My brand of church.

Why do we brand churches? I have thought for a long time about how do we brand churches, mostly because that has been part of my job for the majority of my working career. I don't think I have really thought much about "why?" do we brand churches.

Why do we give churches names? Is it to define the message that we preach? If that is the case shouldn't all churches be named something like "Jesus Saves Church." Is it to define what our mission is? If that is the case shouldn't all churches be named something like "Jesus Loves and So Do We Church."

Church branding is one of the hardest things I have ever done in all my creative work. How do you compress everything a church is about into a few simple shapes and colors? If you have to choose one image to convey who you are, what image do you choose?

Branding is about simplify something. The problem is that when branding you have to try and make yourself distinct and different than someone else. If you have 20 similar things trying to simplify, and they end up simplifying down to the same main point, you have to find something else to be your focus.

Do people become a part of our churches because they are attracted by our secondary focus, the thing that we brand so we can stick out from the other 3 churches on the street? Or, do people become a part of our churches because of relationship, because of calling?

What about the community? Do we brand our churches so that they will stand out on a Yellow Book page, or climb to the top of the Google search?

I don't think I know all the answers (obviously, because all I wrote were questions), but what if we could figure out a way to show who we are by what we live, not by what we look like?