After all, isn’t anything worth getting visitors in the doors to hear the gospel? This is how many churches get caught up copying one another’s marketing and advertising, hoping that people in their community will see it and be compelled to visit. My issue with these approaches is simple: What resonates with one church’s community probably won’t resonate with your own. A travel agency based in Hawaii would be foolish to copy the marketing of a travel agency in Minnesota. If your communications and brand strategy aren’t based on your local community where God has uniquely placed your congregation, you’ll be stuck in the cycle of trend-chasing and throwing outreach spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks. The alternative? Focus on the real stories of people in your community who have experienced hope and belonging in your midst. These stories are local. These stories are genuine. These stories are powerful because we serve a God who is powerful. With this approach, your community won’t be able to ignore or forget the powerful transformation God has worked in local people, to the praise of his glory. That’s why I emphasize community at the 3rd C of a kingdom-first brand.

Let's say your brand’s hero color was a bright red. Your wayfinding signs should be red to be on-brand, right? Not so fast! Would you put a bright red couch in your living room? What about multiple bright red paintings throughout your home? Again, probably not. For environmental signage and way-finding, we have to think more like interior designers and accessibility experts than graphic designers. Earlier in the rebrand process, we had developed a brand color palette for this particular church with a dark charcoal color we called “Forge Black.” Using this darker, more neutral color as the main background was a good choice for three reasons: It wouldn’t clash with the paint, flooring, and other interior colors of the building. It wouldn’t show dirt as easily as a lighter color. It would allow for the most legibility and contrast for the text. As you can see, we did bring in the red hero color, but only in a very intentional, minimalist way. Even the logo on the signs was intentionally subdued and understated to make room for more important information, like “¿donde esta el baño?”

If you go read online, ask ChatGPT, or just generally do color-related research, you know how big of a topic color really is. If you’re like me, it can leave you feeling a little… lost? People have written books and given 2 hour lectures on color theory, color psychology, digital color management, and everything in between. Even just scratching the surface can feel completely overwhelming. You might be thinking, “It feels like I should be using these principles, but how do I actually put them into practice for my church?” Even after reading my work specifically about church brand colors, it might not be clear how to actually apply this knowledge to your specific needs. And at end of the day, color is just one piece of the puzzle. That’s where having a personal guide can be a total game changer. With someone to make objective recommendations and help you avoid common mistakes, not only will you save time, you’ll save the headache of having to rethink your branding decisions in a few years. Ideally you would want this person to be a proven expert who loves the capital “C” Church and has a strong track record of branding success stories. If you’re looking for that kind of guidance, I’ve spent countless hours meeting with church leaders and translating their gut feelings into concrete messaging and visuals. I know the struggles and hurdles pastors face when nailing down exactly how their church should look, speak, and feel. Book a strategy call with me and I’ll talk with you one-on-one about what your goals are, the context your church is in, and how you can make your branding fit without the DIY headaches. See you there!

Bonus 1: Use a color palette tool Creating, adjusting, saving and sharing color palettes isn’t actually all that easy. That’s where a color palette website can be invaluable. I mentioned this website up above called Coolors. When I first discovered it, I thought “where have you been all my life?!” Unlike most color websites out there, this one lets you do much more than browse and save color palettes. You can visualize your color palette in different contexts, do global adjustments to the whole palette at once, extract colors from an image, and even use a huge library of unique color names. They didn’t sponsor me, but I really like using it. Maybe you will too. Bonus 2: Ignore CMYK and Pantone …unless you’re working with a pro, that is. When I create a brand guide for a client, I include CMYK and Pantones as a nice addition, fully expecting that they will never be used. Almost all print shops and vendors these days have automatic conversion between color spaces that is usually reliable, accurate, and consistent. Even if you’re having screen printed t-shirts made or running off thousands of flyers, Pantone and CMYK values are only helpful in very specific situations. Long story short, HEX codes are probably all you need. P.S. This week I’m focusing on church brand color selection principles, which I’ve gathered the hard way from years of church rebrands. If you want the complete guide, I’ve collected all of the principles into a single post here.

Using tints and shades is a powerful way to get more mileage out of your visual identity without adding new base colors. What this means for color selection is that you don't have to worry about that exact palette working in every possible scenario. A tint is a lighter version of the same color. Shades are darker versions of the same color. Tint = Base color + white (lighter version) Shade = Base color + black (darker version) While you might not need them in everyday use (especially with a professionally designed color palette), there are situations where your standard set of base colors are going to clash or look too opinionated. For example, a limited color palette might handicap your web designer. Because websites are interactive and display lots of information in different formats, they often call for a suite of neutral colors, ranging from dark to light. You might also find that a particular color works well online and in print, but is too strong and vibrant for apparel. A tint or shade of that color might make for a more wearable and fashion-friendly t-shirt than the original swatch. If your palette feels incomplete or you’re looking for good supporting colors, consider using tints or shades of your core colors to round it out. P.S. This week I’m focusing on church brand color selection principles, which I’ve gathered the hard way from years of church rebrands. If you want the complete guide, I’ve collected all of the principles into a single post here.