A 91-year-old Denver church faced a life-and-death decision earlier this year when the board of elders there determined that the 100-plus members attending the independent Christian church could no longer sustain the ministry. Should they close the doors and sell the building, or stay and start over?
Westside Christian Church had already moved once, decades ago from a downtown location to the suburbs. But urbanization had overtaken the church again, along with a repopulation of the area with minorities and immigrants. Only none of this change was reflected in the population of the congregation or its efforts at outreach. The church had become insulated, breathing its own air and dying.
|
"It's a given if you don't try this you will die," Grover told the Denverites.
The church agreed to dive into radical change Grover termed "replanting." The church carefully shook the dirt from the roots of their congregation and lifted it to replant into a completely new place  the present.
Some view the group's decision to change as a brave choice, a difficult choice.
"It's easier to basically say, ‘Okay, we're going to close our doors,'" Grover said.
Replanting is much more difficult, he said, even more arduous than planting a new church. Not only is there the difficulty of starting something new and generating excitement and interest in it, there is damage control, Grover said, and baggage. "There are very few who do this [replanting] and who do it well." In fact, the Denver church is the only replant Grover could name.
And even the best efforts usually mean a loss of members and a difficult transition period.
"Our rate of attrition was pretty high," said Rev. Cody Moore, the 20-something senior minister of the Denver church now called, The Pearl. The church kept only one-half to two-thirds of the membership during their replanting. But, according to Moore, the church kept all of the new kingdom vision for ministry there.
"We really believe in what we're doing. If you put the Kingdom of God first, everything else falls in place. That's what we're trying to do."
The group has yet to spend all of the $150,000 loan they secured to change their image. They put up three billboards, mailed 20,000 advertisements four weeks in a row to the households around the church and took out ads in ElComerciante, a direct-mail newspaper for Spanish-speaking households, and La Voz, another Spanish newspaper. They also got free publicity in The Denver Post and on the local Spanish television station.
Moore said he was surprised to learn how much of an impact marketing can have on church growth, especially in the case of re-planting, or re-branding. "When someone hears your name and receives your logo that builds relationship," he said.
The Bible says, "A good name is better than precious ointment," Ecclesiastes, 7:1. But is there really that much difference between a church called The Pearl and one called Westside Christian Church?
In the case of the Denver church, plenty has changed. The entire focus of the ministry is now an outreach to the Latino community. Worship services include bi-lingual elements and evangelism has become focused and intentional, bringing in a more diverse mix of cultures, ages and backgrounds from the urban environment in which the church resides.
Attendance is up 75 percent since before the transition. A group of nearly 175 now meets at the church.
Did a new name do all that? Maybe. Church growth experts say if a church name is done right it is really a brand  a business marketing term that connotes a group's image.
A brand not only names a church, it defines the church's mission. Whether its evangelism or Bible teaching, Spanish ministry or something else, a brand communicates the core of a church. So a brand should be a message that embodies the meaning of a ministry.
A California story
Changes and rebranding began at Community Baptist Church in Manhattan Beach, Calif., two years ago. Along with a $2.2 million building renovation came a name and logo renovation and new polity. Once run by staff and congregational voting, the church changed its organization to an elder-run group. They changed the name to Journey of Faith.
"It's a different church," said senior minister Glen Martin.
Martin said the changes began with the leadership of the church, then spread to 100 families he invited to eat dinner at his house over the course of two months.
The new church features commissioned women as staff members; only one annual meeting with the congregation; and a blended worship service rather than an organ. Martin said he spoke with the senior members of the congregation about the changes. "I said, ‘I love you but I want you to think legacy.'"
But not everyone could agree. Like the Denver church, the California church also experienced a loss of members (about 2 percent) and they continue to experience a drop in attendance, down from 2,200 to 2,000. But the church had experienced losses in membership before when they planted three new churches. So the losses in one church's membership have always been about gains for the kingdom. "We had great success for the kingdom," Martin said about the overall growth and new churches planted in his 12 years of ministry at Journey.
The massive sort of change at these two churches is atypical of the changes most churches undertake even in rebranding. "Usually churches will start a new service," Moore, of the Denver Pearl church said. So why all that trouble for a new name then? Doesn't a rose by any other name still smell as sweet? In a word  no.
Good brands
Keeping the message congruent with the mission is what is important, according to Maurilio Amorim, business consultant to churches. Amorim said churches should understand their vision and their community and articulate that idea in their branding statement.
"There is tremendous power in being able to communicate in a few words what you are all about," Amorim wrote in the October issue of The Church Report. He recommends brand statements be simple so others can remember and use them and so churches can put their brand on everything from business cards to banners.
"We wanted to get across people are on a journey," said Martin of the Journey of Faith name change.
The Pearl took its name from Matthew 13:45-46, "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it."
Moore said that while everybody isn't going to buy into that vision of the kingdom it is a vision that at least includes everybody.
"I'm so excited for them," Grover said of The Pearl. Despite conflicts and tough times, he said he admires the church leadership's willingness to "go for God's calling despite ruffling feathers."
Martin is also excited about the changes at his California church, even though they have come at a high price. "I'm just not complacent," he said.
