(along with his most recent book: The Last TV Evangelist: Why the Next Generation Couldn't Care Less About Religious Media
). Phil speaks very persuasively about the need for churches to think about their "brand", which he defines succinctly as: "what do people think of when they think of you?"He shares a couple of insights into branding, such as "visibility is just as important as ability" and "you can't brand a lie." He then goes on to present the idea that branding is simply a matter of telling your story - except that you need to know your story. His four "branding questions" are:
1. What's the point? (Why are you doing this?)
2. Who exactly are you?
3. What are your gifts and talents?
4. What makes you different?
I think the last question is one that we often overlook. In most densely-populated areas there are actually an incredible number of churches (my town of 28,000 has 60+ identified worshiping communities of various faiths and we're in the secular Northeast), yet very few churches spend time distinguishing themselves from one another. I don't view distinctiveness as the enemy of unity; rather, distinctiveness is the basis of diversity. The body of Christ is best served by communities of faith that carve out distinct niches that meet different needs.
By the way, here's a link to an example of Phil's work, a Snickers commercial that someone uploaded to YouTube. He gave an excellent talk at the ECHO Conference in 2009, a conference for church media teams that was held in Dallas. You can buy the DVDs of the conference here.
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