Branding Faith: Why Some Churches and Nonprofits Impact Culture and Others Don't

by Phil Cooke

The answer to "Who's influencing the Church today?" is the same as "Who's influencing the culture?"

What do people think of when they think ofyou?

In a digital culture, where a typical American deals with as many as 3,000 commercial messages a day, how does the voice of your church, ministry or nonprofit organization rise above the racket?

young people today value their digital space more than their people space.

A marketing professor estimates that 10 percent of a two-year-old's nouns are brand names.

What we are familiar with we cease to see.

Who You Are Is Important, but How You're Perceived Is Critical

It's not the message you send, it's the message that's received that counts.

So don't begin with your message; begin with your audience.

Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society. MARK TWAIN

if you dress like a pauper, you'll never get an audience with the king.

Make sure you have finished speaking before your audience has finished listening. DOROTHY SARNOFF, OPERA SINGER

If you want to increase your value and how you are perceived in the eyes of other people, never open your mouth unless you're speaking proper English and using grammatically correct sentences.

Those that are good manners at the court are as ridiculous in the country, as the behavior of the country is most mockable at the court. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

Brands are belief systems.

brands are the tool for defining our place in the culture,

Brand communicates ideas, values and standards.

The more we create decent working and living environments for people, the more we become the people God intends us to be.

the Church has done a poor job of communicating with the culture, and it often comes from not understanding what questions fill the public's mind. Simply put, I think too many religious leaders are answering questions the culture isn't asking.

"close to 9 out of 10 born again Christians in the U.S. have values, lifestyles and attitudes that are indistinguishable from those of non-born again Americans."3

To define who you are, you must define who you aren't.

if Christians continue to focus on the negative, we'll become known as "the people who are against everything." When that happens, it becomes easier and easier for the culture to turn us off.

The world is asking questions, but we refuse to deal with them.

A saved turkey is still a turkey.

With bottled water, it's not about the content; it's about the branding.

Hollywood does an incredible job of making fake things look real, and Christians do an incredible job of making real things look fake.

We've forgotten how difficult living the Christian life can be, and in our pursuit of prosperity and a nice Mercedes, we've lost touch with the fact that the apostle Paul rotted in prison.

if you want to keep an audience for the long haul, quality is the only way to go.

we can't be too careful in how we present an eternal message on a temporal medium.

Here are some important questions about the tools you're using:

A great brand will always be hurt by poor communication; and without the right tools, you'll never reach your largest potential audience.

Information is not knowledge. ALBERT EINSTEIN

So while biblical literacy can never be taken for granted, we now face a new challenge: presenting a message of hope to a generation that's more visually sophisticated than any generation in history.

He who marries the spirit of the age soon becomes a widower. As with great art, faith that lasts is faith that answers to higher standards than today's trends. DEAN INGE, ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL IN LONDON

Amen and amen.

It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity. ALBERT EINSTEIN

Christianity is a demanding and serious religion. When it is delivered as easy and amusing, it is another kind of religion altogether. NEIL POSTMAN,

Much of what we call worship has become show business,

Television has trivialized news, educational programming and politics. And now it has done the same to religion.

A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention. HERBERT SIMON

Americans are drowning in information and starving for attention. PASTOR RICK WARREN

The Trendmaster's Guide: Get a Jump on What Your Customer Wants Next.

"To be always relevant, you have to say things which are eternal."

we've exchanged powerful preaching for positive thinking; we've exchanged classic Christian doctrines for "what's practical"; and we've exchanged our unique calling to become simply another lifestyle choice.

graphic designer became marketing director because people assumed she understood advertising.