You’re NOT “A Church for Everyone”

For those of us with book collections, there’s just something about a well designed book cover. I’m talking kind that makes you do the chefs kiss every time you see it. Maybe one even comes to mind for you. I continue to find new books with beautiful cover designs, but there was one recently that confused me until the third or fourth time I picked it up to read. The book is called Designing Brand Identity, 6th edition by Alina Wheeler and Rob Meyerson. When I first saw the cover, I didn’t give it a second thought…. After all, I had bought the book for what was inside. It wasn’t until I saw it again from far away that I realized what the design was supposed to be: a number “6” for 6th edition. It was staring me in the face! I had the epiphany when my folks happened to be over at our house, so I showed my dad the hidden number in the design. His observation was, “That seems like bad design, shouldn’t they have made it more obvious?” It’s a good question: would the design have been better if it hadn’t been so subtle? Here’s my take: For most books, the cover only has two key pieces of information it needs to convey: the title and the author. The edition is usually a secondary or tertiary piece of info, if it’s included on the cover at all. There’s another more important function of the book cover, however. That function is to be distinct and enticing. If a book cover immediately identifies a book as different from all the other books on a shelf, it has done most of its job. This bright yellow book cover with swirling shapes did that. Here’s the application to branding: The purpose of your church logo isn’t to explain who your church is. In fact, it only matters a little if it has your church name at all. The most important thing in a logo is that it identifies you as distinct from others. If it doesn’t do that, you might as well not have a logo at all.

If your church can’t seem to nail down a cohesive brand, the natural response as a pastor can be to rewrite your mission statement, come up with better wording for your values, or integrate vision casting time in leadership meetings and sermons. Those things are all good. Every church needs distinctives to call out their purposes and identity. Here’s the thing though: if you don’t feel like your congregation is “getting it,” the problem probably isn’t your distinctives. So many times, the problem is just brand execution. If you have no consistent or recognizable visual identity, you’re going to struggle giving your congregation a clear sense of who they are and who they’re called to become. A well-executed brand is an investment that multiplies. I’m talking about every letter you mail, piece of content you put on social media, every bulletin you print, and every tee your church members wear to the grocery store. Those things all have the collective power of a war horn for your members and a call to join something tangible for newcomers. Invest in a unified visual identity and brand strategy and you’ll reap a harvest.

If you go read online, ask ChatGPT, or just generally do color-related research, you know how big of a topic color really is. If you’re like me, it can leave you feeling a little… lost? People have written books and given 2 hour lectures on color theory, color psychology, digital color management, and everything in between. Even just scratching the surface can feel completely overwhelming. You might be thinking, “It feels like I should be using these principles, but how do I actually put them into practice for my church?” Even after reading my work specifically about church brand colors, it might not be clear how to actually apply this knowledge to your specific needs. And at end of the day, color is just one piece of the puzzle. That’s where having a personal guide can be a total game changer. With someone to make objective recommendations and help you avoid common mistakes, not only will you save time, you’ll save the headache of having to rethink your branding decisions in a few years. Ideally you would want this person to be a proven expert who loves the capital “C” Church and has a strong track record of branding success stories. If you’re looking for that kind of guidance, I’ve spent countless hours meeting with church leaders and translating their gut feelings into concrete messaging and visuals. I know the struggles and hurdles pastors face when nailing down exactly how their church should look, speak, and feel. Book a strategy call with me and I’ll talk with you one-on-one about what your goals are, the context your church is in, and how you can make your branding fit without the DIY headaches. See you there!

If you’re a church that does sermon series graphics, then you might have struggled with how far to push the envelope in those visuals. Do you download the latest free template from Free Church Media or Ministry Designs dot com? Do you design them in-house? For us creatives, it’s enticing to explore and use new visuals every few months. But I want to encourage you to curb that impulse. Here’s why: Those unbranded templates and graphics can ultimately work against your brand. But wait, they’re not permanent - what’s so bad about them? Over time, these graphics become part of your brand, whether you like it or not. Using templates that are fun, fresh, and modern might feel like a good way to keep things interesting, but over time that variety adds up into noise. Over time, too much variety accumulates into noise. Instead of your sermon graphics reinforcing your brand, they can start to pollute it. They start to appear disjointed and random when you sample them as a whole. To protect your brand, you need a common thread woven throughout. This is why brand guidelines are so important. They provide a fixed scope for visual styles. Robust brand guidelines will tell you not only what that common thread is, but how it should be integrated in different contexts. If you’re worried about your sermon graphics polluting your brand rather than reinforcing it, check your brand guidelines to see if there’s a way to bring that free template into alignment. If you don’t have brand guidelines, consider having some created. It’s a great way to get the most out of your existing logo and can help you add variety to your church’s communications, without feeling random.

Whether you visit a Presbyterian church in Albany or a Baptist church in Santa Fe, there’s one thing you can always expect to find, one common element of our worship, one universal truth that unites us all… The worship bulletin. …and hopefully the gospel, but my point is that worship bulletins are basically ubiquitous in American Protestant churches. “You can’t move the announcements to page 3, it’s in the bylaws!” Joking aside, there’s something about worship bulletins that I want to touch on today, which could be the difference between visitors coming back to your church or looking elsewhere. That thing is what I’m calling a “handout half-life.” This is referring to the amount of time a handout survives before it’s tossed in the trash. Bulletins have an exceptionally long half-life, so they require special attention. I’ve never conducted a formal study on this (why would you?) but if you're like most churches, your bulletin is the one thing that visitors spend the most time staring at and interacting with (by a long shot). Think about it: They are handed one when they walk in the door. They take it with them to their seat. They look at it during announcements. They write on it or fiddle with it during the sermon. They take it home with them after the service, or at least to their car. Your church bulletin should be designed with this long half-life in mind. Does your bulletin look like something visitors will want to keep on their kitchen table and review later in the week, or does it look like it a piece of garbage? Short answer: Without an outside designer perspective, probably the latter.

When it comes to church branding and design, I’m a fan of repetition. However, there are more ways to repeat your brand than using your logo, and there are places where it would be totally wrong to use it! Way-finding isn’t necessarily one of those places, but there are some design conventions that make for better way-finding signage. Usually you don’t want to use a full logo on way-finding signage. If someone is in your building, they probably know what church they’re in - they don’t need to see your logo on every corner! Here are the do’s and don’ts that will help you find your way through way-finding sign design. Do: Use as few words as possible Show a simple arrow for most items Show a flat pictogram or icon for commonly recognized facilities, like restrooms, stairs, and exits Pick one of your brand colors for the background Pick one of your brand colors for the text Don’t: Use your church logo on every sign (Some churches will opt to put a logo icon without the word mark in the corner of all their signs.) Pick a brand color that clashes with the interior of the church (paint color, carpet color, etc) Use more than 2 colors Make the signs too small (they should be visible (not necessarily readable) from the farthest point in the room or hallway) There’s a wide spectrum of brand collateral that every church needs, with a balanced mix of “loud” and “soft” levels of branding. Way-finding signs are on the functional end of the spectrum. They’re limited on space, and should only carry the critical information for navigating a particular space.

When it comes to church branding, I try my hardest to take an wholistic approach. Why? Because I believe that everything in your church - all the way down to your coffee cups - can be used to point people to Christ. Wayfinding signage is a part of this wholistic approach, and it’s way more important than you might think. Put yourself in a visitor’s shoes for a moment. This is your first time at the church on a Sunday morning and you brought your young family with you. People are beginning to stream into the sanctuary, and you’re still looking for the nursery. The number of people in the hall dwindles, as you scan for someone to ask for directions. There’s nothing worse than being confused or lost on your first visit to a church! Tend your brand and help visitors feel welcome in your church through design.

When God's people gather for corporate worship, we've always looked for ways to beautify the space in which we meet. Sometimes you don’t have a choice for what your meeting space looks like. Many churches and church plants share a building with someone else. Others might own their building but just don't have the budget to start knocking down walls. However, the design and layout of common spaces in your church building will either help or hinder people feeling welcome and at home in your church. When my wife and I bought our first house, we were excited to host people for meals and fellowship. You can imagine that I was disappointed when I realized that the layout of our walls and floor plan made fellowship difficult. A wall separated the kitchen from the living room, and the dining area tried to straddle the two rooms, which made it awkward to socialize while we cooked food for our guests. Conincidentally, we're standing where you would have to stand while talking with someone in the kitchen. When we decided to build a house, we designed the floor plan to be open and spacious. Not being interior designers or “feng shui” experts, we were expecting that this new layout would solve our problem. It did - but not perfectly! After all that, there are things I would still do differently to make our home as welcoming and supportive of fellowship as possible. Our new house, still a work in progress. If you own your church building and can afford it, seek out a professional for help creating a space that is beautiful and inspiring. Regardless of your situation, don’t take for granted opportunities to beautify the place you're gathering for corporate worship. At the end of the day, there's nothing that is more welcoming than a friendly, genunine person. Inspire your congregation to be that hospitable through their environment.

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.

If you’re a church that does sermon series graphics, then you might have struggled with how far to push the envelope in those visuals. Do you download the latest free template from Free Church Media or Ministry Designs dot com? Do you design them in-house? For us creatives, it’s enticing to explore and use new visuals every few months. But I want to encourage you to curb that impulse. Here’s why: Those unbranded templates and graphics can ultimately work against your brand. But wait, they’re not permanent - what’s so bad about them? Over time, these graphics become part of your brand, whether you like it or not. Using templates that are fun, fresh, and modern might feel like a good way to keep things interesting, but over time that variety adds up into noise. Over time, too much variety accumulates into noise. Instead of your sermon graphics reinforcing your brand, they can start to pollute it. They start to appear disjointed and random when you sample them as a whole. To protect your brand, you need a common thread woven throughout. This is why brand guidelines are so important. They provide a fixed scope for visual styles. Robust brand guidelines will tell you not only what that common thread is, but how it should be integrated in different contexts. If you’re worried about your sermon graphics polluting your brand rather than reinforcing it, check your brand guidelines to see if there’s a way to bring that free template into alignment. If you don’t have brand guidelines, consider having some created. It’s a great way to get the most out of your existing logo and can help you add variety to your church’s communications, without feeling random.

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

This topic is one that goes wide and deep, so I’m going to try and give a 30,000ft snapshot. A church’s identity is made up of the themes and threads from its unique past, present, and future - things which make that church distinct from the church down the road. Visual identity is the symbolic representation of that, which is why it goes so much deeper than a logo or carpet color. Turning a church identity into something visual is a tricky process, but not impossible. Here’s my thesis: Starting with your intangible identity is the only way to create a meaningful, long-lasting, and copycat-proof brand. Let’s say you hire a graphic designer to create a beautiful visual identity that’s based on your preferences and current design trends. What happens in two years when those preferences and trends have changed? By going deep on your church’s intangible identity, you can emerge from the woods with a look that actually captures the uniqueness of your church and lasts for decades. Your visual identity won’t be able to be copied or replicated, because it’s grounded in the stuff that makes your local church, "local". Otherwise, you’re probably just copying someone else.