This 400 Member Baptist Church Didn't Have a Single Designer

I remember the moment in college that people found out I could play the drums. From that time on, whether it was filling in last minute for another drummer who was sick or forming a band from scratch with high hopes to tour someday, there were plenty of gigs I was called on play. Some of those gigs were better than others, but the best one was a Friday worship night at a medium sized church just down the road from my university. But I almost turned down the gig. Why? I had looked the church up online beforehand. When I saw their dated logo, messy website, and confusing messaging, I couldn’t help but wonder if the event was going to be handled the same way. Nothing is worse for musicians than a disorganized gig. But a good friend had asked me to play, so I said yes against my better judgment. Here’s the reason I’m sharing this story: What I found online about the church didn’t match what I experienced there. The gig went great and they were very organized. The church had unintentionally built a brand that was working against them. If I was a community member thinking about visiting the church, or a congregation member trying to relate to the mission, I would have been discouraged by the disjointed look and message being put forward. This is why your brand matters. You’re creating perceptions and feelings about your church whether you know it or not. But, show intentionality with shaping those perceptions, and those perceptions will start to turn into feelings, which turn into action.

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.

I recently had a blast interviewing pastor Alex Montaño about his church's rebrand in 2024. Here are some of the highlights from our conversation: Why trying to use Fiverr for the logo was a huge blunder (it wasn’t a skill issue) How to overcome initial resistance from elders What to do with a limited budget for “rolling out” the rebrand Watch the video to steal from his church’s rebrand approach... and crush it instead! 💪P.S. Share this with a pastor who might be interested in our conversation.

Last year I had a jaw-dropping call with a church that was in some serious trouble - let’s call them Ridgeview Fellowship. The church had a good online presence, a functional logo, and a brand they had worked hard to build up over the years. They didn’t want to rebrand, but when they came to me, they felt like they had no choice. A local accounting firm that had opened nearby had a similar (almost identical) logo. The firm was threatening legal action if the church didn’t change their look. But wait, the church had been there longer? Yes. Hadn’t the church been using their logo out in the community already? Yes. Where did the church get their logo in the first place? Good question. Nobody was 100% certain, but they thought they remembered it had been designed with a small budget by someone on Fiverr. If I had to guess, I’d wager that the accounting firm went with a Fiverr designer too, and ended up with a not-so-unique mark… Here are the reverse-image search results that suggest the same thing (church logo not pictured). {{ comp.video({ src: "/img/lawsuit-reverse-image-search.mp4" }) }} Now, the firm was threatening to sue for trademark infringement. Instead of spend untold sums of money and time imbuing themselves in a lawsuit (to defend a logo they didn’t even love), the church felt like they had no choice but to rebrand. This is a sad situation, and it happens more often than you might think. Here’s the takeaway: build your visual identity around the things that make your church unique, and you won’t have to worry about someone else stealing it. Also, you might think about trademarking your church logo.

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.