Spring Cleaning: When is the Right Time to Refresh?

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.

For the last 8 years, my go-to work, church, and lifting shoes have been some variation of white Adidas sneakers. I replace them once a year because I have to: I take close to a million steps a year in those shoes. I didn’t do this intentionally, but those white Adidas have become core to the Braden East “brand.” Whether I chose it or not was irrelevant, white sneakers are now a part of how many people recognize me. Here’s the lesson I learned from this: Anything you say or do repeatedly will eventually become part of your brand. Once you understand this, you get to influence what your brand looks like, by choosing a message, choosing how you want to say it, and repeating it over time. Do anything consistently for 8 years, and I promise it will become part of your brand.

Building a brand isn’t as hard as you might think. When you boil it down, all you have do is decide what you want to be known for and work backwards from there. If you’re in ministry, you already have a “why,” but your core message (“what”) is the first building block. To turn that core message into a brand, you need two more ingredients: A communication plan (“how”), and consistent repetition. Distilled into three steps: Choose what you want to say Choose how you want to say it Say it over and over again in different ways Summed up in a formula: Brand = Message + Delivery + Repetition

Brands are like bodies. Everybody has one, but it takes discipline and consistency to build a healthy one. I recently saw a 15 second video that highlighted how simple something like getting in shape can really be. The three steps he lays out are: Eat 2 meals a day with 100g of protein in each. Don’t eat other stuff. Lift 3 times per week and add weight or reps over time. Put in those terms, getting in shape is simple - just eat right and exercise. Creating and cultivating a brand identity is a lot like that. It’s simple in theory, but it takes consistency and effort.

Designers use color ratios to help us create aesthetically pleasing designs. After nearly a decade of graphic design, I can go with my gut when balancing colors. But when all is said and done, it almost always works out to some version of the 70-20-10 ratio. 70 If you have a brand color palette, pick a more neutral color that is either very light or very dark. If you don’t have a color like that in the palette, just use white or black. This is your 70% color, and it should be the background color on the whole site. 20 Your 20% color should be a contrasting color to the 70%. So if your 70% color is white, your 20% color should be black or dark grey. Use this color for body text and some section backgrounds. 10 Finally, the 10% left should be a “pop” color. This is usually your main brand color. Use the 10% color on buttons, or smaller elements that need some attention.

Got a website for your church but it’s missing that extra-clean, professional look? I’ve got four tips for you today that are guaranteed to make it better. If you do these things, your web visitors will have an easier time finding what they’re looking for and you’ll have more people walking through your church’s digital front door. 1. Be Selective with Content The more different pieces of content there are on your site, the less likely visitors are to read any of it. Reduce the amount of information you’re presenting and cut any text that isn’t absolutely necessary. Pro tip: write as if you’re explaining your church to a total stranger at a 4th grade reading level. Here are a few practical ways to slice and dice: Headings should be between 1-10 words Paragraphs should be less than 50 words Use bulleted lists instead of sentences with commas 2. Increase Font Sizes If your content has been distilled to follow the word counts above, you’ll be able to bump up the size of your headings and body copy. This makes the site easier to skim, and helps older readers who might struggle with small text. I recommend 20-25px for body text, and 48-72px for your largest heading. 3. Provide a Clear Call to Action If someone happens to land on your website, you want to give them a clear next step, just like you would for a visitor who to your church on Sunday morning. Whether that’s filling out a digital connection card or watching your service livestream, make sure that there is a stand-out action someone can take, and that each button says exactly what it does. Pro tip: Avoid links and buttons that say like “Learn More” or “Click Here.” Instead, use labels that are specific and tell the user what to expect when they click that particular button. 4. Prioritize Menu Items Just like cutting down text, you also want to reduce the number of options you’re presenting to visitors. I’m working on a website refresh right now with an organization whose old website had FIFTY FIVE different links in the main menu. The decision paralysis and brainpower it takes to find what you’re looking for can get overwhelming very fast. Try to limit your main menu to 5 options or less. You can always link to additional pages from one of those main pages, but this approach keeps everything organized and easy to navigate.

So you want to put professional-looking photos on your church website. That’s great, but where do you start? Who do you hire? What shots do you need? The main thing to remember is that you want to show the benefits of your church. Why do people attend? What makes your church uniquely valuable as a local congregation? Website photos and videos should show the benefits you’re known for and set realistic expectations. Church website imagery is especially important because it’s giving potential visitors a taste of what it’s like to attend, while also reminding existing members of the reason they come. That said, how can you get the most out of your time and resources? Here are my recommendations. Book a local photographer for a Sunday morning and ask them for a list of shots that looks something like this: Parking Lot / Building Greeters Bulletins / Merch Worship Preaching Fellowship Baptisms or other significant moments Bonus tip: If you can find a little more budget, use a videographer instead and ask for stills from the footage they capture. Now you have professional video and photos. Much like a rebrand, if you do this right, you won’t have to do it again for a very long time. Put your new photos and video on the most visited pages of your website, and let them go to work. While you’re off focusing on ministry, they’ll be consistently connecting with people who are looking for a church home, and tending that part of your brand for you.

We’ve established that you need a church website, but what makes a website "good?" Out of pride, I'd like to say that a well-balanced, memorable logo and strong color palette are the most important things, but I'd be lying. Professional-looking photos and videos are the most permanent and powerful way to make your website stand out. Let’s face it, people can identify a stock image from a mile away, and while AI is getting better all the time, it’s not good at generating images that feel like genuine, authentic interactions at a real place. Most websites will need maintenance and updates from time to time, but a strong image on your website’s homepage is something you'll never have to worry about updating. That’s why even a few high-quality images can make all the difference. Take them once, and they do the work of resonating with potential visitors over and over again, forever. In a future post, I’ll share how I recommend churches should get professional photos and videos for their websites. Especially how to get the most bang for their buck when they do so... stay tuned!

I want to share a quick story to illustrate the danger of cognitive blind spots. Every night, we bring our 7 goats, 20 chickens, and two dogs inside a perimeter of electric netting. I could do this routine blindfolded in my sleep. But this time something was different, and I almost missed it. To power the fence, we have a switch and an energizer mounted next to a hay bale, but what I almost didn’t notice was that the fence charger had disappeared. I flipped the switch on and turned toward the house when I heard a quiet “click” sound coming from the ground, under a pile of hay. The energizer had been knocked off its mount and was totally concealed under loose hay and straw. I was so used to my routine that I didn’t even notice when something critical was missing. Here’s the point: Something can be wrong or missing right under our noses, and we don’t notice because we aren’t looking for it. It’s why people bring in outside perspectives, and it’s how I’m able to help churches with their design and branding. If you’re not keeping tabs on everything all the time, or if you don’t know what to look for, you’ll probably miss something.

Last weekend, I went hiking in the Ouachita National Forest with a friend from church. It was my first time on that particular trail, but thankfully he had hiked this trail multiple times and knew it like the back of his hand, or so I thought. I started to get nervous when he stopped in his tracks and said, “I’ve never seen this bridge before.” He crossed the bridge and ventured on a little further. “I don’t remember passing through this open area.” We figured we had missed a fork in the trail, so we crossed back over the bridge and backtracked for a mile or two. No sign of a turnoff or any other indicators of another trail. We were forced to go back to the bridge again. At this point, we had hiked nearly 3.5 miles of detour, with nothing to show for it. What would have helped us avoid that unexpected pain? A guide who had brought others along that trail dozens of times. A map of the entire trail, with a “You Are Here” indicator. The reason I’m sharing this story is: My friend thought he remembered the trail, but there were critical things he had missed the first few times. Whether you’re hiking a secluded trail or rebranding, it’s smart to get expert insights and a proven roadmap before you waste time on detours and roadblocks. Thankfully, after exploring a bit more, we realized we were on the right path after all. We ended up having a great trip.

If you’ve ever thought about redesigning your church’s logo (or even just giving it a refresh), then you might’ve realized a unique challenge: The hardest part is finding a designer who won’t mess it up. To solve that, there are questions you should be asking which will save you loads of wasted time and frustration. Ask you logo designer this: Have you worked with churches before? What happens if we don’t like the logo? When we decide on the new look, how do we transition from old to new? Do you check for unintentional symbolism? Will you license fonts for us to use? Will you wait to share the project online until after we announce it? Do you use templates or pre-made designs? I can tell you these are important questions because they’re all based on real-world concerns, goals, and experiences. Anything you would add to his list?