It’s easy to get caught up in creating the most amazing logo, brand identity or emblem (whatever you want to call it) for your church and forget the whole point. It’s not about the moniker, it’s about relationship. Reconciling people to God and equipping them for the work that has to be done.

In the blog Church Marketing Sucks, Kevin D Hendricks makes a point I have always agreed with. To quote him,
“Your church’s logo doesn’t have to look like the typical church logo. You don’t have to include a cross, dove, steeple, or flame if you don’t want to.”

So there, I hope you feel better now. No more pressure.

If the whole point is to create an open door for people to come and be changed by the Word, then going about branding and marketing our churches the same way we have always done presents a problem.  The traditional church brand, in the urban setting is one that pushes ‘exclusion’ as a product rather than ‘inclusion’.  Those who don’t look, smell or talk like Christians aren’t in until they fit the cookie cutter and become like everybody else.  Who wants to be treated that way?

My point is simple.  If our churches have departed from the old snobbish ways there’s a need to show it in the way we reach out and the image we present.  At the very least, a little cosmetic change by way of friendlier logos with fewer sharp edges and friendlier colors would be a great start.

It’s just the way I see it.

Once I made the decision to be a Christ-follower (read Christian), I was under new management. That means everything about me is subject to the One I follow. Sometimes I wonder how much of my life qualifies to be described as ’subjected’ in relation to Christ. I see flaws in my way of life, my way of thought, my way of business…. I also see how unwilling I am to change some of those ways. My journey I suppose to be less unwilling everyday.

Of all my struggles, I suppose my time is the single thing that I find most difficult to subject to the authority of God.