Church Branding is Three Things
- Design - the church logo and colour
- Reputation - what people think about the global church
- Story - the story that you're wanting to tell about your ministry
Ditch the Colour Palette!
The problem with a colour palette is that it's limited. You have a small number of colour to choose from like a green and a lighter shade of green etc. But there'll be times when you need an opposite colour, other times when you'll need three or four colours to work together.
The solution:
Use a colour matrix!
When you have a grid of colours you have more to choose from.
Be a Branded Church not a Church of Brands
We love naming things! It's right there towards the beginning of Genesis that God gave us authority to name things! But we can go overboard with it. A Tibetan Mastiff and a Swedish Vallhund are both dogs. Having categories makes it easier to understand things. And so it is with Church...
When we have Messy Church, Sunbeams, Better at 70, Frontline Kids we create brands for all the different elements of church.
An alternative is Trinity Worship, Trinity Kids, Trinity Men, Trinity Women etc. Simple and clear.
Logos with Meaning
There's a problem with combining the whole Bible into a church logo - Crosses, Doves, Fire, Water - it's messy.
Keep it simple, but clever!
The Catch The Fire Logo combines a flame in the shape of a 'C' with elements of the letter 'F' and three points representing the Trinity. Very clever. But also supremely easy to identify.
Headlines
Get away from 'Me' headlines. A me headline is about your church e.g. Welcome to Trinity; or Central is all about Jesus and people who love Him.
Move towards 'We' headlines. 'A Safe Place to Explore your Faith', 'Join the Story', 'Following Jesus Wherever We Are'. Doing so makes the headline about the people you'd like to attract to the church.
Short Church Names
It's very difficult to decide on one thing. But good communication is always better when it is economic with words. Less is More when deciding a church name. As longer names tend to get abbreviated - it's better to have a short name in the first place!
Sermons Series that answer tough questions
Two of every three Christians admit to experiencing a season of doubt. More than a quarter of Christ followers still find themselves doubting. Almost half quit attending church.
A great way to combat this is to take one sermon series a year and use it to address doubt.