Why We Don’t Need a Branded Church
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Everywhere our eyes rove, we see branding: the spine of the book you’re reading, the ads dispersed in your Facebook feed, the cartoon on the milk in your fridge, the labels on our clothing, and the sticker on your child’s school binders. I can dig through thrift store bins of blue jeans and recognize what brand they are simply by the back pockets.
Branding is what helps us recognize our favorite brands—it helps us buy the smooth and creamy almond milk instead of the stuff that tastes like water and chalk. Branding also helps us recognize our favorite content creators on social media—we immediately discern their fonts, colors, and logos and slow our scroll to read what they’ve posted.
It sounds harmless, right? Perhaps even helpful. As a believer, you may even strive to choose your church based on its branding—or lack of branding for that matter. But what if branding shouldn’t be a part of the church at all?
The purpose of branding is inclusion and exclusion.
In an article on Forbes about the ten golden rules of branding, they explain that branding requires a niche focus:
Keeping your message focused for your target demographic will make it that much easier to both create content around your personal brand and have others define you … The narrower and more focused your brand is, the easier it is for people to remember who you are.[1]
During my freshman year of college, I started my first blog, and I dove into every resource I could find on Google about how to blog successfully. Over and over, this same message repeated itself in nearly every article I read. Branding begins by identifying a specific reader you want to reach—so specific that you should think of one single person and create each piece of content for that particular reader.
Once you’ve created this ideal client/reader, you form your brand to best reach them. In another article in Forbes, they explain that where most brands and businesses fail is by trying to reach everyone, but businesses that begin with a narrowed niche tend to thrive. [2] In other words, the more specific your ideal customer is, the more likely it is for your business to succeed.
By creating a brand like this, you are seeking to draw in people like your ideal client and in turn drive away anyone who isn’t like them. Consider some well-known brands like Hollister: If middle-aged people walked into one of those stores, would they get the sense that they belonged there? Of course not, because the brand is built to draw in teenagers who like beachy styles.
Branding is incompatible with the message and mission of the church.
This model is useful for businesses. If you’re a Christian freelance writer, you don’t want to draw in clients looking for medical writers. My husband runs a business repairing and building guitars, and he doesn’t want to draw in people who want factory-built wind instruments. As a business, you must put your energy into reaching the right people, not all people.
But this business model can’t work for the church. The church is meant to draw in everyone and anyone, because the church is made up of people across all generations, cultures, races, levels of education, careers, and backgrounds. The message of Scripture is for anyone who would trust in Christ for their salvation (Rom. 1:16). If as a church we are striving to only reach a niche, ideal churchgoer (and thus exclude others), we’ve missed the purpose to which God has called us. We’re no better than Peter, who didn’t want to be caught eating with the Gentiles (Gal. 2:11–21).
The Bible never has to be updated to meet the needs of a new era or culture.
In Patterson’s Forbes article, she writes that having a business that tries to reach everyone reaches no one. [3] Perhaps you’re concerned that this could be true for your church—if you’re attempting to reach everyone, how will you ever reach anyone?
Once again, the church doesn’t operate like a business because it has never been intended to be a business. The church doesn’t have a message like your local hipster coffee shop that is tied to a specific culture and time; the church carries a message that has stood the test of time. The Bible never has to be updated to meet the needs of a new era or culture. As Paul wrote to Timothy,
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. (2 Tim. 3:16–17)
This is because the Bible’s message isn’t a human one—it’s one given to us by the eternal, infallible, omniscient God who created everything. Not only did he write it, but he also sent his Holy Spirit to apply this Word to our hearts (John 14:25–26; 16:13–14; 1 Cor. 2:9–13). While a business must rely on human ability to reach its clients and customers, a church relies on God to change hearts for his glory. This is where branding and the mission of the church truly go head-to-head: One is to point people to the earthly establishment and imprint themselves on their customers’ memories, and the other is to reflect all glory to God. One day, both business and church brands will inevitably splinter and sink into the earth, but the gospel will go on for all eternity.
The church is a beautifully diverse body of believers.
As a churchgoer, I don’t need a church made up of people just like me. That may be fun for a time, but ultimately my life will be lacking.
I need people around me who disagree with me theologically. These people humble me whenever I start to think I’m better than those who are on the other side of the theological spectrum as me. Where I’m lacking in one area, they are often flourishing. These people help me remember that on issues of second and third theological importance, I may be wrong. They help me strengthen my beliefs and understanding of Scripture by asking good and hard questions I may have never thought of.
I need people who are older than me. It’s easy to roll our eyes at those who are older and think that we know better—but, more often than not, we don’t. I need moms who are finished with the little years, who can guide me through raising three children in the faith. I need those who have stood through more trials than me to hand along their wisdom and perseverance. I need these people to show me how to age in a way that glorifies God, making their gray hair a crown rather than scorning it.
I need people who are younger than me. I need them to inspire me with their childlike faith and wonder. I need them to help take myself less seriously. I need them to remind me of the importance of passing along the gospel message to the next generation.
I need those with different backgrounds, different experiences, different cultures, different upbringings. They remind me that my experience isn’t the only one, and they teach me how to understand those who are unlike me. I need them to remind me that God’s church is diverse and beautiful.
I don’t need a branded church that only reaches people like me—and neither do you. We need the whole body.
Logo or no logo, let the church keep the gospel central.
At the end of the day, having a logo, even brand colors and fonts, for your church isn’t inherently evil or anti-gospel. It may be helpful for your fellow church members to be able to quickly recognize your graphics online, so they don’t miss any important messages or events you post on social media. Yet, we must always guard against the temptation to brand our churches in such a way that we exclude our siblings in Christ or those whom God has called us to reach. Let us open our doors to any who believe and any who long to know the God who created all things by his Word.
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Notes:
[1] Goldie Chan, “10 Golden Rules Of Personal Branding,” Forbes, November 8, 2018.
[2] Rebecca Patterson, “Seven Ways To Identify Your Ideal Client,” Forbes, April 17, 2020.
[3] Patterson, “Seven Ways To Identify Your Ideal Client.”
