It takes someone 7 encounters with your brand or message for them to act on it. While most churches are aware of the need for branding, many don’t realize branding is partially a numbers game. What do those 7 encounters look like for your organization?

Having worked with tens of thousands of churches, we have seen, firsthand, the desire for improved branding and audience exposure. FaithHighway wants to help ministries maximize the effectiveness of each encounter with the church’s brand.  

We’ve come up with a formula to make it easy for churches to understand what elements encompass a brand:

In other words… Everything Is Branding. From the receptionist that answers the phone to indoor/outreach signage, and the online web presence to church events, everything that shapes the perception of the church within the community is building the brand and, in turn, reaching the community.

How to Define Your Brand

Americans encounter 5000 marketing messages daily.  Your brand should communicate what is unique to you and what you offer to your community.  Leaders need to have the following questions clearly identified and outlined:

• What is your organization’s mission? What is the core story?
• What are the unique advantages (points of difference) to your organization?
• What are the similarities to other brands in your area (points of parity)?
• What is the “Heart and Soul” of who you are? Try to define these in 3 to 5 key phrases.

From there, take the time to get feedback and think through these points.

• New Visitor perception of your brand.
  • What do your visitors and members already think about your organization?
  • If a new entity, what qualities do you want them to associate with your church/ministry?

• Community awareness and responsiveness to your brand.
  • What presence do you currently have in the community?
  • What perceptions do those in your community already have about your organization?

Branding Resources for Your Church

We’ve aggregated our advertising and marketing data to help organizations maximize their church branding and marketing efforts! This free eBook is available to all ministry leaders and covers the following information:

• Common Marketing Terms
• Getting the Most Out of Your Website
• Deciding Which Medium Is Right for You

We’ll be continuing this conversation on branding for churches in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, share your branding secrets below!

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 This is a sponsored post from faithHighway, one of my ministry partners on TonyMorganLive.com

Recently Joel Mikell, President of RSI Stewardship, and Ben Stroup released the second edition of Church Giving Matters: More Money Really Does Mean More Ministry. I caught up with Joel to talk about the book. We covered a variety of topics related to stewardship and generosity. Check out the video interview below.

For more information on how Joel and his team can help you exceed your financial goals to accomplish more ministry, visit RSI Stewardship online.

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RSI Stewardship is a strategic partner of TonyMorganLive.com.

By Ryan Stigile, contributing writer

Every local church is beautifully unique. Unlike any other in the world, each is driven by different passions, values, principles and each church reaches an entirely different group of people. Yet too often, instead of building ideas for change that are tailored to their own identity, churches transplant methods that were originally built for something different. The logic is simple, “If it worked for them, it will work for us!” But like a younger brother wearing hand-me-downs all his life, these churches continually try on new ideas that do not fit their size, style, or place in time.

If you want to make change that lasts, you have to make change that fits.

Change that fits is built from the inside, not copied from the outside. While this process is longer on the front-end, it leads to solutions that will carry your organization much further into the future. Consider these steps:

1.  Identify YOUR problems

Why do you need to change? General opinions about the problems of the modern church are very broad, they are a dime a dozen. Additionally, everyone who has spent five minutes around your specific church probably has an opinion about what is wrong with it. Instead of listening to outside and underdeveloped opinions, spend some time understanding the true problems of your organization. Often, what initially comes to mind is only a symptom of something deeper. Ask God to reveal the true necessary areas of improvement.

2.  Identify YOUR strengths

What are you good at? When analyzing problems, it is easy to develop a highly negative outlook. Regardless of the current problems you are facing, your church is still making a significant impact. Taking time to identify your strengths allows you the chance to reframe your outlook. This balanced perspective of problems and strengths provides the hope necessary to sustain the change process.

3.  Identify YOUR needs

List your problems and strengths in columns next to one another in front of your leadership team. How can you begin using your strengths to solve your problems? Get creative in the ways that you use them. After exhausting your strengths, determine what else is truly needed to move forward. You might require a new skill set, specific data, or an objective opinion. Whatever your need, identify and acquire it.

4.  Identify YOUR solution

Equipped with a clear understanding of your problems, strengths, and satisfied needs, you can create the change that fits. Instead of trying on ideas made for someone else, your church will be able to move forward with an organic solution most appropriate to its identity. And just like your favorite shirt, you’ll still be wearing it many years down the road…

…Why?  Because it fits you.

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Ryan Stigile

Ryan Stigile serves as the Strategic Analyst for Mount Paran Church in Atlanta, GA. Ryan is passionate about the inclusion of organizational principles in the local church. He is currently an MBA student at Kennesaw State University. 

Email Jason if you’d like to become a contributing writer.

I’m going to be at the Orange Conference in Atlanta this afternoon to teach a workshop on “Simply Strategic Volunteers.” No notes today. You’re on your own.

Title: Simply Strategic Volunteers

In case you haven’t figured it out, you’ll never have enough money to hire enough staff to accomplish your ministry vision. The only way it’ll happen is if you engage volunteers. I will share five simple strategies to connect people in serving opportunities at your church. These proven principles will help you grow the impact of your ministry while reducing the need to hire staff.

Time: 3:45 pm

For further reading: Stayin’ Alive: Build a Legacy of Leadership and Simply Strategic Volunteers

Recently, I connected with Warren Bird and Jim Tomberlin to discuss their new book, “Better Together: Making Church Mergers Work.” The book provides a complete, practical, hands-on guide for church leaders of both struggling and vibrant churches so that they can understand the issues, develop strategies, and execute a variety of forms of merger for church expansion and renewal to reinvigorate declining churches and give them a “second life.”

Here is my interview with Jim:

TONY: What are the pros and cons of mergers?

JIM: Mergers can be a fast-track way to multisite in a well-matched context. A successful merger results in healthy congregations, increased attendance, volunteers, financial sustainability, multiplied impact and ultimately a multiplied number of churches – more than when the merger first occurred. Mergers can also be a huge diversion of time, money and energy when they are not right for each other.

TONY: What trends are you seeing in church mergers?

JIM: We are seeing a new kind of successful church merger that is more mission-driven and future-focused than the old failed church mergers that were more survival-driven and focused on preserving the past. Even though multisite churches are driving many of today’s current mergers, mergers are by no means confined to the multisite movement. These mission-driven church mergers have tremendous potential to exponentially expand the impact of strong, vibrant churches as well as revitalize plateaued and declining churches. Progressive denominational workers are increasingly seeing these kinds of mergers as a way to add more vibrant congregations.

TONY: Can you share a story of a successful merger?

JIM: We share over 30 examples of successful mergers in our book but the one that stands out is the reconciliation merger in Ruston, Louisiana. After an 18-year split, the two churches had a reconciliation that resulted in a “re-union,” a new name “The Bridge Community Church,” a re-energized base and an overall increase in attendance at the two campuses. They now have a re-organized leadership team and a vision of multi-siting more across their region. This is a merger that began with a reconciliation and it is now bringing community transformation. Gotta love it!

TONY: You say that most successful mergers have a lead church and a joining church rather than viewing each other as equals. What does that mean?

JIM: Very few church mergers are between two equals, most are vastly unequal in size and health. Our sense is that every church merger involves a lead church and a joining church. The merging of churches is a delicate dance in which one leads and the other follows. We see successful mergers when both congregations understand who leads and who follows.

TONY: You say that mergers are on the rise and that the new approach overcomes the failure-prone approach of the past. Can you further explain this concept?

JIM: The successful mergers of today have a kingdom of God mindset that is looking for the win-win relationship. Both churches benefit when mergers are successful. The local community is better served and the Kingdom of God is expanded. What’s not to like about that?

You can follow more of Jim’s thoughts and updates from his ministry on Twitter.

Recently, I connected with Warren Bird and Jim Tomberlin to discuss their new book, “Better Together: Making Church Mergers Work.” The book provides a complete, practical, hands-on guide for church leaders of both struggling and vibrant churches so that they can understand the issues, develop strategies, and execute a variety of forms of merger for church expansion and renewal to reinvigorate declining churches and give them a “second life.”

Here is my interview with Warren:

TONY: What prompted you to write “Better Together?”

WARREN: Church leaders from many different contexts (church planters, established churches, very large churches) are asking about mergers with increasing frequency. Many are experimenting with the concept and some have found a healthy and life giving way to merge with other churches. Other leaders are looking for new options beyond the old models that have proved to fail. We wanted to glean best practices and create the leading handbook for how to do mergers well. In fact, right now our book is the only book that addresses this subject matter.

TONY: In your book, you say that 1 in 3 multisite campuses come as a result of a merger. Please explain this statement in more detail.

WARREN: We have found that as churches add new campuses, 1 in 3 come from a merger. This may be the way a church becomes multisite or it may be its third, fourth or fifth campus.

TONY: What are some common ways that church plants become involved in a merger?

WARREN: Church plants often have vitality and momentum but no facility. They often connect with a congregation that has a building but lacks the momentum to move forward. Sometimes the plant merges with the congregation from whom they are renting the facility. Their established trust and partnership emerges into a merger.

TONY: Are all church mergers the same?

WARREN: No. Our book introduces several types of mergers that are based on a family model such as rebirths and adoptions. We share the pros and cons of many models. We recommend considering each model except for an (intensive care unit situation). This is where two dying churches join only to fade away together.

TONY: How can a church know whether or not they are a good merger candidate?

WARREN: That is an excellent question. We devote an entire chapter on how to pray and discern what steps to take and what questions to ask.

You can follow more of Warren’s thoughts and updates from his ministry on Twitter.

In working on another project, I just compiled the ten key statements that have shaped my ministry to leaders and churches. It’s possible that everything I write and teach boils down to these key thoughts:

1. “It’s possible to do the ministry of God but not the ministry God called you to do.”
2. “Great leaders will leave your ministry if you focus on the execution instead of the outcomes.”
3. “God’s people don’t do the leader’s work — we equip people to do God’s work.”
4. “Mind the gap between your vision and your execution.”
5. “Stop promoting programs and events and start developing relationships and environments that lead to life transformation.” (The Giant Inflatable Blue Monkey)
6. “Think people before tasks. Think strategy before structure.”
7. “Churches continue to use their same systems, but they hope and pray for different results.” (The Leisure Suit Trap)
8. “Systems without purpose will keep people busy. Purpose without systems will keep people guessing.”
9. “Your message has the potential to shift thinking. Your systems have the potential to shift behaviors.”
10. “Leadership isn’t leadership if it isn’t released to others.”

You’ll probably hear and see me repeat these statements over and over again. (And then, just to make sure you heard me, I’ll probably share them again.)

Have you ever tried to capture your personal mission in phrases like this? If so, what would be on your list?

Yesterday morning, my family attended the first Easter services, then we volunteered at the second two services. Since I’m serving on the guest services team, I was able to pull my youngest daughter out of her class after my job was done welcoming everyone to the third service. That saved her from having to sit through the same lesson for the third time. And, it provided an excuse for me to head over to Starbucks and grab a coffee.

Yes, Starbucks is open on Sunday mornings. And, yes, that even includes Easter. The team who served me was very friendly. There were a number of customers seated both inside and outside the store. If people congregate at Starbucks on Sunday morning does that make them congregants? If so, Brooke and I qualified and our table was positioned very close to the barista’s pulpit.

What caught Brooke’s attention when she entered the store was the apple fritter in the glass case. What caught my attention was the large sign just inside the entrance promoting the opportunity to volunteer in my community. That’s right — Starbucks is focused on community service this month. Does that make Starbucks missional? Or, does the fact that they serve apple fritters make them attractional? I don’t know if I’m supposed to love their strategy to reach new customers and make caffeine converts or not. I’m so conflicted in my spirit.

By the way, here’s the video from the Starbucks website inviting me to volunteer to serve my community:

If you are a church leader, this Starbucks initiative should raise two challenging questions:

1. Is my church as intentional as Starbucks is at reaching my community? I can assure you, this isn’t a completely altruistic endeavor for Starbucks. At the end of the day, it’s all about their stock price and the bottom line. Obviously, they’ve come to the conclusion that community service helps them sell coffee. This strategic initiative helps them fulfill their mission.
2. Is my church any different than Starbucks is at reaching my community? Just to shoot straight with you, this “outreach” that Starbucks is engaging looks identical to many local missions efforts I see in churches across the country today. And, if we don’t effectively connect the mission to the message, the church looks no different than Starbucks. (Other than the fact that their marketing is better and our coffee is not as good.)

By Ryan Stigile, contributing writer

Many of us have a desperate desire for strategic change within our organization. Unfortunately, most of us are not the point leaders of our team. This lack of authority creates frustration for a forward-thinking follower. Constrained by position, the pursuit of change can feel far above our heads. I imagine many have thought, “My organization will never improve because my leader won’t initiate the necessary change.” This line of reasoning is based on the assumption that change develops strictly through a hierarchical structure. If we consider the reformation of societies,  innovations in industry, and turnarounds of organizations, we can find one truth that spans them all:

Change begins with new ideas.

New ideas are not restricted by structure, only lack of influence. Regardless of your position, the following principles can help you get the ball rolling from the bottom:

1.  Challenge the paradigm, never the person

Everyone on your team holds a paradigm of your organization, its problems, and the accomplishments it is capable of achieving. Some of the paradigms are accurate reflections of reality while many only limit the possibility of change. It is natural to judge a person’s heart by their paradigm. But paradigms are created by experience, not character. Despite disagreeing perspectives, the people on your team share a genuine desire for your church or organization. Challenge the paradigm but never challenge the person. The quicker you recognize and value someone’s heart, the faster you will win it.

2.  Utilize objective evidence, not subjective observations

Forward-thinking followers can quickly recognize the need for change with basic observations. General statements such as, “We need to be relevant” or “Our people are not serving,” can be quickly discredited with equally unverified opinions. Objective evidence provides credibility to your assessments, opening the door to discuss new ideas. Your subjective observations are probably correct, they just do not communicate well. Take them a step further by surveying your members, putting together a focus group, graphing your attendance data, etc. Verify your subjective observations with objective evidence that a real problem exists. (more…)

I visited the Chick-fil-A corporate headquarters for the first time today. This is what greets everyone who walks through the entrance to the main building:

It has nothing to do with selling chicken. Go figure.