| Please Stop Talking About Branding
There's so much talk these days about "branding" in the North American evangelical church. The look, language and the target audience seems to be at the forefront of discussion by nearly every growing congregation. "Who we are" to the lost community is the roundtable discussion of the day. The dry definition of a brand is the symbolic embodiment of all information connected to a company, product or service--basically the sum total of what an audience thinks and feels about an organization.
Applied to the church, it's wrong, and it's dangerous. Why? On two levels, branding and the church are on a collision course with God's Word. That might sound extreme, but hey, it's my website. Frankly, as I examine scripture, over and over again the Bible details God's simple and always-successful plan for being and growing His church, and it has absolutely nothing to do with branding. When we focus on the Bible, we find a simple process in the book of Acts for how the church should work. In the briefest terms, it should be devoted to learning the Word of God, fellowship (ministry), breaking of bread (the Lord's Supper, which is identified with worship) and prayer (Acts 2:42-47). The passage concludes that "...God added daily to their number," indicating that the growth of the church comes not from our effort, but from God. When taken in the context of scripture, here's where I think branding in general misses the mark for the church:
We are focusing on something other than God and His Word. A brand, by its very definition, is based on the thoughts and feelings of people, which are not concrete and reliable and can shift and change in time. In fact a brand is our "total impression." Ours--that is, from a human and frankly often flawed perspective.
As believers we have God's Word, which is fully reliable and unfailing. The decision many churches today face is this: Do we expend time, energy, money and effort to mold in our own eyes a concrete vision and mission for the church to a unique demographic, using certain styles and preferences to draw a segment of the lost population to the church ("branding"), or do we simply follow Acts 2:42 and see what God does with it?
That sounds oversimplified, but it is certainly not. A church that is committed first to obedience to God's Word will not require a complex brand identity for success. In fact, the Bible confirms in Acts that God is waiting to bless these obedient churches who just obey His Word--no more, no less. There are literally thousands of American of churches today looking to something, anything in terms of making a mark besides simply knowing and obeying God's Word. To those who say this view is naive or can't be done, or does not take into account the media-savvy society in which we live, I respond, "Have you even tried it?"
We are not taking the mark of Christ. When we attempt to "brand" our church to some target audience, demographic or ministry component, we are simply not attaching ourselves centrally to the image of Christ. Some would argue that a brand could contain elements of this identity with Christ, but that identity will in its truest form always point exclusively to Christ. A marketing brand will always relate most closely to a group of people. So we can become known by something other than our devotion to Christ. Listen to what Paul says in 2 Thessalonians:
...we constantly pray for you, that our God may count you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may fulfill every good purpose of yours and every act prompted by your faith. We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
2 Thessalonians 1:11-12
The problem with not focusing on Christ being "glorified in us" is that it sets up a situation where someone or something other than God is celebrated. Make no mistake, God is out for His own glory. Our desire should be first to glorify Him. God spells out that obedience to His Word and molding ourselves into the image of Christ are the means to experience God's glory among a church family.
So if there is to be any kind of "brand" within the church, it should be only a reflection of Christ. That is, when people see my church, they should not necessary see relevance to themselves, or programs that meet their needs--rather, they should see Christ honored and glorified by those who are a part of it. This flies in the face of today's catering-driven evangelism, which often relies on marketing to draw a crowd and programs to keep them. Instead let's remember that Christ said that He would draw men to Himself.
The creep. Branding as a marketing tool as crept into the church for about the last two decades, and now finds itself at the forefront of discussion. But honestly, this an unbiblical concept. What we think and feel about the church is irrelevant, and crafting the image of the church in this way takes the focus off of Christ and on to catering to a demographic. I have yet to find a church with a strong "brand" that immediately points me to Christ. I see a lot of brands that communicate "young," "urban," "relational," "relevant," or "today," but not one that points me to the image of Christ I see so clearly in scripture. Branding is helping the church creep farther away from the Bible's core teaching on the function and methods of the body of Christ.
Oh, and don't forget about... Perhaps the biggest think-fog caused by the branding movement is that many churches in the pursuit of successful marketing overlook the work of the Holy Spirit. God Himself is opening people's hearts through His Spirit daily. Is there an eternal entity working in the heart of anyone you know of that is drawing them toward Coca-Cola, or a new Dell computer, or that fabulous Mustang convertible? Branding in the marketplace helps to generate feelings that lead to purchases. But feelings can be misleading.
In the church, we do not want to generate emotional responses. Instead our desire is to help solidify beliefs that become unwavering with time and experience. We want people to commit to follow Christ even when it gets hard. We want people to understand that the Bible teaches that some suffering is often involved in the Christian life and that God's glory is shown in our sacrifice (remember, "take up your cross and follow Me"?). Brand identity may leave you feeling happy about spending more than you have for a HDTV, but does it really have a shot at generating the kind of devotion that God calls us to?
Do you begin to see why branding as a concept misses some core elements of what makes the church what it is? Branding is about crafting an image. The church is about being the body of Christ. If you commit to spend as much time in God's Word understanding His plan for the church as you will likely need to spend coming up with a marketing "brand" for your congregation, you'll find the former far outstrips the latter in effectiveness. Let your response to the "branding" question be this: "We are imitators of Jesus Christ."
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About the Author. Eugene L. Mason has more than two decades of experience in ministry communications and technologies. More...
Copyright Eugene L. Mason. All rights reserved. 031109
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