Lost in the Woods

I recently helped a church rebrand where part of the new identity was the dreaded 👻name change 👻. The church was looking to plant a new congregation in a nearby community in the coming year, and they needed a name that could be shared between them, which was ultimately decided to be “Christ Redeemer.” Starting from scratch with the visual brand, I had nothing to draw on that would be familiar to their congregation. At many points in the project it was a toss up whether the pure excitement or raw terror would win out. Would the elders like the new design? Would seeing the logo concepts make them rethink everything? Would it fall on me if the congregation didn’t like the new name? These were the questions racing through my mind on the Sunday that the church’s leaders presented their new direction to the church as a whole. The next day I got a text from the worship pastor: “We showed the logo teaser and it was received very well. Some people were even teary-eyed.” “That’s great!” I thought. I kept reading. “But… a question came in via email that I’d like your help responding to.” Oh boy… Here was the question: “Hoping to learn about the decision regarding having the c in Christ lower case. I would like to understand this.” This was something we anticipated. For context, here’s the new logo they presented: {{ comp.video({ src:"/img/christ-redeemer-logo-presentation.mp4" }) }} Ultimately, here is the response we landed on: Thank you so much for engaging thoughtfully with the new logo. I love that you’re paying attention to these details—it shows real care for how we represent Christ and our church. You asked about the choice to use lowercase in the wordmark. That decision was intentional. The phrase “Christ Redeemer” is incredibly powerful—it’s really the gospel in two words. When we explored placing it in all caps, the effect was visually overwhelming, almost like the design was shouting. That led us to reflect on the paradox of Jesus himself: he had all power, and yet he did not come in power the way the world expected. Instead, he came in humility, laying down his life for us. We wanted the wordmark to hold that tension: strong yet humble, bold yet quiet. Lowercasing "christ redeemer" became a subtle way of embodying that paradox. As followers of Jesus, we’re called to the same kind of paradoxical life—living is dying, losing is gaining. If you’re interested, here’s a short article that explains some of the design thinking behind lowercase wordmarks in general: Why Some Logos Work Better in Lowercase. We found it helpful as part of our own process. It’s also worth noting: this is specifically a wordmark design choice. Whenever the church’s name appears in documents, online profiles, or other written settings, it will still be written as Christ Redeemer. Of course, the most important thing is not typography, but that our lives together point people to Jesus. The logo is just one small way we hope to embody that spirit. My hope is that every time we see it, it quietly reminds us that true greatness is found in humility, and true power in servanthood. Thanks again for raising the question—I’m grateful for your heart and your care for how we bear Christ’s name. Grace and peace, Hopefully this helps reframe changes and new chapters as an opportunity for pastoral care, rather than a bullet to be dodged! Be strong and courageous. In another post, I’ll outline the specific strategy we used to craft this letter, with explanations of why each section is there.

Cracker Barrel’s catastrophic rebrand would have been hard to miss because of the public outrage and backlash it got (of course I picked the exactly WRONG time to take a break from writing this newsletter). But the reason their new logo caught so much viral hate has a direct application to church branding, so humor me while we explore it for a moment. Here’s my hot take: The new logo perfectly captured Cracker Barrel’s identity. Before you cancel me in the comments, let me convince you why this is the case. Think back to 6 months ago. If you had asked a thousand people what they thought about the Cracker Barrel logo, what response would you have gotten? Probably something along the lines of, “I mean… it’s fine I guess. Never really thought about it.” Most people would have been apathetic or ambivalent at best. Maybe a few design-conscious souls would have said “eh, there’s probably some room for improvement.” So, why did this particular rebrand trigger so much nationwide, seething outrage? Some news outlets blamed “conservatives who don’t like change” and others said it was about the people rebelling against modern minimalism and oversimplification. But consider an alternate timeline: Cracker Barrel hires design firm to help them update their existing brand Design firm looks at Cracker Barrel’s history, core customer base, and the values they were built on Design firm comes up with a cleaner and more modern take on the logo, keeping the country charm and home-grown heritage that it represents Cracker Barrel slowly rolls out the new brand, leading with context around the need to update and their unchanged values/identity In this scenario, I’d be surprised if anyone bats an eye. Maybe they notice that the billboards are easier to read, or that the menu design feels a bit more vibrant and fresh than it used to. No headlines! No mockery! Nothing! But here’s the thing: it wasn’t a new logo that upset people. Cracker Barrel’s customers felt betrayed by what the new logo represented. The new branding signaled a fundamental change in the identity of Cracker Barrel, from a quirky, homey spot for comfort food and checkers to a corporate sellout chain with politically correct messaging and token vegan options. In my opinion, the new (now cancelled) logo did TOO GOOD of a job representing what Cracker Barrel had become — a woke corporation like everyone else. This visual accuracy ended up being the downfall of the rebrand, to the detriment of the company’s stock prices and consumer confidence. Here’s the takeaway: Your church logo isn’t your brand. Your brand is the story, meaning, and gut feelings that people associate with you. Build your brand on the three pillars of a church brand: Christ, Congregation, and Community.

“All our digital and print stuff looks inconsistent, but I don’t know where to start fixing it.” “Our logo is good, but the rest of our branding is a mess!” Sound familiar? I’ve had more and more churches lately tell me this story. If that’s you, then the odds are you don’t need a full rebrand. Normally, I see rebrands working for churches who are in a pivotal moment - one that’s going to shape the identity of their congregation for a long time. Think about your church brand like a house. When you go for a full rebrand, it’s like you’re tearing that house down to the foundation and starting over from scratch. Sometimes this is the right call, especially when there are serious structural problems or the house doesn’t serve your needs. You’re changing a big part of the structure and framing out something new. Conversely, brand refreshes are for those who have a solid foundation and structure, but need a renovation. This is the chance for a church to fix leaks, re-do the kitchen, and get a new paint job. Sometimes all brand refresh calls for is just a set of brand guidelines with a few Canva templates. Other times it’s an intentional tweaking of the logo, and a redesign of everything else. The main idea behind the refresh is bringing that rogue branding into alignment. When you consider a refresh vs a rebrand, ask yourself, do we need a rebuild, or just a minor renovation?

If you’re looking at getting new signs or updating your building, don’t miss this opportunity to update your branding as well! It’s one thing for a sign to look nice and be functional, but branding and design has the power to do much more than just help people find the nursery. Every bulletin, banner, and coffee cup is an opportunity to shape the culture of your church through intentional, vision-aligned branding that stands the test of time. If that’s your ultimate goal, then updating your signs without rebranding first would be a massive waste of time and money! Schedule a time to talk and I’ll walk you through what a brand refresh could look like, so you don’t have to re-do your signs AGAIN in a couple of years.

I recently helped a church rebrand where part of the new identity was the dreaded 👻name change 👻. The church was looking to plant a new congregation in a nearby community in the coming year, and they needed a name that could be shared between them, which was ultimately decided to be “Christ Redeemer.” Starting from scratch with the visual brand, I had nothing to draw on that would be familiar to their congregation. At many points in the project it was a toss up whether the pure excitement or raw terror would win out. Would the elders like the new design? Would seeing the logo concepts make them rethink everything? Would it fall on me if the congregation didn’t like the new name? These were the questions racing through my mind on the Sunday that the church’s leaders presented their new direction to the church as a whole. The next day I got a text from the worship pastor: “We showed the logo teaser and it was received very well. Some people were even teary-eyed.” “That’s great!” I thought. I kept reading. “But… a question came in via email that I’d like your help responding to.” Oh boy… Here was the question: “Hoping to learn about the decision regarding having the c in Christ lower case. I would like to understand this.” This was something we anticipated. For context, here’s the new logo they presented: {{ comp.video({ src:"/img/christ-redeemer-logo-presentation.mp4" }) }} Ultimately, here is the response we landed on: Thank you so much for engaging thoughtfully with the new logo. I love that you’re paying attention to these details—it shows real care for how we represent Christ and our church. You asked about the choice to use lowercase in the wordmark. That decision was intentional. The phrase “Christ Redeemer” is incredibly powerful—it’s really the gospel in two words. When we explored placing it in all caps, the effect was visually overwhelming, almost like the design was shouting. That led us to reflect on the paradox of Jesus himself: he had all power, and yet he did not come in power the way the world expected. Instead, he came in humility, laying down his life for us. We wanted the wordmark to hold that tension: strong yet humble, bold yet quiet. Lowercasing "christ redeemer" became a subtle way of embodying that paradox. As followers of Jesus, we’re called to the same kind of paradoxical life—living is dying, losing is gaining. If you’re interested, here’s a short article that explains some of the design thinking behind lowercase wordmarks in general: Why Some Logos Work Better in Lowercase. We found it helpful as part of our own process. It’s also worth noting: this is specifically a wordmark design choice. Whenever the church’s name appears in documents, online profiles, or other written settings, it will still be written as Christ Redeemer. Of course, the most important thing is not typography, but that our lives together point people to Jesus. The logo is just one small way we hope to embody that spirit. My hope is that every time we see it, it quietly reminds us that true greatness is found in humility, and true power in servanthood. Thanks again for raising the question—I’m grateful for your heart and your care for how we bear Christ’s name. Grace and peace, Hopefully this helps reframe changes and new chapters as an opportunity for pastoral care, rather than a bullet to be dodged! Be strong and courageous. In another post, I’ll outline the specific strategy we used to craft this letter, with explanations of why each section is there.

God’s narrative of redemption told through history has a clear central point: Christ. Throughout scripture we have hundreds of stories, genealogies, songs, and laws that seemingly have nothing to do with the man, Jesus of Nazareth. Still, we know that each one ultimately points to him. Lest someone accuse us of imagining layers of meaning that aren’t there, the Bible itself calls Christ the cornerstone of God’s redemptive plans for his people. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. — Ephesians 2:19-22 Christ is the cornerstone of the church. So how does this relate to church branding? Just like the ultimate and universally profound story God is telling in history, he is telling a nested story in your local congregation. Our job with branding and communications is to shine a light on how that micro-story plays a part in God’s macro-story. Making Christ the cornerstone of your communications means finding a memorable, own-able way to highlight God’s local work in your congregation to his global plans and purposes. Done right, every syllable and visual in your brand points back to the cross of Christ and the good news of the gospel. This means everything from your website headline to your logo should tell the same story, grounding your church in God’s archetypal story of redemption through Jesus. That’s why the first (and most critical) “C” of a kingdom-first brand is Christ.

In 2021, my wife and I moved back to our home town of Bartlesville, Oklahoma and joined the church we now call home - Hope Presbyterian Church. The church had hired a Ukrainian designer on Fiverr and got a fantastic logo design (it even won an award). But there was a problem… All they had was that logo. Their whole “brand” was limited to a gold color and a couple of webp’s. While the logo was aesthetically pleasing, it wasn’t enough to help their people “get” the mission. Each billboard, banner, and invitation card was inconsistent and time-consuming, even for the creative associate pastor. The more they tried to make their branding work in the real world, the more things got messy and out of alignment. Members with design experience were called on over and over again to come in and help “fix” designs, which always ended up being a band-aid for the real issue. What my home church went through is the result of a logo design without a true brand. They needed an easy-to-use branding toolkit with theological depth - one that would represent more than just the name of their church. A kingdom-first brand would have given their congregation ownership of the vision their leaders were casting, and would have attracted more visitors who resonated with the message they preached. And that’s why I stopped designing logos, and started developing kingdom-first brands instead.

As I’ve continued to go deeper into the branding and design industry, I’ve encountered something that is probably not just a hang-up for me, but for a lot of pastors and churches. If you do any research on marketing and branding, you’ll very quickly find lots of resources that are very focused on businesses. For example: “Speak to your ideal customer.” “Drive revenue with these marketing tips” “Create a story that makes customers keep coming back” The customer-centric, profit-driven approach can absolutely work for businesses, but for me, I’ve never felt like it applied well to the church. On one hand, you’re leading a congregation of believers who need to feel united around your vision. They need clarity, language, and visual cues that reinforce who you are as a church and where you’re going. When done well, branding can give your people something to rally around—a shared identity that goes deeper than a logo and helps every member see their role in the mission. But unlike a business, you’re not just trying to “sell” something to a customer. You’re also extending an open invitation to your community. These people are skeptics, seekers, and those who may not understand what your church is really about. For them, branding becomes a bridge. It’s the first impression that points them to Jesus Christ and communicates: This is a place for you. It signals your heart, your values, and the kind of welcome they can expect before they ever set foot inside. Where most churches struggle is trying to speak to both groups at the same time without a clear strategy. The result is confusion, inconsistency, and branding that unintentionally speaks more to insiders than outsiders… or vice versa. The approach I’ve developed in response to this problem is to make Christ the cornerstone of your brand. This seems obvious, but it’s truly countercultural when you compare it to how most agencies and designers work. I believe that a kingdom-first, vision-driven brand matters. It helps you communicate so your congregation is aligned and your community is invited, without compromise on either front.

I recently got on the phone to catch up with an old friend who I hadn’t talked to in 10 years. We’ll call him Dave. Dave had been a pastor of a large church back when I knew him, and since then he had also spent 5 years as the president of a large nonprofit ministry. Eventually the Lord had called him back into the pastorate and he faithfully obeyed. Despite being a sought-after preacher with decades of experience at larger churches, Dave followed the Holy Spirit’s leading and humbly accepted a role as the pastor of a small rural church in the deep south. And when I say small, I mean SMALL… The Dying Church Revives When he started, the church was on the verge of dying. Their small community had been hit hard by COVID and the congregation had been let down by previous leadership. Dave told me there were some Sundays that his wife and children accounted for more than half of the total attendees. So we’re talking about teens or single-digit attendance most Sundays. Through preaching the word and ministering with a multi-generational, discipleship-oriented model, God started a new work in this church. Over 4 long years, they slowly grew into a thriving congregation once more. Week after week, Dave would faithfully preach the Word, and the next week more would come. He started to see faces show up on Sunday morning that nobody in the congregation recognized. He didn’t know how they had found the church on the country backroad where it was located, but there they were nonetheless — hungry for the gospel. By 2025, the church had grown to 100-120 members. They experienced a season of weekly baptisms, people getting saved, lives being visibly transformed by the gospel. Praise God! So, Dave was familiar with my branding work, and he was curious what my branding process looks like for a church that size, and if I had any recommendations for them. Of course I shared my process with him, and I had reviewed the church’s website so I knew a bit about what branding they had done up to that point. I told him, “look I’m probably not in your church’s budget right now, but if you keep growing I would love to help you develop your brand and start reaching beyond your local community.” He was understanding of that and I started to mentally wrap up the conversation. The Problem But Dave suddenly stopped me and said, “Braden, there’s something else I need to ask you about…” I could hear the concern and uncertainty in his voice. Now keep in mind that I haven’t talked to Dave in 10 years, and we’ve had no other interactions that I’m aware of except through Facebook. So my mind is suddenly racing — What could he possibly want? “Yeah… um… ask away.” “I don’t mean to sound conceited, so please don’t hear it as that, but I’ve 30 years of all different kinds of ministry, preaching, and speaking experience…” It’s true — Dave was an exceptional communicator. He went on. “I feel stuck… I have so much I preaching leftover each week to share with more people than just my congregation” This church didn’t livestream or record his sermons due to their small size, and he had started to realize that this was handicapping his personal ministry. Without recent sermon recordings to share, Dave was missing opportunities to speak at conferences and partner with other churches to help with revivals. Because he was very pastorally-minded, he had all this content that was ready to publish under his own personal ministry, but no way to get it out there into the world.

“All our digital and print stuff looks inconsistent, but I don’t know where to start fixing it.” “Our logo is good, but the rest of our branding is a mess!” Sound familiar? I’ve had more and more churches lately tell me this story. If that’s you, then the odds are you don’t need a full rebrand. Normally, I see rebrands working for churches who are in a pivotal moment - one that’s going to shape the identity of their congregation for a long time. Think about your church brand like a house. When you go for a full rebrand, it’s like you’re tearing that house down to the foundation and starting over from scratch. Sometimes this is the right call, especially when there are serious structural problems or the house doesn’t serve your needs. You’re changing a big part of the structure and framing out something new. Conversely, brand refreshes are for those who have a solid foundation and structure, but need a renovation. This is the chance for a church to fix leaks, re-do the kitchen, and get a new paint job. Sometimes all brand refresh calls for is just a set of brand guidelines with a few Canva templates. Other times it’s an intentional tweaking of the logo, and a redesign of everything else. The main idea behind the refresh is bringing that rogue branding into alignment. When you consider a refresh vs a rebrand, ask yourself, do we need a rebuild, or just a minor renovation?

A well-defined problem is the foundation of strategy. In other words, the clearer the problem, the easier it is to find a solution. Maybe you know your church needs brand work, or maybe you’ve done some already. But what problem is that work actually solving? I’m not talking about “our problem is that we have an old logo.” I’m talking about the “why” behind that, and the “why” behind that “why”, and probably even the “why” behind that. If you don’t know what your problem is at the outset, you’ll struggle to choose a strategy for solving it, and worse, you’ll not be sure how to measure success. One way is to identify the types of problem your brand is facing, and I want to share the three most common with you here. Most churches are trying to either… REFRESH their existing brand REPOSITION their brand under a new vision or REACH OUT with their message It would be great to have all of these at once, but my experience has been that you can really only do one of these at a time. So at your church, are you facing a refresh, reposition, or reach out problem? Figuring out which one you’re solving for is pretty easy, and I’ll break it down in a future post with a real-world church brand example.

Last weekend I decided to finally clean the garage. It was dirtier than I thought - filthy, actually. That’s why I was amazed when I finished the whole project in under 3 hours. When it comes to your church branding and design, there are probably some things that you’ve thought about cleaning up but have been wary of starting. What if it takes longer than you thought it would? What if it’s going to cost you money to fix? It can be easy to ignore these minor issues until they turn into bigger ones. The problem is that we often underestimate how bad things really are. If you looked into it, you might find that your website actually doesn’t work on certain browsers, or that there are 7 different versions of your logo floating around. This spring-summer season is a great time to clean up those divergent designs and maybe even do a light branding refresh. Tending your brand means addressing problems before they accumulate for too long, or it will quickly get out of control.