How Your Visual Identity Helps Your Guests Feel Included
Why does a church need branding? Won’t focusing on branding make our church feel like it’s selling something? Isn’t the gospel enough? These are fair questions for ministry leaders navigating what feels like a modern concept: church branding. The truth is, branding is not a new concept to the church.
The word brand originally meant to burn or mark something, like how farm owners marked cattle to show ownership. Today, a brand still marks identity. Spiritually, when we say we’re ‘brand new’, we’re recognizing that we’ve been marked by God. In this same way, every church leaves a unique impression on its community that gives them that same sense of belonging.
When a church decides to brand intentionally, it begins to share a bold message and invitation to others. Every visual and experience it creates reinforces that message. Here are three things that happen as a result of intentional and consistent church branding:
Your Church Develops a Clear Identity
Being one body in Christ doesn’t mean we’re all the same. Each church has its own unique identity. A church name and logo help with recognition and the feeling of belonging to something bigger. Beyond that, every church community and culture has its own flavor and style. There are things they do well, and then there are things they do exceptionally well.
At the same time, every church has core beliefs, values, and principles that guide its decision-making, as well as a mission and vision as to how it should operate as functioning members of the body of Christ (even if they haven’t written those down yet). These are the counter-cultural differentiators that make the universal church stand out from other types of communities.
Documenting your church’s mission, vision, beliefs, and values, then reinforcing them with consistent visuals and language, will ensure everyone knows who you are and what you stand for as a church (guests and members alike). Consistency creates familiarity. Familiarity fosters belonging. Over time, your existence as a church body will begin to make sense to those outside of your building and immediate sphere of influence. Every photo, graphic, social post, flyer, and other church media you create has the potential to serve as a signal for those who align with your principles, making them feel right at home within your church community!
Your Church Experiences Organic Growth (Word-of-Mouth)
If there’s one charge we can be sure every senior pastor has given their congregation, it’s to “invite someone to church!”. This is an understandable ask, as word-of-mouth (or as we call it, evangelism) is documented in the bible as the most common way people come to know Jesus. If you believe God is in your church, why wouldn’t you invite others to it? The truth is, everyone is an evangelist for something.
When people talk about your church, what are they describing? Is it your sermon? Your worship? Or is it how it felt to be there? Branding isn’t just about visuals; it’s also about the experience you provide. Visuals help tell the story of your brand, while brand experience shapes the overall perception of your brand. People constantly share about their experiences watching their favorite movie or TV show, eating at their favorite restaurant, shopping at their favorite stores, and even dealing with 5-star-worthy service vendors.
If you want others to do the same for your church, a focus on the guest experience will undoubtedly do the trick. Ask yourself these questions as a church leader:
- What do I want every guest in our church to walk away with?
- How do I guarantee we can deliver on that experience with every service, event, small group, and every point of contact?
- Where can I add value to our staff and volunteer teams to get them on the same page?
- How can I reinforce or facilitate the experience using visual media?
Your Church Gets More Testimonies (User-Generated Content)
Nothing can support your brand identity and experience more than real stories from real people. Testimonies inform others about both their experience with God and their experience with your church community. When your church brand story and experience are clear, it becomes much easier for others to tell their stories and share their experiences with your church!
Find any way you can to collect these testimonies from others. You don’t have to have a traditional “testimony time” built into your church service for others to have the opportunity to share their story. You can use written testimonies to share on your church website, as well as share them verbally at relevant points in your service. Testimonies don’t have to be shared by the individual telling the story; you can utilize your service host or MC to share the testimony, crediting the original messenger.
Video testimonies can be shared before, during, or after service (wherever they could naturally fit), and can be used on social media (with permission, of course). Best of all, anyone can contribute! Whether it’s a polished video or a quick phone recording, the power is in the story. Provide simple tools or instructions for how your congregation can submit their stories. A form, a QR code, or even a Dropbox or Google Drive link can go a long way.
We often think of the Great Commission as evangelizing, preaching, and baptizing. But branding, when rooted in Christ, can also be a part of that call. When we are consistent in our messaging and in the experience we provide others as a church organization, we invite others into who we are and what we do. Use this highly effective tool to help others feel like they belong, and you’ll help fulfill your church’s mission and make people feel like they truly belong.
If you want to build a consistent brand identity that reflects your mission and makes guests feel like they belong, visit getignitd.com and hit the Let’s Talk button on the homepage!