Why It’s Insane to Rebrand with Limited Design Revisions

Let’s talk about First Baptist Aurora. This was a church that once thrived but found itself dwindling in numbers and energy. That is, until Pastor Robert stepped in with a vision to create a community where high school dropouts and doctors, recovering addicts and homeschool moms, could all worship side by side. He wanted people to feel like they truly belonged. The church started to grow again, but there was a problem: their visual identity didn’t match the new life happening inside the walls. So, I partnered up to help them rebrand. Two words shaped our entire process: historic and urban. We pulled colors from the church’s own brick, molding, and stained glass to create a palette that felt timeless yet fresh. The church’s beautiful stained glass windows inspired a modern logo and sparked a key design element: the arch. We used arches everywhere, from logos and icons to social media graphics, creating a look that felt unified and deeply tied to the building’s architecture and story. The result? A brand that bridges the old and the new. Today, First Baptist Aurora has not just a growing congregation but a clear sense of identity. Visitors connect more quickly, and the leadership has tools to keep building momentum. Here's the takeaway for pastors: A good rebrand isn’t just about looking pretty! It’s about helping people see what God is doing in your ministry are and inviting them to be a part of it. P.S. You can see the full case study here, including our in-depth process and more images/video.

I recently reconnected with a distant cousin who was just starting a new role as a Worship Pastor in Texas. He had been immediately tasked with redesigning the church bulletin and some other collateral - a classic “worship-leader-becomes-graphic-designer” scenario. But he found something totally unexpected. More on that in a minute. See, my cousin had started with an audit of the church bulletin. It was bad. I’m talking 1990s clip-art, 10 different fonts, and a migraine-inducing layout. Then he looked at the rest of the campus. Signage looked different in every hallway, and anything designed had that general “patched together” kind of vibe. The pastors all knew this stuff needed a redesign. The church had a logo people had grown to love and brand equity that was worth preserving. But without clear guidelines in place, things had slipped into visual inconsistency - badly. So, I asked them a simple question: “Have you thought about brand guidelines?” Their response? “No, but now we’re interested!” Until that moment, they had been focusing on the immediate problems that were painful, but they were treating the symptoms, not the disease. I explained to them how a brand refresh often benefits churches in their exact position. When you refresh your branding and put together brand guidelines, you’re not looking to reinvent the wheel or start from scratch. Instead, the goal is to bring clarity and consistency to what you already have. This is about making sure everything from bulletins to digital media feel like it belongs to the same church family. A brand audit and fresh set of guidelines can be perfect for maintaining the identity people recognize while elevating your overall quality and professionalism of communication. Neither my cousin nor I had expected this, but the church hired me on the spot, and we’re getting to work together to unify and future-proof their church branding. True story! If that’s something you’re thinking about for your brand, book a call with me and we can talk more about how to represent the work God is doing in the life of your church.

Is your church logo costing you money? Yes, it’s a serious question. If you’re thinking of redesigning your visuals, you probably want to do it in a way that’s cost effective and practical. That sounds easy enough, but there are some hidden traps in a new logo that can ruin your budget if you’re not careful. These are the three unexpected mistakes that can end up costing your church more than you expected, and how to avoid them. Mistake #1 - Relying on Color If there are four, three, or even two colors that your logo absolutely needs to look right, there’s a strong chance you’ll run into issues down the road. Hats with embroidered logos or a leather patch? Can’t do it. Printing t-shirts with a limited budget? Get ready to pay extra for multiple colors. This is why it’s critical to have a single-color version of your logo that doesn’t look “weird.” While it’s nice to have a version with more than one color, a logo that relies on multiple colors will end up costing you in the long run. Mistake #2 - Ignoring Context Think about where the logo is going to live. If you have a road sign that will need to be updated with the new logo, look at its shape. Is your road sign short and wide? Don’t make the logo tall and narrow. Is your church highly active on social media? Make sure the logo fits well inside a profile picture circle. Building custom signs or making special variations of your logo after the face can easily break the budget for a smaller church, so be wary of the expensive mistake of ignoring context. Mistake #3 - Doing it Yourself The expense of a DIY logo comes mainly in the form of time and future revisions. When you’ve designed something yourself or worked on it in-house without the aid of a professional, there’s a good chance it will take a very, very long time. Not only that, but I’ve seen time and time again a lack of certainty and confidence in the new logo after a rebrand. You’ll spend years wondering things like, “What if we had used a different concept instead?” “What if it had a more dimensional look?” “This reminds me of something else and now I can’t unsee it…” Avoid these mistakes, and you’ll be well on your way to saving time and money in your church rebrand.

Earlier this year, I took my wife on our first ever off-roading excursion and we learned an important lesson. We rented a UTV side-by-side and hit the trails of Wolf Pen Gap in Arkansas. There had been above-average rainfall in the area, and it turned out that many trails were inaccessible due to high water crossings. There was one place where we attempted to cross and almost got swept away. Not only did we get into that dangerous situation, we spent hours taking wrong turns, finding dead ends, and squinting at our map. When we did finally find some exciting spots, we only had time to explore a couple of them before the rental was due back. We came out of that experience alive (and with some good photos), but we learned this: A competent guide is worth the money. If we had hired someone to show us around, we would’ve found those good trails earlier in the day, not gotten lost, and enjoyed our time more. The thing is, unless you enjoy the adventure of discovering every dead end and perilous path for yourself, hiring an expert to guide you is going to save time, and keep you out of danger. P.S. With a rebrand, you’re not just trying to find a fun spot for recreation - you’re trying to get from point A to point B - which makes pro guidance even more critical.

Earlier this year, I took my wife on our first ever off-roading excursion and we learned an important lesson. We rented a UTV side-by-side and hit the trails of Wolf Pen Gap in Arkansas. There had been above-average rainfall in the area, and it turned out that many trails were inaccessible due to high water crossings. There was one place where we attempted to cross and almost got swept away. Not only did we get into that dangerous situation, we spent hours taking wrong turns, finding dead ends, and squinting at our map. When we did finally find some exciting spots, we only had time to explore a couple of them before the rental was due back. We came out of that experience alive (and with some good photos), but we learned this: A competent guide is worth the money. If we had hired someone to show us around, we would’ve found those good trails earlier in the day, not gotten lost, and enjoyed our time more. The thing is, unless you enjoy the adventure of discovering every dead end and perilous path for yourself, hiring an expert to guide you is going to save time, and keep you out of danger. P.S. With a rebrand, you’re not just trying to find a fun spot for recreation - you’re trying to get from point A to point B - which makes pro guidance even more critical.

If you have a good sense of fashion or a job that requires professional attire, you may have at one point gotten a custom-fitted suit. I’ve done this myself, and it felt great to have a jacket and pants that had been tweaked to fit my measurements. But the next level up is something I’ve never done, and that’s getting a custom-tailored suit made from scratch, with full customization of every detail. Unless you’re lucky and have a very specific body-type and build, you probably won’t find an existing garment that fits you as well as a bespoke suit would. I had a friend who got this done right after college, and I remember thinking, “Boy, I buy my shirts at TJ-Maxx, but he’s a real adult.” Here’s the application: Getting a custom-tailored suit signals personal maturity. In a similar way, getting a custom-tailored visual identity signals organizational maturity. For a visual identity to be custom-tailored means each part is carefully crafted to fit your organization. The logo is designed to represent your vision. The wordmark is tweaked and hand-picked to evoke a particular feeling. The colors are harmonized to stand out in your local context. Getting a bespoke visual identity signals organizational maturity. Bonus: If you have a custom-tailored suit with a very specific look, you probably don’t have to worry about theft - It won’t fit just anyone who tries it on.

Finding a designer to hire for a project comes with unexpected and paradoxical challenges. Unless you have a personal connection to a someone specific, you’re judging your options based on a stranger’s published work. Paradoxically, you’re forced to make aesthetic judgments of their style and fit before you actually hire them to help with your aesthetics. The best designer might not be the one whose style resonates with you the most. The counterintuitive truth is, the best designer might not be the one whose style resonates with you the most. Okay, so how can you evaluate a designer more effectively? Here are a few ways off the top of my head: Success stories on similar projects Clearly defined process Familiarity with your needs Pricing The thing is, if you’re trying to just make something you like, the subjective approach works just fine. If you’re trying to make something that will solve a problem or communicate an idea to more people, objectivity is critical.

Messaging might be the trickiest part of brand-building, but it’s also the most important. While you want to stay consistent over time, there are ways to evaluate, tweak, and test your messaging so that it doesn’t become stale. Today, I want to look at the five steps that branding experts use for messaging refinement and apply it to a church context. By the end, you should have a good idea of how to make messaging adjustments (and if you need to at all). 1. Clarify the Core Ask yourself: “What exactly are our distinctives, and are they stated in a way people actually remember and repeat?” Here’s a practical test: Ask 5-10 people (leaders, members, new attendees) to describe the church’s mission/values in their own words. If responses vary widely or miss the mark, your messaging might lack clarity or memorability. 2. Dual-Audience Check I've written before about how church communication is unique because you have two audiences: a congregation and a community. Because of this, you need a way to evaluate your messaging with each. Congregation Filter: Does our messaging reflect the lived experience of our members? Do they feel seen and represented in our voice and values? Use quick polls, post-service questions, or a digital survey to find out. Community Filter: Would someone unfamiliar with church language understand and connect with this? Use the “Unchurched Neighbor Test”: Could someone not part of the church understand what you’re about from your website, signage, or social media? 3. Content Consistency Audit Review 3 to 5 pieces of existing content you’ve published in the past. These can be things like your website homepage, social media bio, flyer, sermon intro, or email footer. Are our distinctives clearly communicated here? Is the tone consistent and reflective of who we are? Is this memorable, clear, and people-centered… or is it vague and insider-focused? I recommend creating a simple scoring scale (1 - 5) so you can easily compare and evaluate each piece of content. 4. Decide on the Level of Tweak Needed Use this matrix to figure out how much you might need to adjust course with your church's brand messaging: 5. Small-Scale Testing It’s nerve-racking, but there’s no better way than real-world testing to know if you’ve made a meaningful change. Try your adjusted tagline, mission statement phrasing, or value summary in a few formats (social post, bulletin blurb, sermon series). Then, watch for engagement and organic adoption by your congregation. If people start using your new language on their own, you’re on the right track.