Brand = the sum of every interaction with your organization
This is what my boss told us today in our weekly team meeting. He was speaking, of course, about how we brand ourselves as a business, and how branding goes deeper than simply a logo and some colors. That our brand (as a company) is literally comprised of every interaction a client has with our organization.
Naturally, this got me thinking about church things. I know…you’re probably shocked and surprised, huh?
For the Church, the brand is similar to what my boss was saying about a business…it is the sum of every interaction a person has with the Church. The difference being that our interactions with others should ultimately be informed and defined by Jesus himself.
In other words, we as believers should put on Christ every day, and what people see shouldn’t be Brad Bates but rather they should see Jesus Christ.
And what should our brand look like?
Our love for one another is our brand.
Our love for others outside of our body is our brand.
Jesus is our brand.
Being more Christ-like is our brand.
The power of the Holy Spirit is our brand.
1 Corinthians 13:4-8 is our brand.
The Gospel is our brand.
Prayer is our brand.
The Worship of God is our brand.
Healing the lame and sick is our brand.
Loving and obeying God’s word is our brand.
Our desire to #MakeHisNameGreat is our brand.
Guess what ISN’T our brand?
Our church logo, our musical style, our facility, our cool youth program, our men’s program, our women’s program, our internet presence, VBS, what instruments we use in worship, how we dress to go to church, the cool worship video’s we create for the songs our worship team writes, our pastors preaching style, and on…and on….and on.
The American church, unfortunately, is in the position it is in today because we have been chasing after the wrong brand. We were simply slapping lipstick on a pig and thinking this would be all that is necessary to bring people to the Church. What we should be doing is quit focusing on bringing people to the Church and start bringing people to Jesus. We need to be teaching them to obey God’s commandments. Our brand has been our own personal empire, and not expanding the Kingdom of God.
It is time for the American Church to experience a re-branding. And I don’t mean the kind you pay an expensive marketing firm to help you come up with.
Forgive us Lord for making your bride (the Church) about us and not about You! Help us re-brand ourselves, not according to the latest marketing schemes, but according to Your Word that we would put off the old man and put on the new man…who is made new through Jesus Your Son!
Sadly we’ve become so commercial, focusing on how to get a mass appeal. You’re spot on. Our faith is so much deeper than the shallow antics we dress it up with.
We certainly have played to the consumers for far too long. To our detriment. I recently read an article that gave me some hope. It basically stated that consumers are the ones who are generally leaving the church in recent days and that this actually isn’t a bad thing. And I agree. You want them there. You want to see them saved. But ultimately they are there to consume and not to be the church in action.