Does Your Church Have Style?

| By Scott McClellan | Found in Design | 12 Comments

Does your church have a style guide? 

That’s the topic of this helpful post over at SHRINKthechurch, and I think it’s worth your time to check it out. Post author Brian Kaufman shares a link to download the rather impressive  and comprehensive style guide produced by Redemption Church in Arizona.

The goal of a style guide, of course, is to ensure that anyone creating visual communication pieces on behalf of the church does so in a way that’s consistent with the church’s mission, values, and aesthetics. If you take the time to read through Redemption’s style guide, you can’t help but notice the intentionality with which the church has articulated its vision and its visual preferences.

In reading through this vision, you’re likely to notice some things that are important to Redemption and its brand that aren’t important to your church. Perhaps you’re not dedicated to planting “Gospel-centered, Reformed, Missional churches.” Perhaps you don’t believe your church’s brand should be “confidently masculine.” Odds are that your primary typeface is something other than Interstate, although it’s a fine typeface.

Perhaps your brand’s color palette isn’t “strong and masculine, as if forged out of pure steel & testosterone.” Perhaps your preferred textures are something other than wood, leather, and concrete. Perhaps you don’t believe “gradients and bevels are for sissies.” Maybe, just maybe, as you’ve shaped the visual identity of your church’s communication efforts, you’ve chosen different themes, tones, values, and so on. I think that’s okay.

While there is be a conversation to be had about the traits and characteristics the universal Church should or shouldn’t embody, I believe local expressions of the universal Church can and should look different. Where there exist unique communities of unique individuals with unique gifts and histories, unique styles will emerge.

So by no means is your church obligated to adopt a “gradients and bevels are for sissies” mentality, but I still think you can learn something from Redemption Church’s style guide. Do the hard work of identifying your community’s ethos and explore the visual implications of that ethos.

In other words, perhaps our first question should be, Does your church have style?

Whatever conclusions you arrive at — whether you’re pro-concrete or not — articulate those conclusions in the form of a style guide. Share that style guide with your staff and volunteers and work together to represent the brand — and the universal Church — well.

Does your church have a style guide? Let us know in the comments. And hey, if you want to share a link to your church’s guide, the rest of us would love to check it out.

 

Scott McClellan is the Editor of Echo Hub and the Director of Echo Conference. Follow him on Twitter: @scottmcclellan. 

  • Anonymous

    I think this is something churches really need to look into. Once you start helping redesign things at a church, you need a solid way to maintain the standard that you’re trying to set. Not many people have any kind of design eye, so they don’t usually realize what they’re doing or how it doesn’t look very good. This is a good way of keeping the bad designs (I’m mainly referring to the overuse of cliche terms and the use of papyrus font) down. This is definitely something churches should at least have a small foundation in to have some consistency throughout the ministries of the church! Good points!

  • http://peripatew.com Luke McFadden

    We’re finishing up our style guide over the next few weeks. We rolled out our new logo/identity at the beginning of the year, and wish we would have had the style guide then. But it’s taken us a while to think through everything we need in it, so it’s a learn as we go thing, since we’re not pros. This style guide has been VERY helpful for thought-food. We’ve had a few issues already with people trying to create their own fliers, etc… and going completely against the new style.

  • http://echohub.com/ Scott McClellan

    Luke,

    It’s cool to hear that your style guide is coming together somewhat organically as you observe how leaders in your church are using the new logo/identity. Even once your style guide is “complete,” I imagine it might require updating from time to time as you observe more logo/identity usage across the ministries of your church. Thanks for chiming in.

  • http://twitter.com/robwthomas Rob Thomas

    Thanks for the link to the Redemption Church style guide… that PDF should be read not only by churches but any organization. I love it.

  • Jpoe87

    Great post and awesome example from Redemption Church…. Now only to communicate that with the rest of the staff!

  • Brandt Dotson

    I find it alarming and troubling as a Christian to see modern business models applied to the church. How can a church be worried about branding and marketing and not expect Christ to overturn the tables? Be more concerned that your church has SUBSTANCE, not style. This so-called Christianity for a fast-food nation that’s become popular makes me sick to my stomach. Tear down your silly logos and return Jesus Christ to the head, because without Him, it’s nothing but a man-made institution, and it’s leading people astray!

  • praeclara

    The best “style” you can give your church is to make it look like a church, not a business complex. Maybe study some historical architecture and have a sanctuary and no big screen televisions. Maybe display some icons, pictures of saints, Christian symbols. Style is for the mall and consumers. Blessed are those who have style? Really? More coolness in church.
    Aren’t we done with that yet?

  • Anonymous

    Pastel green isn’t masculine in my opinion. Neither is pastel green text on a white background. That color scheme is for sissies.

  • http://echohub.com/ Scott McClellan

    Welcome, Stuff Christian Culture Likes readers. If you’re new to the design/branding conversation within the Church — or if you just find it off-putting — I understand your response. I’m not optimistic about my chances of persuading you about the value of that conversation, but I’d be happy to answer any questions you might have about it. If you’d like, you can get it touch with me here: http://echohub.com/contact

  • http://twitter.com/JallenWebster Joshua Webster

    With that line of thought you are thinking of the church very selfishly. The reality of it is while yes we do need to keep Christ at the center our main priority is to reach the lost. In a modern society you do that with modern tactics. Tactics like attractive advertising and branding. When Jesus told his disciples to go and shout from the roof tops that he was going to be teaching it wasn’t to proclaim the gospel, it was the modern form of advertising in those days. Many businesses would hire people specifically to “advertise” from the rooftops of houses and shops to get the message out.

    Also just because a church is looking for brand continuity doesn’t mean they have taken Christ out of the equation. It just means they are handling themselves professionally which is a universally good idea.

  • http://www.leaplogic.net Michael Thomas

    Joshua,

    While I don’t entirely agree with Brandt – as a designer I am concerned with a trend towards style over substance in today’s church. I think great design in church communication is important, just like someone who leads worship should practice towards excellence.

    Does great design cause authentic transformation? Absolutely not. It is purely the motivation of the Holy Spirit, obviously -right? Can the Spirit move through design to reach through to someone? I’m sure, I think… though I’ve never witnessed it.

    But when we focus more attention on getting them in than sending them out or when we focus more on campaigns and branding than the equipping of the saints to do the work of the gospel, we’ve gone away from the message to building up the envelope, the letter and the mailbox.

    My biggest fear here, specifically found in the attached style guide is that the tone is typical designer narcissism – often sarcastic, arrogant and sometimes devoid of the humility and grace that would reflect a heart broken by Christ, redeemed to bring others that same good news. Designers, we can do better! We have been given great gifts, never be prideful of them!

    Lastly, I worry about our desire to “market” Jesus. Is that really necessary? Marketing is a tool used to spread exposure with the goal of increasing leads and sales in business. How do we increase the exposure of the gospel? By impacting the lives of those around us. Are we to suppose that we must add to or inject something additional into the gospel in order to make it distributable, accessible, marketable? I feel like if we spent more time with our neighbor, loving them with abandon we wouldn’t need to send him a high gloss postcard to our easter blowout celebrationaganza. He’d see shadows of Jesus in our eyes every day and that’s something even designers can’t compete with.

  • Leah

    Love this post – thank you!

    My question is: how often do you update your style guides? Personally, I feel like fonts and colors go out of style within a year or so (longer if you choose classic styles). Any thoughts on how often updating should happen?