Here are five icons you should never incorporate in a church/mission/ministry logo.
1. A globe – though the message we bring is for the world, a globe is not a good representation of values that should center on individuals. Focus on the person not the crowd and eventually you will reach the world.
2. Multinational flags – same as the globe, it’s simply too large of a concept for a logo.
3. A dove – Do you seriously think an unchurched person remotely understands the symbolism of a dove in regards to scripture.
4. Fire – unless you are ministering from a onetime firehouse their is no excuse for such christianese excess.
5. A bible or other ancient looking text icons – we (church goers) understand the significance of scripture in our lives. But, Joe Schmo bare hopper has no clue that the white paged book with a ministry name over top is a b-i-b-l-e.
Second let’s talk about the name. As Shakespeare wrote “what’s in a name. ” Well, apparently a lot. Does your ministry or churn name role off the tongue or is it more than a mouth full. Many ministry names are more mission statements than proper names. “The Church of the Willing Laborers for Christ Believing for Generational Change”, for example. Simplify.
Back to the five, never use these or variations of these five words or phrases in a ministry name,
1. World or international – I think we covered this with the globe thing.
2. Glory and/or other christianese verbiage – The reality is most seasoned Christians have little understanding of many of the words we throw around in our church bubbles. So, how could we expect folks who have never stepped foot in a church to truly understand words like ecclesia, evangel, temple or redeemer.
3. Prayer or praise – These should be common activities in any church or ministry. I’m not sure these words give expectation for a relevant service.
4. Center – Not exactly an obvious one. Most religious leaders assume this is an understood phrase, unfortunately it’s not. Think of all the NPOs and other industries that use this phrase. Believe it or not this is not a defining word.
5. Christian – Why is it that only Christians see the need to use their id badge as a name. This is a term of identification, it should not be used as our definition. After all that is what a name is all about, definition.
I hope this helps others to think a little more relevant.
