Christian Church Search

I always find church names rather amusing whenever I travel. Churches over stretch to create meaningful names but often… well… fall short. Church names like “The Open Bible” Church… what like we really want a “Closed Bible” Church, thought there are probably a number of those already. One of the Best Ones was the “Free Will” Church. Is that combating the idea of “Against My Will” Churches. Well, there is an interesting article and conversation taking place over this article. Stop in to read the complete discussion.

I’ve been inspired by Seth today. He did a post on dumb branding strategies. It reminded me of conversations Emily and I have had in the past about business names that rub us wrong. In fact, call us small-minded, but we tend to boycott businesses that use these strategies to name their businesses:

• J & K Plumbing - People don’t care that the two people who operate your business have first names that begin with “J” and “K.”
• Town & Country Podiatrist - We get it. You’re hoping to sell your foot-fixing services to people in the city and in the country. Isn’t everyone?
• Fast Fotos - This bugs Emily more than me, but, generally speaking, we think it’s annoying when businesses purposely misspell words to get the first letters to match.
• Dress Barn - OK, that’s a real business. All I can picture is very big dresses that fit barn-sized women. You may want to consider what your name communicates before you invest in the letterhead.

In case you’re wondering, there are also some annoying branding practices I see within the church. For example…

• Churches that feel like every ministry and every event in the church needs a creative name with a logo.
• Churches that brand ministries that mean something to insiders but are meaningless to the audience they’re trying to reach.
• Churches that brand ministries ahead of the church itself.
• Churches that brand the church ahead of the teaching series they’re hoping will impact the audience they’re trying to reach.

If you visited here before you will find that we have referred to Church Marketing Sucks. You may not like the name (I didn’t choose it) but some of the information is useful. It’s useful for my own ministry and I hope it gives you food for thought. Spending time on a good logo and tagline isn’t a bad idea. In fact it can be really important. However the article suggests that what your ministry stands for take on a an added “complete” aspect in your ministry. I hope you find the article useful. A portion is available here.

Brands Are Bigger Than Logos

by Scott Magdalein, Guest Blogger

If you read Church Marketing Sucks often, then you’ll see the word “brand” come up here and there. It’s used as a noun, meaning the collection of your logo, letterhead, visual identity, design guide, etc. It’s also used as a verb, as in the action of standardizing all those things mentioned above.

Here’s another point-of-view: If traditional marketing is dead (not yet, but almost), then you’re going to have to move beyond the traditional view of branding, which tells you to get a good logo and plaster it everywhere. Your brand needs to become more built-in, natural and part of everything you say, do and think — not just everything you publish.

Most church staff are always on the look out for good material, help and resources to make their communications even better. Here are several from Church Marketing Sucks. It provides information, examples and suggestions from many different people who are currently working on projects. It just might be worth a visit for you.

Church Marketing Lab: Welcome Displays, Bulletins and More

As the Church Marketing Lab nears 2,000 members, we want to remind you that anyone can take part. Whether you’re a designer, a person with a question or someone with an opinion, it’s the perfect place for you. And if you prefer the non-cyber world, check out the Local Labs. Here’s a taste of what’s been going on in our Church Marketing Lab this week.

 Now and then you find something you didn’t know existed and then find that it’s interesting. The thoughts from Phil Vischer on church communication and it’s relationship with the gospel message is interesting. He is both a visionary and big dreamer. Something our churches would benefit more from. Perhaps you might find the following from Church Marketing Sucks interesting for some ideas to begin having bigger dreams for your ministry… dreams the Lord may give you to extend beyond the box.

Churches as a Media Platform

Veggie Tales founder Phil Vischer has been blogging about his big dreams for his new company, Jellyfish (if you’re not familiar with Vischer’s departure from Big Idea, you should read his book, Me, Myself & Bob: A True Story About Dreams, God, and Talking Vegetables). So far he’s blogged about two problems:

• “Problem #1 – we need to raise a generation of Christians who know what it means to live out the Gospel.”
• “Problem #2 – Christian kids media is dying for lack of a platform.”

He’s gone on to talk about a platform to address these problems, which he called the “world’s smallest TV network.” God speed, Phil.

But I’ve got another idea: Why can’t the church be the platform?

Church Marketing Sucks (forgive the name… it’s not mine) often has interesting articles and insight into Church Marketing and related issues. Here is one that might interest your ministry.

Best Practices for Internet Ministry: Part 1

For the past year I have been conducting a research project on what makes a successful Internet ministry (see the specifics here). The goal of the research is to understand how churches and other ministries are implementing their web presence and then to use the results to develop a framework for successful Internet ministry.

I have spent many hours interviewing church web ministry leaders to better understand the various decisions they have made and processes they have used. Over the past couple of months, as many of you may know, I have surveyed over 240 ministries (which includes 88 churches) to try to get some deeper insights into their web implementations….

Looking for a decent resource for information on the Restoration Movement? You can start here to find the Wiki on the Restoration Movement.

[Excerpt] The Restoration Movement (also known historically as the “Stone-Campbell Movement”) is a Christian reform movement traced to the 18th and 19th centuries in the United States during the Second Great Awakening. Barton W. Stone and Alexander Campbell were leading figures of four independent movements with like principles who merged together into two religious movements of significant size. These churches have a total population of about 4,000,000 in the United States. Restorationism sought to renew the whole Christian church, on the pattern set forth in the New Testament, without regard to the creeds developed over time in Catholicism, Orthodoxy, or Protestantism, which allegedly kept Christianity divided. Churches are now found throughout the globe, claiming to “concentrate on the essential aspects of the Christian faith, allowing for a diversity of understanding with non-essentials.” Essentially, there are those who are not under the beliefs and doctrines of Alexander Campbell. These are members that believe in Jesus Christ the Son as the savior and authority of the church. Among key practices are the weekly celebration of the Lord’s Supper on the first day of each week and a commitment to believer’s baptism by immersion in water.