Who Cares About Your Church's Brand?

This is post #1 in a short blog series on church branding. So, why should you care about your church’s brand?

Let’s first define branding. For this set of posts I’ll utilize Phil Cooke’s definition: “a brand is a compelling story that surrounds a person, a product, or an organization.” A brand is how people view you. And again according to Phil, “How people view you is the single greatest determining factor on whether or not they will listen to you.”

So the answer to the “why care” question can be found by answering the following questions:

Does you your church have a compelling story?

Do you want people to engage with that story?

When you look at branding that way it now becomes an integral part of your church’s mission.

Branding is not the message. But paying attention to branding can help connect people with your message. Branding is not a magical cure. But getting it right can help remove some roadblocks to your church’s mission.

Most churches claim to be about two things: God and people. 1 Samuel 16:7 notes a universal truth: “People look at the outside… but the LORD looks at the heart.” Don’t miss this, both parts of that verse are crucial to your mission. Could some people be missing the heart transformation the LORD wants to do in them because your brand doesn’t accurately represent the compelling story God has given you? Great leaders understand that people look at the outside, and part of their role is to make sure their church’s “outside” or brand reflects what’s at the heart of the organization.

So what do you think? Does branding make a difference? Should it be a priority? Is it even biblical?