Church branding is not a fad, a magic bean, or a bad thing for religion. Church branding can help grow your church and put your message in front of people in your community. But it has to be done right. The problem is many churches think that branding is about their logo, stage design, full color bulletins, or their website – but it’s not! These things do help communicate your brand but they are only a piece of a larger puzzle. The following tips will provide an insight into how you can use church branding to your advantage.
- Be Real. You are what you are and you need to accept that. You can work to change the community image of what your church is known for but that can take a lot of time – especially if you have deep roots. The only reason you should think about changing is if you have a bad reputation or your long term goal is to be a completely different church. Embrace who you are.
- Be Excellent. Find what you are great at in your ministry or church and excel at that. You cannot be everything to everybody or be efficient in all areas. Pick the things you can be excellent in, work hard at it, and communicate that to the people you want to reach.
- Be Professional. Don’t settle for mediocracy in your church communications efforts. There are so many professional resources available now that no church should have an ugly website or ineffective media tools. Packaging does matter in our culture and you can find cost effective solutions for churches of any size.
- Be Christ Focused. No apologies and no bait and switch tactics. Stop making excuses for being a church and being Christ-followers. The people you want to reach with the Gospel expect to hear that message. Church branding should NEVER be about being cool, relevant, or whatever else the latest fad is teaching. We should never be ashamed to be who we are even if we have warts. Jesus should always be the answer and the focus.
I am fully convinced that if we just keep these church branding tips in mind when “marketing” our church, then we will do a great service to our churches and the people in our communities and it will leave a positive impression for years to come.
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