vision

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?

Galvanize your congregation. Build trust and unity. Can branding do that? A healthy church brand actually provides a mental framework for your members to fit their knowledge and experiences into. If you’re like me, and most other humans, you need “hooks” to hang information on. Otherwise you forget it. As your congregation participates in the life of your church, they are becoming disciples of Christ. They are being taught God’s word and how to follow it. Through branding, you can give your people more hooks to hang that knowledge on. A Christ-centered brand can help them connect the dots between their shared identity and their shared purpose. In other words, you’re drawing that connection between who they are as a local church body and the ultimate reason your church exists. Let’s look at an example. One church I worked with recently was Heritage Church in Shawnee, OK. Heritage had identified five core values or purposes that they wanted their congregation to live out each week. Through this rebrand process, we turned those core values into icons, each with a color that represented part of their vision. Those core values icons integrated into their logo and helped them teach the distinctives that made Heritage unique as a local church. We also turned the icons into a pattern that they could use on everything, even down to bookmarks. The best part was, each of their core values is more memorable and “sticky”. Every design pointed back to the brand Heritage had created around their shared identity as a church body.

A few months ago, Crossway released The Dyslexia-Friendly Bible, featuring a new font they called “Grace.” The design team took a data-driven approach, carefully studying and testing what tiny details makes a font more accessible for dyslexic readers. This Bible also featured special design touches to make the reading experience more approachable, and less fatiguing. The team working on the design used existing studies, focus groups, and user testing to optimize things like paragraph spacing and line height (and other technical specs we designers are thinking about all the time). The end result was a beautiful product that is already changing the way thousands read and access God’s Word. This brings me the same joy as when the Scriptures are translated into a new language. Praise God! It’s also a good reminder that intentional design can make your localized vision and message accessible to a previously “unreached” people group. Are you studying what prevents your congregation and community from "getting" it?

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.

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.

The approach revolves around one key idea: Branding is culture-shaping. If there is an attitude, an ethos, and ongoing transformation you want to see in your church, then your brand is an indispensable tool. But too many churches see it as an afterthought! When your people encounter your logo, website, bulletin, and even interior decor week in and week out, they’re being shaped and molded. The way they live out their mission and daily lives is influenced by what images and ideas they’re immersed in when they participate in the life of your church as a whole, not just the Sunday morning service. If you approach your brand with a culture-shaping perspective, it becomes an asset that seamlessly integrates with your church and mission. Rather than being something tacked on to make things “look good,” your brand becomes a symbol that represents the real lives, relationships, discipleship, outreach, worship, and struggles that make up what it means to be a part of your congregation. Branding is culture-shaping. P.S. I was originally going to be more specific and say that good branding is culture shaping, but that’s actually misleading. Bad branding can shape your church culture too. You may have heard sermons or even preached one yourself on the idea of “nominal,” Sunday-only Christianity. Be careful you don’t fall into the trap of nominal, outreach-only branding. If your brand is a generic mark that gets slapped on your website and bulletin to fill space, people will notice the disconnect between what your branding is trying to be, and what your church identity is actually like. That kind of branding creates a sense of confusion, aimlessness, and messiness that you probably aren’t going for.

After almost a decade in the design and branding industry, I’ve become convinced of something: The fastest and best way to a tangible community impact through a vision-driven church is by kingdom-first branding. Of course, not every church is ready to focus on branding… stability and trust need to come first. But if your congregation has those pre-requisites checked off, a kingdom-first brand is the most powerful way to galvanize your members and reach your community with the gospel. The idea of being kingdom-first isn’t something I came up with — it’s firmly grounded in Scripture. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. — Matthew 6:33 Jesus tells us to make God’s kingdom our priority, and he will provide for every need we have. Pastors have all kinds of desires for their ministries. Some want to see their church grow and multiply, so they can plant in nearby neighborhoods and cities. Some want their congregation to be more unified, healing fractures and restoring broken relationships. Some want to be known for their generosity, partnering with local organizations to serve their community. Some want to see members of their congregation discipling one another into a deeper knowledge and love for Jesus Some want to influence local and state politics, advocating for causes that align with God’s law Some simply want to resist the spiritual depravity of the culture around them I think it’s clear from scripture that God wants all of these things for every church, and much more. But these goals are not our ultimate priority. Advancing Christ’s kingdom is. So what does a kingdom-first brand actually look like? A kingdom-first brand doesn’t worry about attracting members from other churches (the kingdom doesn’t grow when we play “church musical chairs”). A kingdom-first brand avoids losing your church’s unique story in an attempt to look trendy A kingdom-first brand makes Christ the cornerstone of your communications. He is the cornerstone of the church, after all (Isaiah 28:16-17; Matthew 16:18; Mark 12:10; Ephesians 2:19-21) A kingdom-first branding approach gets to the heart of this question: how does your ministry uniquely relate to Christ, Congregation, and Community? I’ll be exploring those 3 C’s in the near future. Seek first the kingdom of God, and all these things will be added to you.