Benefits of a Simple DIY Church Plant Brand Plan

Let’s look at a simple church plant branding plan. But first, I’d like to propose an amendment to Webster’s Thesaurus. Look up “DIY” and you should find “church planter” as a synonym. Or vice versa. Can I get an amen? This comes with the territory as you follow the bold call to plant a church. But you’ve answered the call. And here you are, in part, compelled by a love for the community where you plant.

But boy is this hard. A challenge every church planter faces is the “DIY hat rack.” Church planters wear more hats than the gentlemen in a 1950’s dance hall.

There are just so many things you have to do. The breadth of those tasks can feel overwhelming. The resources to tackle them seems like an elusive mirage. Your lack of expertise in many of these areas can cripple any desire to tackle the task. One example is the hat of “Brand Manager.” We introduced this fact here.

Before you start hyperventilating, relax. I am going to give you a DIY brand plan. With it, comes two pieces of good news for you!

Two Pieces of Good News Accompanying My DIY Brand Plan

1. First, this will make your life easier, not harder.
2. Second, you can do this yourself in three easy steps.

Here are three reasons why my 3-Step DIY Brand Plan will make your life easier. (Next week, I’ll give you the three ingredients of the DIY brand plan.)

How My 3-Step DIY Brand Plan Will Make Your Life Easier

You are crazy busy. You wonder if even a 3-step DIY Brand Plan is worth it. So before I share the three ingredients of the plan next week, let me give you three ways the DIY Brand Plan will make your life easier.

1. Save Time

My DIY brand plan will save you time. The DIY brand plan means you never start a task with a blank slate. The brand plan takes the guesswork out of where to start.

I remember moving one time. My friends helped us unload the Uhaul and then headed home. I was cleaning the final pieces of tape and trash out of the truck. With my hands full of trash, I turned to exit the truck bed. Standing at the bottom of the ramp was a Rottweiler. In my mind, the enclosed Uhaul trailer slowly shrunk like the trash compactor that tried to eat Luke, Leia, Han Solo & Chewy. I froze. I was trapped.

My DIY brand plan is like paint-by-numbers versus a blank canvas. In the hands of a master artist, a blank canvas yields compelling beauty. For the rest of us, a blank canvas feels like a trap. Where do we even start? A paint-by-numbers blueprint helps us create something beautiful faster and with far more efficiency.

2. Avoid Brand Fog

My DIY brand plan keeps you from fumbling, bumbling, or mumbling your brand. Watering down or confusing the gospel is NOT good. The same is true of your brand. Having no discernible “brand plan” is still a plan. A bad plan. Without a clear church brand direction, who you are and why you exist gets muddled. This becomes yet another obstacle in serving our communities. The individuals we are called to reach are inundated with hundreds, if not thousands of brand messages every day. An indiscernible church brand does not help matters. A good brand plan keeps the fog from settling in.

3. Reach Your Community with Good News

My DIY brand plan helps you reach the community you’re called to reach. You have good news to share. Great news. The best news. That’s why you plant. But, a blah brand hurts rather than helps. A blah, boring or bad brand confirms the suspicions of many in the community we want to serve. When they think about the church, most begin from a position of neutral, indifferent or worse. While your brand is no replacement for the gospel, let’s not turn it into a hindrance either. If a picture is worth a thousand words, a bad picture or bad brand is like a thousand bad words. There is no reason to heap a pile of bad words as another obstacle in your way of reaching your community.

Bonus: Hear From a Real Church Planter

I recently helped a church plant establish a simple brand plan. Several months later, one of the planters said, “You have no idea how much time that has saved us…I don’t feel like I’m accidentally messing things up. I get things done faster and with more confidence. Thanks for your help.”

With my DIY brand plan, this could be you.

Next Time

Keep your eyes on your inbox. Next week I’ll share a simple, 3-Step DIY Brand Plan so you can save time, avoid muddling your brand and put your best foot forward.

Confession

If church planters and pastors could get paid for feeling inadequate, we would never need to waste a minute raising support or taking a salary. When the church planting conversation moves away from our areas of training or expertise, our inadequacy can rise like the tide. Branding can be one of those triggers. How in the world are we supposed to tame that lion? (And how can I steer this thing back to the safer ground of my expertise…fast?)

Good News

You already know this. But every church planter and pastor is completely inadequate. Our inadequacy is not partial or somewhat impaired. It is total and comprehensive. Even if you are a Super Hero, Renaissance man turned church planter…you are inadequate. This also means none of us are alone in our inadequacies. It’s a rather large tribe to which you and I belong. None of us are worthy or skilled enough to plant a church and mastermind a changed city. Heck, I’m inadequate to help you deal with your inadequacies. Yet, for every inadequacy looming around the next corner of your church planting experience, there is the overflowing adequacy of Jesus. He covers our weaknesses, and more importantly, our strengths. He is the sole Savior of our unrighteousness AND our self-righteousness. Breathe in his grace today and find your rest in Him.