Is Your Church Bulletin Scaring Away Visitors?

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!

When it comes to church branding and design, I’m a fan of repetition. However, there are more ways to repeat your brand than using your logo, and there are places where it would be totally wrong to use it! Way-finding isn’t necessarily one of those places, but there are some design conventions that make for better way-finding signage. Usually you don’t want to use a full logo on way-finding signage. If someone is in your building, they probably know what church they’re in - they don’t need to see your logo on every corner! Here are the do’s and don’ts that will help you find your way through way-finding sign design. Do: Use as few words as possible Show a simple arrow for most items Show a flat pictogram or icon for commonly recognized facilities, like restrooms, stairs, and exits Pick one of your brand colors for the background Pick one of your brand colors for the text Don’t: Use your church logo on every sign (Some churches will opt to put a logo icon without the word mark in the corner of all their signs.) Pick a brand color that clashes with the interior of the church (paint color, carpet color, etc) Use more than 2 colors Make the signs too small (they should be visible (not necessarily readable) from the farthest point in the room or hallway) There’s a wide spectrum of brand collateral that every church needs, with a balanced mix of “loud” and “soft” levels of branding. Way-finding signs are on the functional end of the spectrum. They’re limited on space, and should only carry the critical information for navigating a particular space.

When it comes to church branding, I try my hardest to take an wholistic approach. Why? Because I believe that everything in your church - all the way down to your coffee cups - can be used to point people to Christ. Wayfinding signage is a part of this wholistic approach, and it’s way more important than you might think. Put yourself in a visitor’s shoes for a moment. This is your first time at the church on a Sunday morning and you brought your young family with you. People are beginning to stream into the sanctuary, and you’re still looking for the nursery. The number of people in the hall dwindles, as you scan for someone to ask for directions. There’s nothing worse than being confused or lost on your first visit to a church! Tend your brand and help visitors feel welcome in your church through design.

When God's people gather for corporate worship, we've always looked for ways to beautify the space in which we meet. Sometimes you don’t have a choice for what your meeting space looks like. Many churches and church plants share a building with someone else. Others might own their building but just don't have the budget to start knocking down walls. However, the design and layout of common spaces in your church building will either help or hinder people feeling welcome and at home in your church. When my wife and I bought our first house, we were excited to host people for meals and fellowship. You can imagine that I was disappointed when I realized that the layout of our walls and floor plan made fellowship difficult. A wall separated the kitchen from the living room, and the dining area tried to straddle the two rooms, which made it awkward to socialize while we cooked food for our guests. Conincidentally, we're standing where you would have to stand while talking with someone in the kitchen. When we decided to build a house, we designed the floor plan to be open and spacious. Not being interior designers or “feng shui” experts, we were expecting that this new layout would solve our problem. It did - but not perfectly! After all that, there are things I would still do differently to make our home as welcoming and supportive of fellowship as possible. Our new house, still a work in progress. If you own your church building and can afford it, seek out a professional for help creating a space that is beautiful and inspiring. Regardless of your situation, don’t take for granted opportunities to beautify the place you're gathering for corporate worship. At the end of the day, there's nothing that is more welcoming than a friendly, genunine person. Inspire your congregation to be that hospitable through their environment.

When God's people gather for corporate worship, we've always looked for ways to beautify the space in which we meet. Sometimes you don’t have a choice for what your meeting space looks like. Many churches and church plants share a building with someone else. Others might own their building but just don't have the budget to start knocking down walls. However, the design and layout of common spaces in your church building will either help or hinder people feeling welcome and at home in your church. When my wife and I bought our first house, we were excited to host people for meals and fellowship. You can imagine that I was disappointed when I realized that the layout of our walls and floor plan made fellowship difficult. A wall separated the kitchen from the living room, and the dining area tried to straddle the two rooms, which made it awkward to socialize while we cooked food for our guests. Conincidentally, we're standing where you would have to stand while talking with someone in the kitchen. When we decided to build a house, we designed the floor plan to be open and spacious. Not being interior designers or “feng shui” experts, we were expecting that this new layout would solve our problem. It did - but not perfectly! After all that, there are things I would still do differently to make our home as welcoming and supportive of fellowship as possible. Our new house, still a work in progress. If you own your church building and can afford it, seek out a professional for help creating a space that is beautiful and inspiring. Regardless of your situation, don’t take for granted opportunities to beautify the place you're gathering for corporate worship. At the end of the day, there's nothing that is more welcoming than a friendly, genunine person. Inspire your congregation to be that hospitable through their environment.

Have you heard the term "visitor journey?" A good rule of thumb for churches is that a visitor should have no less than 5 brand “touchpoints," or places where they can interact with your brand. The best way I've found to identify those touchpoints is to think about your visitor journey. What do they see? Who do they talk to? How long do they spend in each place? This is critical to get right for larger churches, but it also applies to a church plant reaching their community for the first time. Here’s a starter outline of a visitor journey: Visitor finds you online (do they see photos of your people, building, or logo?) They drive up to your parking lot (do they see the same people, building, and logo?) They walk inside (do they see wayfinding? A welcome banner? A greeter with a name tag?) They sit down in the sanctuary (do they see at least one announcement slide that is relevant to them? What about in the bulletin?) I’ll let you continue your list from there, but here's the thing: If you can’t remember what your visitor journey looks like, your visitors probably aren’t remembering your church either.

After finishing a rebrand project, I used to caution clients against using their new logo on everything, warning them about the dangers of "brand fatigue." I've changed my perspective on this now. It feels counterintuitive, but your brand should be 99% repetition and 1% novelty. As a ministry leader, you'll get tired of hearing your core values long before your audience even remembers one of them. You'll be dreaming in only your brand colors before anyone even notices that there's an intentional palette. In fact, there was a study done to see how well regular people could recall major brand logos from memory. The results were pretty shocking. If regular people struggled to remember the TARGET logo, then your church probably doesn't have to worry about "over-branding." That said, there's a simple principle that can help you give your church more brand "touchpoints" without going overboard and getting on anyone's nerves. I’ll talk about that in the next one. See you there!