Should Your Church Outreach Ever Be Polarizing?

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.

Having visuals and event graphics is great, but not just because those things make it easier to do promotion. The ultimate goal of an event brand is to make the experience “sticky” and memorable. To maximize that memorability, you’ll want to approach different types of events differently. There are tons of ways to categorize church events, but the one that matters for design and branding is timing. That said, here are the three different types of events (by timing) and how you can approach branding for each. Series Ongoing regular events in the life of your church that happen with a faster cadence (e.g. monthly or quarterly). For these, a new set of visuals for every event would almost definitely be overkill. However, there’s an opportunity for creativity. Instead of branding each event, consider giving the series a brand that persists throughout the year. If you need some variation to distinguish these regular events from one another, change something minor like a background color or a photo for each occurrence, keeping the design the same. Annual Annual events offer more flexibility and room to experiment with the unique event visuals. A lot of churches will approach annual events with an entirely new set of visuals each year, which is totally fine! As long as certain things about the event are consistent year to year, it can even become a beloved part of your church’s overall brand. Here’s what should stay the same for that to work: The event name Who the event is for What happens at the event (although there’s room to adjust this as well) You can also choose to treat Annual events in a similar way to Series events, keeping the core visuals the same and making minor tweaks. One-Off Do whatever feels right! One-Off events are an opportunity to go wild, but they’re also a chance to rely on the branding you use for everything else. If it’s an event you might eventually turn into a regular thing, then consider designing something simple to make it easier for people to remember. The goal of all event branding is to be memorable. If you don’t remember an event, it probably didn’t have an impact.

Advertisers are always looking for a way to get you to buy a product. To do that, sometimes they’ll parody or copy each other to make their message more memorable. It’s amazing how well this strategy works, but does it have a place in church branding? No. Copying another church’s messaging, branding, or marketing might look nice. It might even get more traction at first. In the long run, this approach is deadly. The first reason is that you could open yourself up to legal action. Many churches trademark their branding, which means you can easily break the law if you’re directly copying their image. Even if you don’t get sued, there’s a second and even worse outcome. Many people already think of churches (especially in heavily churched areas) like desperate credit card companies: always offering new incentives for people to switch churches. I’ve heard it called “sheep stealing,” “member trading,” and “transfer growth.” While it’s not always the intention of the leaders at one church to steal sheep, it would be wrong to encourage “church hopping” for such superficial reasons as slick branding. The solution Build your church brand around your unique story and vision. It’s that simple. But wait, is it ever okay to copy? Where is the line between taking inspiration and being a copycat? That’s what I’ll cover tomorrow.

Every church does some printing in house, but who do you pick for professional printing services? I’m a big proponent of using a local vendor, but not just for the typical “shop local” reasons. This will save your church time and money and give you better results. So, here are my top three reasons to choose a local vendor: 1. The Value of Physical Proofs In my years as a graphic designer and art director, the importance of getting a physical printed proof from a vendor has become more and more apparent to me. If you’re printing anything with brand colors or photography, you have a lot riding on color accuracy. Here are the cases I recommend asking for a printed proof (sometimes called a “match print”): Prominent interior displays Something you’re printing a lot of Semi-permanent banners or signs 2. Access to Experience If someone is running a successful print shop, you can bet they have technical knowledge of how to get their customers the best results. What type of paper to print your bulletin on, how to set up your artwork for a vinyl banner, or which bumper stickers are the easiest to apply? Most local print shops will be more than happy to answer your questions, if you just ask! 3. Cost Savings VistaPrint and other online print services may be easy to use, but they charge a premium price for that convenience. Between shipping costs and upcharges for every add-on, they’re often the more expensive option for churches looking to print materials on a budget. These are just three of the reasons I recommend churches use a local print shop whenever possible. If those weren’t enough, other reasons include investing in your community, getting consistent quality, maintaining a relationship with a local business, and having someone who can help if a print job goes wrong.

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.

Why are people at your church in the first place? If you’re going to motivate, galvanize, and unify your congregation, you need to know the answer to that question. On the surface it may not seem that hard to answer: “They’re here for the preaching.” “They're here because their family is.” “It’s close to their house.” Every individual and family has their own story that can seem different and unrelated, so what benefit could you gain from looking to your congregation for branding inspiration? Here’s the key that most pastors miss: Your congregation itself is a story. If you want your brand to be ownable for your people, it needs to connect with their story as a collective. Your congregation as a whole has its unique history, hopes, and hurts — identify with them! This is how I make sure each and every church rebrand resonates with the youngest new family and the most longstanding member.

In the last post, I looked at how vocabulary contributes to a cohesive verbal identity, and can be useful for a church trying to elevate their communications. Today, we’re on to the second part of a verbal identity: tone of voice. Now with AI tools, tone of voice guidelines are even more incredibly useful. Just ask this pastor I worked with on a recent rebrand. He was writing content for a connect card they could use to gather information from visitors, and he was blown away by how helpful it was to have a brand tone of voice. “Bro, ChatGPT is crazy cool… I put in the tone description from our brand guidelines, and it gave me all kinds of good options!” Here’s the tone description he was talking about: “Our tone is bold yet humble—serious about truth, passionate about people, and always inviting others into something real. We speak with clarity, conviction, and warmth, aiming to reflect both the reverence of our faith and the relational heart of our church.” If you saw a social media post with exclamation points, emoji’s and emotional word choice, you would probably expect a passionate, informal, and loud worship service on Sunday morning. Now, what if you showed up to that church and found a conservative Presbyterian church with organ-led hymns and a serious vibe. Would you be confused? Inconsistent writing style can even leave visitors with a subtle feeling of being confused or tricked, rather than edified. In the end, looking the part is critically important, but your visuals are ultimately just the vehicle for what can only be communicated through written (or spoken) words.

In a church rebrand project, I tend to focus mainly on designing the congregation’s visual identity. However, there’s a key part of branding that doesn’t always get as much attention, which I’ve started including in the church brand guides I create. That piece is a verbal identity. A consistent writing style is crucial in church communications, and I’m breaking it down into its two fundamental parts today. If the content of your bulletin reads dramatically different from the content of your website, which reads different from your social media, then your overall message won’t land with the same impact. So, let’s look at the two key facets of a verbal identity: vocabulary and tone of voice. Brand Vocabulary The words you choose to use in official church creative work and communication should be a reflection of who you are speaking to, and how you want them to view you. Here’s an example of brand vocabulary guidelines: “In our church communications, we occasionally use words like ‘y’all’ and ‘fixin’ to identify with our main demographic of ranchers and homesteaders here in rural Oklahoma. These words should not be overused in a cliche way, but should be sprinkled in to add warmth and familiarity to our written copy.” In the next post, I’ll look at the other facet of a verbal identity: tone of voice.

Marshall McLuhan was a Canadian communication theorist who coined the phrase, “The medium is the message.” In other words: how you choose to say something changes what your audience walks away with. McLuhan’s point was that each medium doesn’t just deliver your message - it shapes it and sends unspoken signals like: The value you place on the relationship How urgent or serious something is How you want to be perceived Let’s look at an example. Sending a text message says, “I want to be quick and efficient.” A phone call says, “This is personal.” The words exchanged can be the same, but the vibe of that medium changes what message actually gets received. Effective branding is effective communication, so it’s important to understand this idea! Here are a few church-specific examples: Animated sermon graphics say, “We care about looking fresh and young.” A church-wide email newsletter says, “We expect our members to stay informed.” Hand-written note cards from a pastor or staff member say, “You are known and cared for.” You have core ideas and feelings about your church that you want your congregation and community to “get.” The medium can either supercharge or neutralize the power of those ideas. If they’re not getting it, you might want to find a different way of presenting it.

Does your church ever put on conferences, take the youth to summer camp, or organize community gatherings? Churches who do this at a high level use communication strategies to make these events well-attended, memorable, and impactful. One of those strategies is to give the event its own visuals, but when is this the right call? I could give you a decision-making tree and a process to decide, but I figured a list of pros and cons would do just fine. This way you can go through the list and decide for yourself if each item applies to your situation. With that, here are the pros and cons of creating unique branding for your church event: Pros: Gives the event a distinct identity – Makes it feel special rather than just another church activity. Can boost engagement and attendance – A fresh look can generate curiosity and excitement. Helps with marketing and promotions – Unique branding makes it easier to design flyers, social media posts, and announcements that grab attention. Allows creative storytelling – You can tailor the visuals to match the event’s theme, making it more immersive and impactful. Can attract new people – A well-branded event may appeal to those outside your congregation who wouldn’t normally attend. Cons: Takes extra time and effort – Creating custom visuals means more planning and design work. Can dilute your main church brand – If done too often, people might associate more with the event than with the church itself. Inconsistent quality risks – If branding isn’t done well, it could look unprofessional or weaken the event’s perceived value. Might not always be necessary – Some events function just fine under the church’s existing branding, and adding unique visuals could be overkill. Pro tip Using your main church logo in a subtle, tasteful way on event graphics associates the event with your church. Making a connection to your parent brand is a way to remind attendees of the mission driving you to put the event on in the first place.