Church Icons, Favicons & Bumicons?
You know, those symbols that represent different programs on your computer– Icons. The cool little symbols that go on the left of the webpage and represent the page– the compassion by design one, called a “favicon” is a little green apple that you can barely see. I have created a new term for the image that most non-church people have in their heads about church– I call it the “bumicon”. It has been named from that classic term “bummer” combined with the word “con” for “icon”.
In my opinion, church logos, marketing and other public expressions of what church are about are for the people who are NOT in church, not for those who are just church shopping. Kingdom net growth means reaching new people, so I figure that is what these branding are really about.
What do you suppose most people (who are not in church, or don’t want to be in church) would select as the appropriate icon for the church? I think it might be the universal symbol of “thumbs down” or a red hand pointing at them. What do people associate with church? Most of them only have a frame of reference from their own past or from the media, especially if they haven’t been to church recently. They would probably select a pretty stained glass (but irrelevant) window as the icon, or perhaps a little preacher standing behind a pulpit, in black and white of course.
What would be the best icon for your church? For some churches, the image of a concert with people waving their arms and a stage with cool looking people with guitars might fit– not sure how you get that down to an icon. Or for others, a serious looking business meeting with people in business casual or suits is the image that they should form. For post-modern churches its probably a steaming cup of coffee as the symbol or a candle (oooh, how mysterious!).
If we are serious about reaching people, then we have to be serious about understanding how they view us. For many, I am afraid that we are constantly fighting against bad images, and having to correct them before we even have a conversation. We have to pay attention to the substance of who we are and to the way that people view us. At Compassion by Design, I advocate for churches whose image revolves around a pair of work gloves, a broom or a compassionate hand. What’s your favicon? Hope its not a bummer
[...] the image of church in your community rather than appeal to Christians already there. See this great post by Dave [...]