1. Church media costs money, but doesn’t have to cost much. Sharefaith recently conducted a large-scale research project on local church’s use of media. During the survey, we discovered that the average church media budget is just $300. (That’s not much.) We also discovered that many churches are spending way too much on church media. Like the fact that the average church website costs $3,000. (That’s too much.) Churches are either budgeting too little or spending too much on church media. Or both. The good news is, church media doesn’t need to blow the budget. That’s why Sharefaith is priced at only $149/year. And, yes, that includes a church website.
2. Church media can save money. Although church media costs money, it also saves a ton of it. Just one feature of church media, like projecting lyrics instead of using hymnbooks, can save a new church over $4,000. What can you do with an extra four grand in the church budget? And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Church media has an astonishing number of money-saving benefits.
3. Church media connects to the culture. No questions asked, we live in a media-saturated culture. If you don’t believe me, reach out and touch the screen in front of you. If our culture is media-drenched (and it is), the church has a role to play in connecting with our culture—reaching the culture and making disciples. Church media paves the way for this kind of disciple-making activity.
4. Church media enhances clarity. Have you ever wished that your preaching could be more powerful, impacting, clear, or insightful? Besides the essential ingredients of prayer, Holy-Spirit dependence, thorough study, and the right tools, media can also help. A video illustration, a diagram, a picture…church media provides greater clarity.
5. Church media improves attention. One of the reasons for media’s widespread appeal is the effect that it has in capturing attention  Media, properly done, grabs the attention, making the message of the church more memorable. From announcement slides to Scripture on the screen, you can improve the memorability of your message by using church media.
6. Church media is essential for effective church marketing. Despite the baggage associated with the term “church marketing,” there is a need for good church marketing—proclaiming the message of the church to those who need to hear it. The means to do this is church media. Ever heard of a church website? It’s that information source about your church that should come up when locals do a Google search for “[city name] church.” (Sorry, but people aren’t checking out churches in the Yellow Pages anymore.)
7. Church media takes time, but not much. Graphic designers are great people, but not every church can employ a graphic designer to make stunning stuff for the church. That’s where a site like Sharefaith comes in. A small army of uber-talented graphic designers already spend their time designing jaw-dropping stuff so you don’t have to. Forget enrolling your church secretary in Photoshop classes. Just get a Sharefaith subscription. Do a little comparison. You can either spend six hours designing a new PowerPoint for pastor’s new preaching series, or you can take twenty minutes and drop his outline into an already-designed PowerPoint template. Is that a no-brainer or what?
8. Church media has pitfalls. Keep in mind that for all its benefits, church media has pitfalls. It’s easy to depend on it, to invest too much time or money into it, to try to mimic the world’s use of it, to be distracted by it, etc. Use media prayerfully and carefully, recognizing that it does have pitfalls. But by all means, use it!
9. Church media is compatible with relevance. Relevance (the right kind) is important. However, relevance isn’t about rocking better church media. No. Instead, properly using media to deliver the message maintains the inherent relevance of the Christian message to our culture. Media neither detracts from nor enhances the message. Rather, media is a tool—kind of like a speaker or an amplification system—for proclaiming the message.
10. Church media can improve worship. Nothing can actually improve the essence of worship, but some things can improve what we do in worship. For example, projecting the lyrics on the screen can improve the congregational singing during worship. Printing a church bulletin can help to keep people informed about church events, or can enable them to follow a Scripture lesson. A church website can provide news, encouragement, and information about the church. What the church is—a worshipping community—is defined by what the church does. Media helps that happen.

Church media is a lot. It can even be pretty complicated. At its most fundamental level, however, church media is about glorifying God. Sharefaith is an organization rooted in the commitment to help the local church. The media we provide gives you the tools you need to proclaim your message—to glorify God better.

To resolve this you just need to change the transparency. Here’s how:

1. Open up your bulletin in Word on your Mac computer.
Set the View to “Print View”:

2. Scroll to the second page, place your cursor in middle of page, and left click. You will see dots around the image:

3. Right click anywhere inside those dots > click “Format Picture”:

4. Select the “Colors and Lines” tab:

5. Under Fill, leave “Color” at “No Fill” and slide the “Transparency” slider from 100% to 0%:

6. Click “OK” (and the image will appear):

We know that some of our backgrounds have both light and dark colors on them and wanted to give some pointers on what to do to make sure your text will show up against all of it.

Media. That one word entails a world of sensations, experiences, visions, apparitions, stuffed email inboxes, exabytes (yeah, that’s a word) of information, old cell phones, new smartphones, trillions of dollars, mesmerizing messages, absolute bewilderment—a seismic cultural shift. It’s all about media. In today’s info-torrential and media-saturated world, don’t think that the church has gone unchanged. It’s changed. In a big way.

Here we are:  smack-dab in the middle of 2011. It’s the age of the Millennials, an 80-million member generation that is more plugged into tech and tuned out to God than any other generation in American history. The world is online; nearly two billion people now have Internet access. A shocking five billion people in the world are cell phone users, tribespersons of Nokia, Apple, Droid, or any of the many other cellular iterations. Amidst the glow of iPads, the buzz of mobile phones, the flash of advertisements, and the ubiquity of WiFi hotspots, the church must somehow get its message across.

Part of reaching this generation is speaking their language—communicating in a way that is understandable and powerful. Churches must embrace technology, redeeming it for relevance and authenticity. In a word, churches need an affordable, professional, and accessible place for all their media needs.

Sounds like a tall order. If you could have your wildest pastoral media dream, what would it be? Blow-you-away awesome graphics for everything (ideally created by an übertalented graphic designer who loves Jesus). Video for worship. Church welcome videos. Rocking PowerPoint sermons. Bulletins for every Sunday. Flyers galore. Newsletters. Graphics. Everything. (Dream, dream, dream.)

And if you had to put a price tag on it, what would you be willing to pay? I know, you have a small church, so you’d only be willing to pay, oh, maybe like three cents a day.

Oh, and one other thing. You need a church website. A good one. Like a megachurch website—complete with video and audio. It would have to be a website that was easy to set up, to update, and to use. And it would have to be free.

Is this kind of one-stop media solution really possible (outside the realm of your wildest pastoral dreams, of course)? Yes. In a word, it’s Sharefaith—the world’s largest collection of church media. With an online library of over 38,000 designs, and a membership of tens of thousands of churches, Sharefaith is the church’s partner for reaching this generation with the truth of Jesus. We want to help you achieve excellence in your communication, to grow your church, and to reach more people.

Basically, your wildest pastoral media dream just came true.

• If you’re not a member, sign up here
• If you’d like to try Sharefaith’s free trial, click here.

1. Don’t overdo it on fonts: You might think you’re being creative when you throw a bunch of different fonts on your slide, but really you’re overwhelming the people who are trying to read it and giving them a headache. Stick to no more than 2 or 3 primary fonts. Anymore just makes it look cluttered and unprofessional.

2. What to put on backdrops that are both light and dark: If you are using slides with backgrounds that go between light and dark, it can be a real pain going through and changing the colors of individual words (or sometimes even letters) just so people can see it. The best style of font to do in those cases would be to use white lettering and a drop shadow effect. This text shows up on just about anything light or dark.

To do this in PowerPoint 2003, refer to this link: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/powerpoint-help/add-or-remove-a-text-shadow-HP005192238.aspx

For PowerPoint 2007 or 2010, please refer to the video tutorial:

PowerPoint Text With Drop Shadow Tutorial

3. Don’t use Times New Roman and/or Arial on every sermon slideshow: sometimes having a really nice looking PowerPoint backdrop can be cheapened by using basic boring text. That’s not to say there aren’t appropriate uses for it (it’s actually great for worship slides or videos), but it can make the difference from a professional church sermon slideshow and a fourth grade typing project (granted fourth-graders these days could probably blow you away with some of the PowerPoint presentations they could knock out). Remember that we at Sharefaith include a Word document with our image zip packs that you can download for the PowerPoint presentations. They each come with a list of the fonts that we use on that particular slideshow and we suggest you use those ones, but of course you have the ultimate say in what you do.

MARCH 10 UPDATE: Facebook is disabling FBML on March 11. If you want to use FBML for your church Facebook page, you must install FBML on or before March 10.

Since so many churches are using Facebook these days, we want to provide you with tips for making your church Facebook page even better. You don’t need to be a programmer or a graphic designer to enhance your Facebook page. All you have to do is follow instructions. In the following article, we’ll show you step-by-step guie to creating a Facebook landing page.

What is a church Facebook landing page?

A Facebook landing page is basically an image that people will first see when they find your church Facebook page. This isn’t the little profile picture in the upper left corner. Instead, this is a large image that is set in the center of the Facebook page. The image is hyperlinked, meaning that if you click on it, you will be redirected to another page.

A church Facebook landing page is a great way to say “welcome” to page visitors, and to present your most important information first. Facebook’s default landing page for fan pages is the Wall. Unfortunately, the wall is more of an interactive area where fans and church members can interact, and where you can post updates. It’s easy to get lost in the flood of posts. It’s way better to have a fresh, attractive landing page that presents important information and a pleasing design. Here’s how to do it.

What you need:

• A Facebook fan page.
• A program to design a graphic. If you don’t have Photo Shop, you can use Microsoft Word, PowerPoint Keynote, Pages. These programs will work just fine as ad hoc graphic design programs.

Design Your Church Facebook Landing Page Graphic

We’re going to keep the instructions real short for discussing the landing page graphic. All you need is some basic familiarity with creating or resizing a graphic.

1. Make a pretty graphic, featuring your church and any info you want. You can even use a Sharefaith PowerPoint jpg. or flyer image, if you want. You may want to ask people to click the “like” button, attend your Easter service, or list service times. IMPORTANT: Your image can be no more than 520 pixels wide, but it can be as long as you want.
2. Next, upload your graphic to the Internet. If you don’t have a web hosting service, try using ImageShack to upload and host your image for free. It’s pretty easy to use, so we won’t go through the step-by-step process for that. Just follow the instructions and upload your graphic.

Okay, now that you’ve got a graphic, you’re ready to roll with creating the church Facebook landing page.

Step-by-Step Process for Creating the Church Facebook Landing Page.

1. Go to the Static FBML application page. Be sure you’re logged into Facebook. Don’t let this mumbo-jumbo acronym “Static FBML” scare you. “Static FBML” is just geek-speak for the cool graphic page that you’re going to add to your page. “FBML” means “FaceBook Markup Language.”
2. Find the “Add to my Page” link, and click it.
3. If you are the administrator to your church Facebook fan page, you’ll see a window open up, and your church fan page will be listed in the box. Click the “Add to Page” button beside your church name. Now, you’ve successfully added Static FBML to your page. Easy. But we’ve got some work to do still.
4. Next, go to your church Facebook fan page. Make sure you’ve clicked “Use Facebook as CHURCH NAME” if you haven’t already.
5. Now, click the “edit info” button, which should be located near the top of the page right underneath your church name. This will take you to some of the machinery behind your church Facebook page.
6. On the left side of the page should be a list of little icons and labels. Find the one that says “Apps.” Click it.
7. In the center of the page, there will be a list of Apps that your church fan page is currently using or could be using. Find the one that says “FBML” and click the “Go to App” link. It looks like the image below. (If you can’t find it, go to the “Browse More Applications” at the bottom of the page, and it should appear.
8. Sip coffee. Okay, so far so good. Now, we’re ready for a bit of programming fun. Don’t run away yet. This isn’t going to be very hard at all. Relax.
9. Change the “Box Title” of your FBML box to something nice and readable. For example, on the Sharefaith fan page, our FBML landing page is called “HUGE DISCOUNT! EASTER PRICING! – FBML” because we have such an amazing Easter promotion going on right now.
10. Type in the  link you’d like people to visit when they click the landing page image. Most likely, this will be your church’s website. Use the example in the image to structure your own. Setting a link will allow visitors to click the FBML image and be redirected to your church website. The link text will look like this: <a href=”http://YOURSITE> [insert image code] </a>
11. Add the link to your custom image source to the FBML box. Just copy our format using your own details for the image source (see image below). It will go like this: <img src=”http://IMAGELINK” width=520 height=”400″ border=”0″ target=”_blank” />. Obviously, you’ll type in something different for IMAGELINK, and, if you know what you’re doing, you can change the width, height, border, and target. 
12. Click “Save Changes.” Again, you must make sure that the code matches exactly the above example. One stray period, space, or period will throw the whole thing off. Perfection is key.
13. In your Page Edit section, click on “Manage Permissions.”
14. For the “Default Landing Tab” select “FBML.” This will allow your new custom landing page to be the first thing that people see when they visit your page. 
    
15. As the administrator of your own page, you will not see the FBML landing page as the default landing page. However, you can view the landing page to see what it looks like. Go back to your main fan page area, and click on the tab you’ve created. In the image below, you can see the “HUGE DISCOUNT! EASTER PRICING” which is Sharefaith’s FBML landing page.Now, we can see our FBML landing page. Clicking on the image will direct people to a Sharefaith signup page, just as we set in the FBML code.

Take another sip of coffee. You’ve successfully created a landing page for your church Facebook page.

Church branding should not be an afterthought. Church branding is about your identity as a church. Church branding is what you communicate as the body of Christ. Church branding is a reflection on the God you proclaim. Church branding is really important. As Justin Murphy wrote in his two-part series on church branding, “Getting that message across is what ministry branding is all about.” Today, we’re going to explain one aspect of ministry branding and how to do it. It’s about church logo design. We’re going to let you know about a special church logo design offer from Logo Design Guru.

What is a church logo?
A church logo is simply a graphic identifier for your ministry. Just like Starbucks has their iconic seal and Nike has the svelte “swoosh,” a church logo is a visual entity that communicates your church’s identity.

Why is a church logo important?

• A church logo is important because it is the foundation of your visual identity and branding. A logo is the first thing that a church should design when they’re going for a new look—or any look. A church would never start their new look by designing the letterhead or envelopes. The logo is the core. It is the church logo that will be printed on the letterhead, on the envelope, on the website, and on the church sign. The logo takes the lead. It defines the style of the visual identity, the colors, and the overall scheme.
• A church logo is important because it captures a sense of who you are as a ministry. The logo isn’t merely cool colors and a trendy shape. A logo is a communication tool. It says something about you as a ministry. Many ministries prefer to have a cross as part of their logo. Mission organizations often choose a globe or wheat as a component of their logo. Others like to have an open Bible or some similar design. A logo tells people in a brief snapshot, what they’re looking at.
• A church logo is important because it is a symbol of your ministry. A logo doesn’t have to blatantly communicate something just by itself, however, More important than what the logo looks like is what that logo represent. It represents you. Your ministry. Your church. Your people. Your building. Your friendliness or unfriendliness. Your reputation. The Nike swoosh doesn’t communicate anything concrete by itself. However, as a symbol it communicates a whole lot—athleticism, speed, sportswear, basketball, tennis shoes, and so on. Even if your church logo doesn’t have the explicit symbolism of a cross, or wheat, or a Bible, it does indeed serve as a symbol of your ministry. The symbol is important, not because of what it is inherently, but because of what it represents.

Do you really need a church logo?
You can have a church without a logo. Nonetheless, a church logo is an important part of branding your ministry. Here are a few reasons why you should have a church logo.

• A church logo gives your church a unique identifier.
• A church logo communicates that your church is interested in being identifiable.
• A church logo relates a concern for the visual image of your church.
• A church logo suggests that your church is stable and established.
• A church logo provides a core visual element that can be used on all your visual media.
• A church logo supplies your church with a compact form for communicating your ministry identity.

How do you get a church logo?
Most churches don’t need to be persuaded that they need a logo. When it comes to actually creating that logo, there may be some questions. Let’s clear up some common concepctions, or misconceptions about church logos.

• No ministry is too small to need a logo. Any church or ministry, regardless of size or age, should establish their own visual identifier.
• A logo should be unique. Generally speaking, a piece of clipart with your church name underneath it is not a good logo. You need something unique and aesthetic. Clipart has a reputation for being tacky.
• You should get your logo professionally-designed. Unless you have a professional logo designer in your church, you’ll probably need to go to the pros. It’s ok to do so.
• A logo design is going to cost you some money. Even though you’re a church, expect to shell out a little bit of dough to get a good logo. It’s hard to put a price tag on a logo, because it can be (and I use this word carefully) invaluable. Plus, you’re probably going to use that logo for ten years…or a hundred years.

Are you ready to get a church logo?
If your church doesn’t already have a church logo, Sharefaith would like to help you get one. Sharefaith is all about helping churches communicate better. You’re probably already familiar with our library of 34,000 designs. Now, we’d like to introduce a way for you to get a professionally-designed logo. Our logo design partner is www.LogoDesignGuru.com. Logo Design Guru has experience in creating logos for churches and religious institutions. They are poised to create a unique and professional logo for your ministry. Here’s what you can expect from Logo Design Guru:

• Variety and selection. Logo Design Guru uses a diverse group of designers working independently, so you won’t have one or two design options with just minor variations. Instead, you will be offered a broad spectrum of styles, and you get to pick what you like best.
• Customization. You probably already have a sense of what kind of logo you’re looking for. That is, you may know whether you want your logo to look cartoonish or sophisticated, clean or grunge, cutting-edge or retro. Logo Design Guru allows you to identify the style that you’re going for, so designers know what creative path to embark upon.
• Speed. Logo Design Guru isn’t your typical 9 to 5 company. Logo Design Guru team members are working around the clock to create logos, and you can probably expect some good options within a few hours.
• Support. I don’t know about you, but I like to feel as if there are real people behind the company that I’m dealing with. With Logo Design Guru there are real people. I’ve talked with them. And they’ll talk to you, too. They offer live support right on the website, and they’re very responsive. I like that.
• Low price. We didn’t say that designing a church logo was going to be dirt cheap, but Logo Design Guru does provide a pricing structure that’s hard to beat. They work on a “prize money” pricing model, that allows you to “bid” your logo design for as low as $150.

We’re continuing with some powerful game-changing information for your ministry—the basics of branding. If you read the last article, you now understand how vitally important effective branding is. Hopefully, you’ve even taken some practical action-steps toward implementing the information. This second article from Justin Murphy takes the information farther with some practical steps for church branding.

In my last post, we started by defining “branding” and we embarked on the journey of helping your ministry define its brand. We covered the first step already. Here are the remaining two steps in the process. For review here are all three steps. Read the first article for step one. Steps 2 and 3 are described in the remainder of this article.

Three steps to branding your ministry:

• Step 1: Define who you are (a.k.a. your brand, described by 3-5 defining statements)
• Step 2: Identify your touch-points
• Step 3: Create pieces to use for each touch-point

Step 2: Identify your touch-points

I asked you to begin brainstorming over this question: what are the various touch-points you have with people in your community? A touch-point is a venue where you intersect with people in your community (either physically or virtually). What did you come up with? You probably listed some of the following touch-points (this list is not exhaustive):

Personal Touch-Points:
For personal touch-points, you will want to specifically equip your people to personally speak your message (or be able to give out an item like a tract or door hanger that communicates your message). In order to equip your people, your defining statements should be emphasized from the pulpit regularly. Your people also will need pieces to share the message indirectly (tracts, door hangers, brochures, etc.).

• In stores
• In homes
• In workplaces
• At social events (parties, community gatherings, concerts, etc.)
• At restaurants
• At public places: parks, malls, etc.

Indirect Touch-Points:

• Direct mail
• Magazines
• Newspapers
• The Yellow Pages
• Brochure
• Door hanger
• Public advertising signage (subway displays, billboards, etc.)
• Your facility, signage, grounds, etc.

Virtual Touch-Points:

• Web site
• Social media
• E-mail outreach/newsletters
• Video/DVD
• Radio
• TV
• Phone
• Text

You should make sure that you are utilizing as many touch points as possible, since you may be able to reach some people with one venue that you won’t be able to reach with another. It is important that you be consistent, emphasizing your defining statements within each touch-point so that as the community continues to see those statements repeated, your brand begins to take shape in their minds. For example, you may have come up with three actual defining statements (your message). One strategy you can use to educate your community on who you are is to put do a a set of direct mail (your touch-point) pieces (your messengers) to the community over the course of 3 weeks. In our example, our strategy will be to do a direct mail piece that will go out once a week to the surrounding 2 zip codes of the church. You’ll want to sit down and decide which defining statement would be important to highlight with each post card. Then decide what other type of content information you want to include on the front and back (e.g., logo, tagline, gospel message, etc.).

For a direct mail piece, we always advise our clients to use smaller, non-standard post-card sizes and to highlight one, single message on the front of the card. You only have a second or two to catch a person’s eye as they scan through their stack of mail. A non-standard-shaped post card, with a clear, simple message is the most effective way to standing out among a sea of junk mail. The back of the card can contain more information, but it’s important to put only the vital information on front of the card, making it uncluttered and easy to scan quickly. Once you’ve finished coming up with the content, hire a professionally-trained graphic designer to lay it out for you in a way that enhances and aids the communication of the message. Help your designer understand that it’s better to have a clear, simple design that helps a person “get” the message, than something that is just “trendy” or “uber creative.”

Connecting the dots.
To begin, decide which pieces you will need to reach out to people with a single message through each touch-point. In principle, this process is similar to your setting up a lemonade stand as a child. You were a budding entrepreneur, trying to make a go at your first business and hoping to earn some extra spending money (i.e. this was your message). To reach the most amount of people, you positioned your lemonade wagon along a busy sidewalk at the front of your neighborhood. You hoped this would help you intersect with the most amount of people (i.e. your touch-point). Your impassioned pleas, large homemade sign, and the big red wagon were just the ways you communicated (i.e. the messengers) to get people to notice what you were selling. Today, we still follow the same process. You have your message, and the Internet can create a viable touch-point and your web site can act as the messenger to get that message in front of people.

Step 3: Create the pieces to use for each touchpoint
Below are 12 ministry communication tools (messengers) that we typically create when a ministry rebrands. I have listed them here in chronological order.

1. Logo design, which often includes other collateral materials such as your business card and letterhead designs
2. Web site design, which often includes search optimization, social media, e-mail newsletters, etc.
3. Church signage
4. Brochure design
5. Video/DVDs for use on the web, for visitors, etc.
6. Worship Guide/Church Bulletin
7. Guest cards
8. Powerpoint templates
9. Direct mail pieces
10. Door hangers
11. Gospel tracts
12. Outreach signage for bus/subway stations, etc.

Decide at the beginning how much you can afford to spend.
It is possible to get a professionally-designed brand on a lower budget. On the other hand, in my experience, I have found that you will always get what you pay for, hands down. If you think you are getting a deal, you might be signing yourself up for a lot of wasted time, money, and delays. For example, the individual in your church that wants to program your web site may not be capable or talented in designing a branded, aesthetically-pleasing site. What I have always done in working with ministries is to start off by asking them how much they want to initially spend on branding (most ministries are already thinking of an amount they are comfortable with by that point). As a designer, the answer to that question allows me to decide if I am able to provide services to them (as well as to gauge the amount of work I am able to recommend to them right off the bat). For ministries, I often recommend doing the work in stages, thereby cutting down the amount of cash outlay at the beginning. Ministries should not expect to get all the professional level design work for cheap. Professionally-trained, talented people are laborers worthy of their hire (1 Tim. 5:18).

Advice for working with a volunteer.
“But I have this guy in my church that said he would do my [insert your specific project here] for free. What do I do?” While some ministries are blessed with skilled and trained designers who make their living by branding companies, there are several pitfalls that you may run into. In order to make the wisest decision consider these questions:

• Is this person skilled in all aspects of the project (eg. designing and programming)?
• Can this individual achieve the same level of professionalism I would expect if I hired a professional firm? Would the end product truly reflect well on our ministry?
• If I am not pleased with the work, can I be honest and forthright in telling this person? Will the individual be offended, especially if he is doing this for free/cheap?
• Can this person deliver my project within the timeframe I need? Note: Most often, I’ve seen volunteer-designed sites take six months to a year longer (and some are never finished) and look very haphazard.
• If this person leaves my ministry (on good or bad terms), would I need to start over again from scratch? Is he the only person who knows how it works?
• If the project did not turn out well, could I end the project with this individual and still maintain a good, ministry relationship with him?

When you are ready to begin, start by redesigning your logo.
Because your logo (often called a “brand identity”) will set the foundational graphic style for the rest of your visual identity, it’s important to have it designed first. Your logo is the cornerstone of your brand identity. Since your logo will be showcased on each outreach piece you distribute for at least the next 15 years, it’s important that your logo is more than just a creative concept; it must be a powerful communicator. Be prepared to invest considerable monetary resources into the creation of a unique logo.

Build a branded web site.
Your web site can be your most important communication tool if it’s designed well and is easy to use. Make sure it passes the four tests:

1. Clarity. Clearly communicates who you are, your purpose, and defining statements in text and graphical style.
2. Good Design. The design and feature set aids or enhances the communication instead of distracts from it.
3. Ease of Use. The site is simple to navigate and allows visitors to easily find information.
4. Substance. Gives the visitor enough content/information about your ministry to get the big picture as well as a reason to return or visit. You must keep your web site up to date.

10 Ideas for Branding on a Budget

1. Buy a domain name for your ministry ($10yr.) and link it to a free WordPress blog.
2. Advertise your site using Google Adwords.
3. Have other sites link to you to increase your search engine traffic.
4. Set your church up with a record on Google Places.
5. Start a Facebook page for your ministry.
6. Include your web site on everything (e-mail signature, signage, etc.).
7. Set up a free blog and post updates. (wordpress.com – free).
8. Put together a 4×6 card mailer (design/printing $200-300).
9. Use Gmail for your e-mail (free) & a Google Calendar (free).
10. Use e-mail newsletters to get the word out to your people ($10 per campaign 3cents per recipient).

Wrapping it all up.

It is critical that your ministry be clearly communicating the right message to your community. This message must be consistent with the character of our God as revealed in Scripture and one that clearly typifies what your church exists to do. Several years ago, I helped the church that I attend do a rebranding. When it came time to create an overview brochure, we narrowed the choices down to photographing two different families where God had worked to save and dramatically change lives. We wanted to send a specific message to people we meet in our community that God has the power to do the same life changing work in their lives. At the end of the story, it is God who is to receive the glory forever, through lives who have heard the clear, simple message of His Son, embraced genuine redemptive change, and continue to live out that faith through lives conformed to Jesus Christ. That’s the ultimate message of the ages – and getting that message across is what ministry branding is all about.

Justin Murphy is the Principal and Creative Director for Your Creative People, a branding company located in Greenville, SC.

If you think that your church brand is not that important, you’re wrong. Church branding is incredibly important, because it’s about more than just a nifty logo with pleasing colors. It’s about your message, your testimony, your influence, and your role in reflecting God’s character. I’ve asked Justin Murphy, Principal and Creative Director for Your Creative People, to write a two-part article series on church branding–what it is and how to do it. In the arena of church marketing, with all its perversions, distractions, and confusion, some biblically-based advice is needed. Get ready to listen.

“How did you hear about us?” I asked an older couple who came one Sunday night to the church I was visiting in Southern California. “We’ve been out of church for several years and were looking for a new church to attend. We received your post card in the mail about a month ago, and then visited your web site. It looked like the type of church we’ve been looking for.” I smiled. This is what effective branding is designed to do.

A pastor in New York City sent me this story:  “We have had several visitors come the past few weeks [because of our] website. I pointed the Google ads to within a mile or two, and we are seeing about one new visitor a week from that. The other folks come through the sidewalk sign. In our last baptismal service two men were baptized—a father and son from the same family—and they came through the website. I believe the oldest of these men became a believer since attending the last few months.”

These stories are just two examples of what branding is all about. We measure success not by just increasing numbers (though we do want to reach more people with the truth of the Gospel), but in seeing lives truly changed into conformity to Jesus Christ. Effective branding is designed increase your exposure with people in need within your community, and to clearly communicate a message that will ultimately meet those needs. Before you can successfully communicate your message to your community, you must first be able to articulate what that message is—in essence, who you are. Let’s tackle that from the beginning.

What is church branding?
When I interact with pastors on the topic of branding for church ministries, the first thing that typically comes to mind is a logo. While a logo (or any visual identifier) plays a role in branding, that role is only one player in a whole cast of characters that form a brand. If you think of your brand as synonymous with your logo, it’s thinking that the five human senses is just the eyes. Your brand is like a diamond; it has many different facets that beautifully reflect the light. That reflection accurately reveals or communicates what the diamond is. Your brand is made up of the various facets that you communicate about yourself through the different touch-points someone has with your ministry. These touch points can be visual (like a picture, which is often the strongest), audible (preaching, music, your receptionist’s greeting), smell, etc. If a church visitor experiences friendly, caring people who interact with them throughout their visit, that church visitor will leave thinking of your brand as friendly or caring. Typically, your brand will only stand for one thing in someone’s mind. What message are you sending to people through each touchpoint they have with your ministry? Those multiple facets of communication come together to form an impression, called your brand.

Is church branding really that important?
It’s often said in the web design industry that if you want to find a bad web site, just Google church web sites. It is a sad, but often true reality. Churches often neglect their branding, and more specifically, their web sites. In a survey at a national church planting conference I spoke at, 9 out of every 10 visitors to a church noted that they had visited the church’s web site before ever showing up for a service. A vast majority of churches may spend large amounts of money on renovated facilities, yet completely neglect their own web sites. Truthfully, how many people never visit the church facilities because they are turned off by a church’s lack of attention to a well-designed website?

Your church is always communicating something, whether you’re trying to or not. 
Often, ministries are actively sending certain messages without even realizing it. For example, a web site that is disorganized, hard to navigate, or looks poorly-designed is communicating something about what a ministry values, or what the church brand stands for. A clearly organized, well-thought-out navigation coupled with solid content and good design communicates that you set a high priority on order, quality, and the seriousness of ministry. Your web site is the first touch-point a visitor has with your ministry. Your home page acts as the initial greeter that stands at the front door of your ministry directing people to the right place. Ask yourself this question:  ”What message am I sending about my ministry to the people who see my site every day? Do the printed materials I put out in the community communicate an clear or disunited message? Do those materials accurately reflect what we are truly all about? Even more importantly, am I accurately reflecting the true character of my God as revealed in Scripture?”

Here is the testimony of one Southern California pastor: 
“Branding has given [our church] a unified look, recognizable image, and concrete means to communicate key aspects of who we are and what we are doing in a simple, clear, graphic, and attractive way. It allows our web site, print materials, signs, outreach, church materials, and gospel literature to have a cohesive look and clear connection. As we continue to keep an active web presence, pass out gospel literature and church invitations, and put up signs, our logo and thus our church becomes recognizable in our community. Only the Lord knows the real effectiveness of branding in getting the gospel to our community, but we it helps us maximize our obedience to His commission.”

The good news about church branding
The good news about branding is that you can give the right impression, directly influence what your community thinks about your ministry, and do that without compromising your message. And before I go on to the “how to’s” of doing that, let me give you some even better news:  you don’t have to have an unlimited budget to effectively brand your ministry. I know some readers of this post will have already understood and seen the importance of branding before ever reading this article (thanks for sticking with me to this point!). You may feel that your ministry is just too small or you cannot afford to do much. My advice is this:  you can’t afford not to brand. Many churches focus on their limited resources and fail to look at the wealth of opportunity. For example, just adding your church’s location to Google Maps (a free service), can help you show up when people Google “churches” in your area. That and other free venues are available for your use, if you are willing to put in the time. If you stick with me through this article series, I will give you some practical ideas on how to do church branding on a budget.

How can church branding help my ministry?
In my experience working, teaching, and consulting with over 100 pastors, I have found that branding helps in two specific ways—one internal and one external. Let’s start with the internal purpose, because that is what is often neglected when churches consider rebranding.

1. Branding will give people in your ministry an “elevator speech.” It is widely said in sales that if you can’t clearly communicate what your business is to someone in 1-3 sentences or less (i.e. the time it takes to take the elevator to travel from the ground floor to your 4th floor office), you don’t really understand what you do. The same principle applies to ministries. Most church members (and maybe even staff members) don’t really know how to clearly explain to someone what their church is all about. Imagine you were getting on the elevator on Monday morning with someone you know from another office. You are discussing your past weekend experiences and mention that your family attended church on Sunday. Your friend then asks what your church is all about. Hmm…you struggle to really know what to say or how to say it. You know what your church is like, but how do you articulate it – and before the elevator stops at the next floor? Effective branding can help give your people 3-4 short, succinct defining statements that they can use to clearly communicate what your ministry is all about. It’s important that those defining statements are clearly and carefully explained (and repeated) from the pulpit. You can remind your people by putting these defining statements on the church bulletin or worship guide, brochure, etc. Repetition aids learning.
2. Branding clearly communicates what your ministry is all about to your local community. The is perhaps the most obvious purpose of branding, so we’ll not spend much time here. Taking those 3-4 defining statements we discussed in the previous point and making them the central messages of your outreach communication materials (including your web site) will directly influence what will comes to a person’s mind when an individual hears the name of your ministry. If they know about you, your community will be thinking something about your ministry. It’s important to influence that positively.

So where do we start? 
By this point, you may be ready to jump into the practical steps on how to brand your ministry (or how to afford it). Let’s get started. I’ll cover the first step here and we’ll follow up with practical ways to implement your brand messages through web and print media in the next post.

Step 1: Define who you are (for free).
Since branding is all about clearly communicating who you are, the foundational step is to define exactly who you are. Think about it like this:  water is made up of Hydrogen and Oxygen. If water didn’t contain those two elements, it would cease to be what we know as water. What foundational roots of your ministry make the ministry what it is? You can think about it in terms of an individual’s unique personality—what about someone’s personality makes it uniquely him? We’re not necessarily trying to differentiate you from other ministries. We’re trying to find out what makes you who you are. This is not about having a choir ministry, children’s church or three services a week). Take a moment right now and jot down 3-5 defining statements. You don’t want any less than 3, and you want no more than 5. Once you’ve got those defining statements, run them by another trusted leader or personal acquaintance that knows your ministry. Find out if those statements accurately define your ministry. Once you have your defining statements refined and complete, you now have a clear message to communicate. The next two steps, identifying your touch-points (step 2) and creating the actual pieces to use for each touchpoint (step 3), will be the steps whereby you will identify the venues (logo, web, print, social media, etc.) to broadcast your brand.

In preparation for step 2, start by brainstorming regarding this question:  What are the various touch-points you have with people in your community? We will focus on which message to communicate through each touchpoint. These topics will be the subjects of our next article.

Justin Murphy is the Principal and Creative Director for Your Creative People, a branding company located in Greenville, SC.

If you’ve been wanting to broadcast your sermons on YouTube, here’s how to get started. If you have a digital video recorder, you’re just a few steps away from uploading videos. Here’s how to start a church YouTube channel.

Start your Channel.

1. Go to YouTube.com. In the upper right corner, click “Create Account.” This will get you started. The following page will allow you to enter your information.
2. Fill out the information. For “Username,” you may want to enter the name of your church.
3. If you already have a Gmail account, you can simply log in to an existing account. If you would like to create a new account, exclusive to your YouTube channel, you may do so. Otherwise, linking your existing Gmail address to your YouTube channel will make things simpler for logging in, etc.

You’re registered! That’s it. Now, you can get started by uploading vidoes, customizing your YouTube page, or making some preference changes.

Customize your channel page.

1. Once you’ve created your account, you will be able to access a link that says, “Customize your channel page.” Click. The following page will give you an overview of your account. Here, you will be able to see how many people are viewing your channel, see who is subscribing, and get a view of your YouTube friends.
2. From the top menu, you will be able to make changes to your YouTube account. Click on “settings,” and make sure your channel is visible.
3. Click “Themes and Colors” to change the color and look of your YouTube channel. If you’re in a creative mood, you can even create your own customized look.
4. You may wish to check out the other tabs, including “modules,” and “videos and playlists.” These provide futher customization to make your YouTube channel and settings exactly how you want it.

Upload videos.

1. From the top menu of the YouTube page, you will be able to access the link to upload videos. Click “Upload.”
2. In the page that follows, click “Upload video.”
3. If you have any videos on your computer, you will be able to upload them. Simply locate the file from the search menu that opens. Depending on your Internet speed, you may have to wait a while for your video to upload.
4. If you have a church Facebook, Twitter, Reader, or Orkut accounts, you can auto-post your uploaded video to these accounts.

For further help on media, consider a membership with Sharefaith, where you can have unlimited access to a vast library of more than 34,000 media options, including videos, sermon Powerpoints, and bulletin covers. Click here to get started.