The Cattle Ranching Secret of Clear Church Communication

Branding originated with cattle farmers who wanted to make sure others could distinguish their cattle from others when they roamed together in a field. They used a hot iron to mark them. Ouch.

Church branding is the same, but thankfully different. However, several principles are similar.

The logo needs to be unique. Imagine if every farmer decided to have line art of a cattle head in their brand. Imagine the confusion that could happen! A farmer’s branding iron can’t be too complex with small details and can’t have the same elements of other cattle farms to avoid confusion. Your church brand requires the same. It needs to be incredibly simple and avoid design elements that other churches are using (i.e. crosses, doves, flames, bibles, etc.). And I would extend it farther: make sure your logo avoids design elements and concepts of businesses in your community too. This is so difficult! It requires much thought and professional design expertise. Designing a lasting professional logo takes time and  talent. Stop doing them yourself. It becomes a representative symbol for your church for a decade or more.

The logo needs to represent the “farm”. A brand is much more than the symbol. The symbol is just a visual reminder of the organization. Churches today tend to create ministry silos (the sign of an ineffective church brand). Instead, we need to create a brand that represents the entire “farm”. Your brand should talk to the overall solutions offered by your local church (that correspond directly with the concerns and problems of your reach area population). And that thread gets interpreted by each of the ministries within the church while reinforcing it with their communication.

People need to know where to find the owner. Usually a brand symbol is hung over the farm’s main gate so people can quickly identify ownership of the cattle. Imagine if the farm kept changing the symbol! Longevity is required to have a recognized brand. No one, except those who work on the farm, would be able to remember the current look. So our churches need to create a symbol that’ll last! Often, our places of worship switch branding elements too often because leadership grows weary of them. Please note: the brand is not for you; the brand needs to be for the community!

The cow hide limits what farm brands can look like. Today, we have websites, social media, printing, and video that offer very little limitations. We can practically do anything we want with our communications, but that doesn’t mean you should. You MUST set boundaries, limitations, and fences that restrict brand elements. Your brand standard (the manual that establishes the fences) should include: 2-3 colors, 1-2 fonts, 10-12 keywords (that people are looking for in Google), an emotional response to your brand, and an easy-to-remember solution thread (3-5 words that act as a tagline to remind what the visual brand will deliver). Again, this probably requires a trained brand strategist or designer.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mark MacDonald

Mark MacDonald

Mark MacDonald is a Bible Teacher, speaker, best-selling author of Be Known For Something, and communication strategist for BeKnownForSomething.com and the Florida Baptist Convention. He empowers churches to become known for something relevant (a communication thread) throughout their ministries, websites, and social media. His book is available at BeKnownBook.com and amazon.com.

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comment_post_ID); ?> Thank you for this information. I'm going to use this article to improve my work with the Lord.
 
— Abel Singbeh
 
comment_post_ID); ?> Thank you Ed for sharing your insights into the Church Growth Movement. I have my reservations with Church Growth models because it has done more damage than good in the Body of Christ. Over the years, western churches are more focused on results, formulas and processes with little or no emphasis on membership and church discipline. Pastors and vocational leaders are burnt out because they're overworked. I do believe that the Church Growth model is a catalyst to two destructive groups: The New Apostolic Reformation and the Emerging Church. Both groups overlap and have a very loose definition. They're both focus on contemporary worship, expansion of church brand (franchising), and mobilizing volunteering members as 'leaders' to grow their ministry. Little focus on biblical study, apologetics and genuine missional work with no agenda besides preaching of the gospel.
 
— Dave
 
comment_post_ID); ?> Thank you for sharing such a good article. It is a great lesson I learned from this article. I am one of the leaders in Emmanuel united church of Ethiopia (A denomination with more-than 780 local churches through out the country). I am preparing a presentation on succession planning for local church leaders. It will help me for preparation If you send me more resources and recommend me books to read on the topic. I hope we may collaborate in advancing leadership capacity of our church. God Bless You and Your Ministry.
 
— Argaw Alemu
 

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