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Reading a book called “Simple Church” helped me clarify our journey towards a mission statement/tagline. Among others.
These are some of the questions/thoughts we worked through when coming up with our tagline.
What is God’s vision/purpose for our church? Lots of prayer went into this.
We decided that it was going to be based on the great commandment. (Matthew. 22:34-40)
How do we convey that simply?
It needed to be very simple and memorable. This enabled everyone to buy into the statement. If you can’t repeat it you can’t do it.
Who is our targeted demographic? Based on research from our area: Unchurched, 20-35, single, and/or GenD. People who are digitally connected. With a lifestyle influenced by digitally enhanced/enabled media.
Therefore, it also needed to be understandable to unchurched (read non-churchy terminology).
Everything we do will need to measured against our statement. (to keep things simple)
So we decided on a statement almost straight from the book, since it really did convey what
We feel is God’s purpose for our community.
love God, love others, it’s simple
Hope this helps a little.
Dorothy
Originally posted 63 months ago.
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Dorothy (vicar of vibe) edited this topic 63 months ago.
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I read "Simple Church" as well. Our purpose statement already lined up with what they suggestd in Simple Church. Ours purpose statement is "Connecting you with God, each other and the world". Finally nice to get something in prayer and brainstorming and THEN see it in a book. But we had a tag line for the church that was... "Shoreline Church - church for the real world." I know, I know.. on some other blogs, there has been some debate on what the Real World means. But we thought it best described who we were and not who were trying to be. It seems to work for us.
Posted 62 months ago.
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I do marketing for our church on a volunteer basis, so be aware that the following is not coming from professional--although I read and think about these issues a lot.
Currently my church's tagline is "Connecting people with the love of Jesus." This is based on our mission statement. It was decided mostly without my input. I think it's OK, but falls short in at least one important area.
My main problem with this tagline is that it sounds like our church is bragging.
Church taglines should not make churches sound self absorbed.
My current feeling is that church taglines are meant to communicate with people outside the church (at least in large part), so they should be about the person you're talking to. Taglines should tell the reader how he or she can benefit from interacting with your church.
In other words, if I have the chance to rewrite my church's tagline, I will put myself in the shoes of the person outside the church who's reading it and say, "What's in it for me? How can I benefit? What can I do at this church?"
This doesn't mean I'm assuming that the reader is totally selfish. Maybe what my church lets him do is feed the homeless or save the world. These are big, unselfish ideas.
In the case of my church, if I had to stick to the same idea, I might say something like "Connect with Jesus." Hopefully, I would get together with some creative people who would help brainstorm more choices.
Evaluating CruX's tagline by this standard, "love God, love others, it’s simple" passes the test because the tagline is about the person who is reading the tagline. It's not about how great and admirable and full of itself the institution is.
Does this make any sense?
Posted 62 months ago.
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You tag line needs to be an extension of who you are. Trying to come at it any other way is a mistake, and will lack integrity when you're done.
Given that, the first order of business is a careful examination of that purpose statement. Make sure the purpose statement, or vision statement or whatever really lines up with what and who the church is.
Then sit down with two or three creative folks ... not a committee!!!! ... and do some brainstorming. What words or phrases pop when you talk together about WHO you are as a body. Then just start playing with the words. Remember, a tagline doesn't have to be a phrase. It can be a word. Its function is simply to attach... or tag... to the rest of the brand and be memorable and real.
In our case, what kept sufacing from our own folks were statements that talked about doing life together. That coupled with our commitment to the core of our city, and location downtown led to the very simple tagline..
Life. Downtown.
Posted 62 months ago.
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BeenSaved [deleted] says:
a tagline should be simplae and easy for people to remember while getting the message across. Since all i know about your church is that it is trying to grow and move into the future then maybe i would saying something like..."Growing together for tomorrow." It shows that the church is trying to grow, maybe both in size and spiritually and it mentions the future.
Anytime i come up with a tagline it is in the moment. If i think about it to hard to long i cant come up with anything good. I am only 17 but have taken three years of marketing and am just starting to help woth marketing at my own church. I think the biggest thing now is that we cannot appeal to the masses all at once. Ads and taglines now have to be focused in on a certain group of people.
I hope something i have said has been of help to you.
Posted 62 months ago.
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One of the best church taglines (and description) that caught my attention, and I still remember it is:
Vintage 21 -- a community of God seekers, God followers, and God doubters www.vintage21.com/
Posted 62 months ago.
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Most church taglines seem to carry the unconscious message: "We've got our act together. Come be like us. Let us help you change/improve." Sends a signal to unchurched people to run the other way.
You mentioned in the original thread that you didn't like "Equipping." I think that's because it's something that someone else does to/for you -- communicating "Let us help you change/improve."
The easiest way around that is to put yourself in the same boat with those you're seeking to reach. To do that, keep the verb active and future oriented, but make it about the community acting together.
One influence on my current choice of church was its tagline -- specifically, that it began with the word "becoming" -- signaling a community of people who were in process and OK with that. (Shortly thereafter, a marketing consultant replaced the tagline with something generic and sterile.)
So, your mission statement deals with being equipped by God's word for eternal life. Start there and stay true to your identity; then look for connections that make it collective and active.
Here's a starting point that's really just a tweak of the candidate tagline: "Gearing up for life." That's not a finished product, but it starts the discussion. If we're getting equipped for eternity, what does that mean? One way of looking at it is getting the gear we need for the adventure. Plus, it carries the connotation of building energy. (Unfortunately it begs the question, "You people have to get geared up just to live?")
So, start there and go somewhere else. If the idea of "gear" fits, go look at the web sites of outdoor outfitters and see what their taglines are. (The North Face's is "Never stop exploring" -- hey, there's an eternity reference -- hmm.). Or look at high-tech gear companies. Springboard off of those ideas to find something that fits and is uniquely yours.
Posted 62 months ago.
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emily.mabry [deleted] says:
The church I work for is currently considering a tag line. One of the best one's I've seen is from another local church with a similar Spiritual DNA to ours and it's tag line is: experiencing the love of God and giving it away
Posted 48 months ago.
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We went the the un "deep" direction and thought what it was that our church is in our community. One word came up. Different...thus our tagline is "a different kind of church"
it actually helps us in our marketing because when we do come across church hoppers and people who are looking for more of a traditional southern bible belt church, we kindly point them in the direction of the other 250 churches in our area (which sadly are all very similar).
I know that our tagline isn't inventive, cerebral, orginal, or even spicy...but it fits us and represents who we are.
Posted 48 months ago.
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What do you think of "working with Jesus to become more like him"?
Too something?
Posted 48 months ago.
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I think a bit too wordy. IMHO a tagline should be brief and to-the-point. That's why they are so dang hard to write.
More like: work with Jesus, become like Him.
Avoid the -ing participle, keep the clauses parallel.
That is, if you are stuck with those words - which I think would be better if you were not.
Posted 48 months ago.
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I'm not stuck with anything. It can be whatever I like. Oh terrible terrible freedom.
Other possibilities:
trying to be like Jesus with limited success
teach. heal. repeat.
let's be Jesus-y.
do something.
Originally posted 48 months ago.
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Builder Dave edited this topic 48 months ago.
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we used this for a tuesday night service a while ago, i think it's old enough to be available to the wider public:
barely organized religion
Posted 48 months ago.
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trying to be like Jesus with limited success- I'm not an editor but doesn't that need a coma or something? Otherwise it looks like Jesus has limited success.
I like:
teach. heal. repeat. (I likey alot) maybe heal, grow, repeat.
let's be Jesus-y.
like: @pencildull: barely organized religion
My current church is:
imperfect church
be safe, be real, be changed
Posted 48 months ago.
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Ours was "we do life together".
Our main emphasis was the journey, relationships, etc.
Posted 48 months ago.
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Our main emphasis will be mission. I want to structure the whole church around getting people doing hands on work. So much so, that instead of a weekly worship service that pushes people to get involved in small groups and good works,
we'll have weekly small groups that meet to work on whatever their project is (tutoring underprivileged kids for instance) and while they're at the school or wherever, they'll have Bible study and sing praise.
Then at the end of the month, we'll get all the groups together for a worship service.
How do you write a tagline that sums that up?
Posted 48 months ago.
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@builder dave: not sure how 'churchy' you want to be, but maybe these will get you thinking:
worship. it's a serving thing.
loving Him by loving others.
loving Him by loving Chicago. (insert name of town)
complete your faith. (james 2:22)
serve. give. connect.
connect. serve. re-connect.
living this life together.
your home to their home to our home.
serving: it's the secret sauce (!)
Posted 48 months ago.
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actually, i really like your idea:
do something.
Posted 48 months ago.
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how about...
"the church without a catchy tagline"
Do you really need a tagline?
Posted 48 months ago.
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I have no idea. I'm a Presbyterian. Our implicit tagline is "Come because you were born here." We don't do marketing. I'm here to learn.
Posted 48 months ago.
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Right now, ours is "Loving God. Loving others." (dovecommunity.org)
But when I plant a church, I have a couple that I'm sure to try:
[Church Name]: Holy Screwballs.
[Church Name]: Biblical Counterculture.
Posted 46 months ago.
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Our missions statement is summed up in our tagline using alliteration.
[MISSIONS STATEMENT] Victory is called to equip a caring, committed community of worshipers to reach their world for Jesus.
[TAGLINE] Experience God. Encounter Community. Engage Your World. Encourage Others.
While the whole tagline is a BIT long, we sum it up for most publications to just "Experience God." Because that is primarily what we are here for--To create an atmosphere conducive to experiencing the presence of God.
Posted 46 months ago.
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i just recently ditched our tagline because i thought it wasn't helping. in some ways a tagline says, "we already know what we are, don't bother trying to figure it out for yourself."
Posted 46 months ago.
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Danielle: I agree with you... partly. At the same time, many people want to know generally what they're associating with. In music marketing, the term is (and may apply to other areas as well) Unique Selling Point (USP). If our demographic is widely international, our marketing will reflect that. Which, in our case, is true. We live in an area where people from all over the world land for work--mostly pharmaceuticals, so we have a lot of scientists and doctors. Therefore, we market with that in mind. A tagline however can be much more vague. It can generally say what your primary purpose is, but leave it open to the people you are trying to reach exactly how that's translated.
All that to say, anyone considering a new tagline, or a revision of an old one, or ditching one, should consider all the variables. It may make WAY more sense to go without one, or it may make WAY more sense to have something catchy. Coke changes there's like weekly.
How 'bout this...
[CHURCH NAME]: We got's Jesus!
Posted 46 months ago.
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Church name: Holy Highway
Tag: "Step on it."
Church name: Christians
Tag: "Come as you are. Leave changed."
Posted 46 months ago.
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We decided to go simple..."Worship God, Connect with Others & Serve the World!"
Originally posted 46 months ago.
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heymrchandler edited this topic 46 months ago.
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just really quickly, since there is SO much other great info in this thread:
we JUST came up with one and it is: "Growing faith where life happens"
We are a city-center church so that's where the "where life happens" comes from - trying to remind people of that.
Posted 46 months ago.
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I -highly- recommend finding a great copywriter to work with. It's easy to come up with a tagline, it's even easy to be clever...but a copywriter will help you create something powerful.
Logos, taglines...all easy to get done so you can check it off the list, but creating something powerful that is more than just a mark or words is worth the full effort.
Posted 46 months ago.
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What do you think of this one?
"Where change happens"
Posted 41 months ago.
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