5 Questions You Should Ask Before You Re-Brand

How rebranding can help your organization grow strong.

Remember when GAP tried to rebrand, it was a dismal failure. People did not reciprocate the new design. Within 8 days, the old logo was back up. Why? Thy didn’t rebrand for their customers, they rebranded to rebrand.

Used by Permission www.SeniorLiving.Org | flickr.com

You may have noticed in March of this year I rebranded the look of JBSISAM.COM. It was a difficult decision as I loved my logo. I spent a great deal of time contemplating a rebrand. It was not a simple change. What I found, people were receptive to the rebrand, unlike GAP.

In every church, unless you’re Hillsong or Lifechurch.tv, the brand within the community becomes stale and tired. One thing to consider a rebrand is that you know there’s change needed within your organization. But the most important part of rebranding is in the vision and mission statements of your organization. In my opinion this trumps logo and design.

Here are questions you must ask before you begin rebranding your church/ministry.

1. Do we need to create a new vision statement?

This is something that is hard for a lot of leaders to do. Now, I’m not talking about mission statements, I’m talking about vision or process statements. Our vision should always uphold our mission. Mission is why we exist and where we want to be and vision is how we’re going to get there.

At J. B. Sisam the mission is helping leaders draw near to God. How do I accomplish that? Here is my vision: to EQUIP LEADERS, TRANSFORM LIVES and REACH THE LOST.

Leadership within a church, who needs a rebrand, must create a new vision statement. I encourage it to be likened to a process. I want to move people through a process. Life Church, the church I am one of the pastors at, our mission is the help more people find true life in Jesus, we do this by (Vision) Loving God, Serving People and Sharing Christ. In other words, simply LOVE SERVE SHARE.

The vision always upholds the mission because mission never changes. Vision always changes!

2. Are we clear in our mission?

If I were to ask someone in a lot of churches today, what is your mission? a lot of them would have no clue. If we are not clear we will have multiple ideas of what you’re church is about. Clear direction is what takes our organizations from where they are today to where we want to see them in the future or what we want to accomplish in people’s lives. This is where lazar like focus comes in. We must have something written that’s easy to understand.

At Life Church, our mission is, ”Helping people find true life in Christ.” At J. B. Sisam, “Helping leaders draw near to God.” We must communicate that mission every week, in everything we do and in everything we publish.

3. Do we have clear direction from the Lord?

I know every pastor will agree with this next statement. We should do nothing without much thought, prayer and consideration. Yes it begins understanding that we need a clear mission and a vision statement that reflects that for the new season, but if we go into this lightly or without prayer, we will fail. Get away. Take time. Pray! When you’re sure you’re ready to move forward, that’s when it’s time to get the leadership involved.

4. Is the leadership team on board?

When we were working on a new vision statement for Life Church, as leadership we took time to discuss and figure out the direction we were to go. Out of many meetings a simple three word phrase was born. LOVE * SERVE * SHARE! These three define what the church is all about. But it is so important to get the buy-in with the leadership, but make sure they are involved and help you craft your new vision statement.

5. Is the congregation on board?

This doesn’t mean you’re asking the congregation for permission or approval, but it’s more of an affirmation of what leadership has already decided. This is where it’s so vitally important for the pastor to set the tone for the new vision and direction the church is to go. If we are vigilant in casting vision, people will catch it. But we have to give them the opportunity to. This is where involvement in ministry comes into play. Help them find their gifts, set them involved and set them loose into ministry.

Once you’ve answered these questions, you are set free to begin looking at a new look and design for your brand. But we must remember it’s people that come first. If our vision isn’t three-fold, God, Service and Mission centered we’re missing the point of a rebrand. Keep these three in mind when looking for a new visions statement. Keep people moving through a process.

At J. B. Sisam: Equip – Finding the tools | Transform – getting clear focus to act | Reach – bringing people into the kingdom.

Have you ever rebranded? How did it go? What were your struggles? Share your thoughts on Facebook or Twitter!