mission

I was looking through a “Church Creatives” Facebook group I’m a part of and I came across this post: While the top comment here is a little snarky, he’s absolutely right: Having a well-defined visual brand all starts with defining your vision. What does your logo stand for?

Today I want to exhort you. Keep up the good work! I’m encouraged to keep pressing on when I hear stories or see online that you’re tending your church brand. Here’s how I’m trying to follow suit! Writing Daily I’ve been a lot more intentional about this, and people are noticing. Writing daily has helped me collect lessons learned in my work and articulate my unique philosophy around church branding. This has also given me content to pull from for social media posts. I’ve been able to easily share a combination of quick quotes from this newsletter and finished rebrands without having to switch into writing mode for every post. Understanding My Audience I’ve started paying attention to which of my brand’s touch points are having the biggest impact. To do this I have some website analytics running and some questions I ask now on introduction calls. This helps me focus my writing and website copy on what’s relevant and engaging for my audience and clients. Community Participation This year I’ve made it a goal to give back to pastors and churches wherever I can. Part of that effort has been interacting and responding to posts in a Facebook group called Church Creatives. This is a wonderful community of 80,000+ pastors and church staff who appreciate the value of creativity/ design for churches and ministries. The second thing I’m doing is distilling my branding experience into free resources that pastors can use to align their branding with their vision, prepare for a rebrand, and make a bigger impact. More on these in the near future. That all seems like a lot, but what’s made it manageable is a daily cadence and habit of tending my brand, even if it’s just 10 minutes of jotting down some notes or reacting to a Facebook post. So take it as an encouragement: You can do it too!

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.