Home > Blog > Does Church Branding Matter?

Does Church Branding Matter?

By Nancy Cornwell

Should branding matter for your church? Let’s think through this topic both biblically and practically if it matters and what you need to do about it.

Every church has a brand. There is no such thing as a church without a brand. A brand is simply what a community thinks about a church. Let me repeat that: your brand is what your community thinks about your church, not what you think about your church.

Do you want someone else to define what your brand is for your church? Or, do you want to define the brand of your church?

Branding matters. We often feel frustrated because we think of branding as a marketing scheme and something that is only applicable in the business world. People view branding as a marketing tactic to convince you to buy something that you don’t need and doesn’t deliver on what is promised.

Branding is merely telling your church’s story. So, how do you tell your story?

In Acts 17:5-8, we see branding elements in descriptions of the church at Thessalonica. These believers were known for for turning “the world upside down” (v. 6) as followers of Jesus Christ. They clearly had a reputation in their community.

Here are four steps to think through your church’s branding.

1. Branding is not what you think you are. Branding is what your community thinks you are.

Your church’s brand and identity is not who and what you determine it to be unless you work diligently to communicate that message. Many churches claim to be the friendliest on the block, but those claims are only true to others within the church, not to outsiders. Other churches may say they are missional. Often these churches only talk about missions and give toward missions efforts but don’t actually engage on mission. With these types of churches, what they perceive of themselves is often a better brand than what the community sees.

2. Branding is not just your church’s logo or name. Branding is your identity.

Unless the church has experienced a public failure in the community, you likely don’t need to change your church’s name. Instead, create consistent communications about your church. Remember that your name and logo are only a small part of your church’s identity.

3. Branding is telling your story.

How do you want to tell your story? What is it about your church that you want your community to know? You must first identify your purpose then identify your process to achieve this purpose. With your purpose and process, you can then better communicate and display who your church is, how your church behaves, and what values your church holds closely. These things help your community understand what matters to you as a church. You may even discover that many in the community also resonate with these values.

4. Investing in your church’s brand is as important as investing in your church’s building and communication tools.

Your paint, chairs, signage, website, and so forth matter in contemporary culture. If you don’t manage these elements as well, your brand will still be out there. It just may not be what you want it to be. Your brand matters. Treat it that way.

Home > Blog > Have You Lost the Vision?

Have You Lost the Vision?

By New Churches Team

What do you do when you just don’t have the vision to go forward in ministry? The reality is ministry is often a long, hard road. The idea that we are constantly filled with passion and enthusiasm is a modern invention.

More realistically, the joy of ministry does not come from vision. The joy of ministry comes from faithfulness, obedience, and community. Those are the things that get you through tough times of leading. We are not accustomed to dwelling in the normalcy of ministry and mission so it may feel like our vision is gone, but really this is just a time that we have to keep plodding through faithful to the mission.

A Difficult Season for All

When we think about vision and what we get excited about when we wake up in the morning, everything that comes into what it means to be a pastor, the emotional reaction people are experiencing could be a reflection of where we’ve placed our identity. If you are a serial starter of things, being an experience junky in the ministry is not a great place to be in this season. This is a hard time. But right now, all of our visions are being crushed under the weight of reality and we all need a vision for Christ and the cross and God’s people.

However, there are times and places to step back and step away. If you don’t have the vision for what’s next, but you had the vision for it, it may be an appropriate time to pass it on to someone else. We all have different personalities and bents. Some of us are much more near-sighted than far-sighted. We all have different strengths in what we lead. The lack of certainty toward the future may be exasperating the feelings of lost vision. Turn to the One who never changes. Make sure your vision is on Christ and not your identity or your church and allow Him to lead you.

Adapted from the New Churches Q&A Podcast Episode 533: What Do You Do When You Don’t Have the Vision Anymore? What is the Best Leader to Team Member Ratio? Click here to listen to more to church planting, multisite, and multiplication tips.

Home > Blog > 6 Ways Pastors Struggle

6 Ways Pastors Struggle

By Ed Stetzer

When pastors go into ministry, we don’t leave behind all of the struggles that define the human reality in which we live. Like others, we struggle with any number of things each day—interpersonal relationships, our marriages, as parents, with our health, with our self image.

And for some pastors, our struggles can go in one of two directions—either we hide them and try to deal with them in isolation, or we openly share that we, like everyone else, have a lot on our minds.

The unfortunate reality is that too many of us choose the former option. This is not necessarily because we don’t want to share, but because we either don’t know how, or we don’t feel safe. It is not easy to preach a sermon on healthy marriages even as our own is hanging from a thread. Nor is it easy to talk about the impact of sin when we are wrestling ourselves with our own addiction to porn, alcohol, technology…you pick your poison.

As a pastor, let me share six unique ways that pastors struggle. My hope is that this short list will allow both leaders and their congregations the opportunity to begin to ask, “How can we change our situation?”

First, pastors struggle with identity.

Pastors generally have three identities they need to balance: their perceived religious identity, their cultural identity, and their own identity. I remember some years back going over to a neighbor’s house. We didn’t know them well, but they knew I was a pastor. When we first came over to their house, they said it was like Jesus was visiting the house.

Well, I assure you that there is a big difference between Jesus and me! Yet because of my religious identity, this was how they perceived me. It was as though I had some kind of spiritual perfection, which is daunting to try and live up to.

As pastors, we must remind people that we aren’t the people with all the answers—we are simply there to point people to the person who does have all the answers.

Tied into our religious identity is our cultural identity. Pastors are on display, living in a fishbowl which can show the good, the bad, and the ugly. You probably have two to three times the people who attend your church on a weekly basis who are aware of who you are and your church, and they are watching. You know that, and (if you have children) so do they.

Finally, there is our own identity—the person we really are when are alone and when we are with our family.

Second, pastors struggle with community.

How do you get into community with people who either put you too high on a pedestal or watch for your every fault and failure? It is critical to find people, hopefully in your church, hopefully involving your elders and leaders, with whom you can build healthy community.

Sometimes these people are outside of your church, and that’s okay. Sometimes this can be in a cohort of other pastors and leaders. Our accountability and community can also come from church structures like our boards or ecclesiastical structures.

Someone once asked me, “Are you fully disclosed to anyone? Is there anyone to whom you are fully disclosed, other than your wife? If you don’t have that, you probably don’t have that close-knit community.” I personally do have a couple people I am fully disclosed to and a group of people I consider close friends who speak into my life.

Pastoral ministry can sometimes elevate us out of community in a very unhelpful and unhealthy way. So we must be vigilant.

Third, pastors struggle with boundaries.

As pastors, we must remember that we cannot have a deep personal relationship with everyone in the church. We want to shepherd them to the degree that we can. If the church is larger, we will primarily shepherd them through the teaching on Sunday mornings. Or find other creative ways that fill us and utilize our gifts and passions.

But we need to have boundaries and know when to say yes and no. Many pastors feel they’ll be penalized if they say no to anything. We simply can’t say yes to everything. Last week, two students at Dallas Seminary came up to me with a very focused quesiton. They said, “We just got one question for you. How do you tell people that you can’t do things so that you can maintain the boundaries?”

I simply responded with, “I tell them the reason.” A lot of times I’ll say something like, “No, I’m so sorry. I made a commitment to Donna, my wife, that I’m going to be at this.” Or I’ll say, “This is actually the time when I’ve committed to my family.” Or I’ll often say, “I can’t do that and keep up with the other things that I know I have to do, and still be a good husband and a good father.”

Boundaries mean learning to say no. They also mean having healthy relationships. Not every relationship is a deep, abiding relationship.

Fourth, pastors struggle with accountability.

Accountability means different things to different people. If you’re a pastor or a church leader, you are not accountable to everybody. You’re not accountable to the internet. You’re not accountable to Twitter. You’re accountable to your elders.

You’re accountable, if you’re church has congregational polity, to your congregation. In a sense, whether your congregational or not, you’re accountable to your congregation. Where I work, I am accountable to my boss, Margaret Diddams, and to a board, and then to a sub-board. I’m accountable to President Phil Ryken. I’m also accountable to the places where I partner—Moody Radio, Highpoint Church.

I don’t just have accountability, I value it.

But here’s the thing: in an unhealthy world, you’re accountable to everyone. In a healthy world, you have true, submitted accountability to the right people. Again, in a church, if you’re a senior pastor, it is probably to a board and maybe ultimately to your church.

Believe it or not, there’s a real freedom in true accountability.

Fifth, pastors struggle psychologically.

According to a Lifeway Research study, 23 percent of pastors indicated that they had struggled psychologically with 12 percent of pastors saying it was diagnosed (the other 11 saying it was undiagnosed).

Here’s the challenge: you can’t talk about this in a lot of settings. I have a friend who actually lost a job because of mental illness, and he said, “I want to be able to come out of the medicine cabinet, the medicine closet.” There’s this sense that he can’t say, “You know what? I’m taking medication because of depression.”

This is one of the reasons that on Friday, December 6th, we will be gathering together Rick Warren, Ruth Haley Barton, Derwin Gray, a number of counselors, and many others to talk about depression, burnout, mental health issues, and more.

Phil Ryken, President of Wheaton College, is going to talk about how he struggled with suicidal ideation. Pastors struggle psychologically, and to acknowledge that makes a very important difference because that way we can find help and partners in the mental health community.

Finally, pastors struggle spiritually.

As pastors, it can be challenging to be seen and perceived as being the voice of God in a context. I don’t want people to see me that way. Instead, I want them to see me as someone who points to the person who has all the answers.

I, too, struggle spiritually. There are times I’m not faithful in the Word. There are times when I struggle with my prayer life. In those times, I need to share that with people to whom I’m accountable.

If you’re a pastor or a church leader, I want to encourage you to find boundaries, community, and accountability, and a mental health counselor if you need that. We all will struggle, but let’s struggle in accordance with the teachings of the Bible, in community, in accountability, seeking to grow spiritually so as to grow in our own discipleship and our own witness.

Home > Blog > Deconstructing the Lies We Believe

Deconstructing the Lies We Believe

By New Churches Team

Who Do These Lies Apply To?

In You Are What You Do: And Six Other Lies About Work, Life, and Love, Daniel Im outlines seven lies that the culture says are truth. Some of the lies have been around a really long time. And every lie can apply to every generation, but there are some lies that some generations are more susceptible to than others. The gig economy has elevated these lies to the surface, which is people working multiple jobs and having a side hustle. If you aren’t working in the gig economy, you are funding it. Consider any time you have ordered from Uber Eats or paid someone to mow your lawn. Every generation is either working in or fueling the gig economy.

Two Lies That Many of Us Struggle With

The title includes a lie that seems to affect everyone – you are what you do. As kids, we are asked what we want to do when we grow up. As adults, we are asked what we do for a living. At the end of our lives, we are measured by what we’ve done. It’s not surprising that this lie that we are what we do has seeped so deeply into our culture. It seems to be the primary way we assign value to each other.

A second lie – you are who you raise – is one that any parent will face. Have you ever been given a “My child is an honor student” bumper sticker? Who was it really for? It is for the parent. You probably wouldn’t apply it to your car with the motivation of showing everyone up, however underneath the surface it does feel good to be raising that child. On the surface, you think that involvement in my child’s life is better than neglect, but this lie tricks us into believing that our self-worth is tied directly to the performance of our children. That’s why soccer moms and overbearing dads are a thing. If there are things your children do that embarrass you in public, but wouldn’t say anything about at home, you are concerned about what people will think about you as a parent.

The Bottom Line

There is a biblical truth on the opposite side of each of these lies. Our world needs to know what those biblical truths are. What the world says about you is not your identity, but instead your identity is found in Christ.

Adapted from the New Churches Q&A Podcast Episode 464: Seven Lies People Face Today. Click here to listen to more to church planting, multisite, and multiplication tips.

Home > Blog > 5 Lessons Learned as a Church Planter

5 Lessons Learned as a Church Planter

By Dustin Neeley

Many people share in the success stories of their church plants. Many church planters are quick to tell you the great things happening at their current campus. As encouraging as those stories are, it’s equally as important to hear about the mistakes that people made in their church planting so that we can learn from them. Here are five mistakes and the lessons I’ve learned as a church planter.

1. Don’t underestimate the difficulty of church planting, and don’t overestimate your own ability.

This point is a two-in-one, because there were really two lessons learned here. Don’t overestimate your own ability. Sometimes it’s easy to think that success from your current position at a church will carry over into your new idea. Some people even have the idea that they are God’s gift to church planting and will be able to succeed simply because they want to. It’s crucial to humble yourself to yourself, to the church, and before the Lord. Remember why you are church planting in the first place. Be faithful, be fruitful, and listen to God.

Don’t underestimate the difficulty of church planting. Ministry is hard, but, in some ways, church planting is even harder. When there is no building, no money, no resources, and no people, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the impossibility of the task at hand. However, it is in these moments that you find your true hope in the gospel. Church planting is difficult and hard work, and the more you prepare yourself for that, the better off you will be.

2. Don’t neglect your physical health.

When responsibilities start piling up left and right, it’s easy to push your physical health to the side. You start working out less, eating more fast food, and feel your energy slowly spiraling downward. Pounds pile on, and you don’t have the energy to get yourself into shape. However, church planting is very demanding physically. It will take a toll on your body. If you’re not eating well, sleeping well, and exercising often, it’s going to be harder for you. You have to prioritize your health. Church planting is a marathon, not a sprint, and you need to treat your body like you’re training for one.

3. Don’t work all the time.

Working all of the time will wear you out. In the beginning of church planting, you may be working long hours. Like 60-80 hours a week. But this lifestyle is not sustainable. You will quickly wear out and feel drained. This will eventually take a toll on your marriage and family life. When you’re home, put your phone down and be present with your family. Establish parameters that will help you cut your work life from your family life.

4. Don’t care too much about what everyone else thinks of you.

When planting a church, it’s important to realize where you place your identity. If you put your identity into the church plant, you will succeed with the church plant and fail with the church. In order to do your job well, your identity must foremost be rooted in the gospel.

5. Don’t serve from ecclesiastical whiplash.

If you’re going to make changes within your church, do it prayerfully, slowly, and deliberately. You have to be careful about how you share this information with your church. If they feel like they are being jerked in different directions with conflicting ideas and messages, they are going to be less likely to support the ideas.

Home > Blog > Finding Your Identity in Christ – Not Your Ministry

Finding Your Identity in Christ – Not Your Ministry

By Ed Stetzer

My identity has too often been tied to the successes or failures of the ministries that I lead—and too frequently in unhealthy ways.

It’s easy to find yourself counting heads at church on a Sunday or eyeing up the funds that were raised on any given week, wishing that more was accomplished. I remember times when I mistakenly thought, If I can just get over 200 people this week, then I’ll finally be at peace. Evaluating our leadership capacities can take some ugly turns when done numerically based on factors that are, quite frankly, completely outside of our control.

I’m a highly driven person; quite honestly, it’s that drivenness that has in part helped me be a successful church planter and revitalizer for many years. What’s unhealthy is not the ambition itself, but the ways I let longings for success overtake my heart and mind. Ambitious people become demoralized not when we dream big, set goals, or vision cast but when the realization of these things we fantasize about become essential to our happiness and well-being.

At issue here are some fundamental questions that Christians everywhere—not just in the church—have to answer: What does it look like for followers of Christ to live and work with a healthy sense of ambition? Furthermore, how should we approach failure in light of that?

God Wants YOU

Let me start by saying this: It is possible to be ambitious and driven while also being an enthusiastic Christ follower at the same time. The two are not mutually exclusive.

God has given each of us gifts. Some of us are gifted with patient spirits, others of us can’t help but forge ahead. Some of us are good at managing large staffs of people, others of us are content to follow others and take direction.

Regardless of how these inclinations and abilities manifest themselves in everyday life, if you glean nothing else from this article, hear this: whoever you are, whatever you do, God wants to use you. Yes, you. He wants to show you how to use your you-ness the way he always intended and teach you to leverage your skills and abilities for the building of his kingdom.

Don’t worry about what you’ve been given; think instead about the giver himself and meditate on all the good works that he has prepared in advance for you to do.

His Goals, Not Ours

As I’ve said before, it can be easy for my ambition to get the better of me; I’m wired to want to beat numbers, do better, and track improvements over a period of time.

Often, I think it’s easy for pastors to start thinking numerically about their congregations. We create measures for success that, quite honestly, are not representative of God’s own measures of success for our ministries.

More often than not, the most dangerous part about all this comes when we try to compare our success to that of other pastors and ministry leaders in our communities. When we do this, not only are we trying to ‘beat’ our own numbers, but their numbers as well. This kind of thinking is a slippery slope down the wrong road—it’s most definitely an example of ambition gone bad.

God has called us to live in unity as the body of Christ. Focusing on ways to one-up each other’s ministries is not how we’ve been instructed to go about that.

How do we fix this? Well, I think it starts by looking at our ministries the way that Paul did. We see throughout Acts and Paul’s letters to churches that his ambition is centered around not what he wants to accomplish, but what God has called him to do. In Acts 16, Paul tries to preach in the province of Asia and the Holy Spirit actually prevents him from doing so.

Reading passages like this, it’s clear who is in control of Paul’s ministry: hint, it’s not Paul. Those of us who preach, teach, or lead in the church truly delude ourselves if we think that we are somehow solely responsible for the present, past, or future successes of our ministries.

Our posture should be one of surrender to God who holds all the cards—and parishioners we serve—in his hands. Any ambition we have should start and end with the knowledge of his sovereignty over all the things we so tightly cling to.

At the end of the day, it’s not about our goals, it’s about his. It’s not about what kind of success we imagine, but what he has willed for us to accomplish.

It’s not about our name being made great, but about him being brought glory. Ambition channeled for the glory of God is the only form Christ-followers can ever really strive for and still stand on solid ground.

So, What About Failure?

In ministry, there are always ups and downs. In churches particularly, bad Sundays sometimes happen—attendance is low and sermons don’t turn out exactly as we’d originally hoped. This isn’t something to stew over for days or blame yourself about; it’s something to surrender to God.

Self-reflection and occasional critique are important, don’t get me wrong. What’s not helpful is when we allow an obsession with perfection and dreams of worldly success to prevent us from appreciating the ways that God really is at work in our midst.

The truth is that we don’t see the big picture. We serve a God who is sovereign over all things. It’s only through his strength and provision that we are able to accomplish anything of eternal significance in this life.

As the Psalmist reminds us, “Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain” (Ps.127:1).

Pastors and ministry leaders: trust that he who began a good work in you and in your organizations will bring it to completion in his good timing.