The Branding Issue
[10.04]

We don't usually do 'the editorial thing', but hey - this is our birthday (1 year old this month!) and we thought we'd celebrate with a "branding issue" and few words as to why.

The existence of this website alone is perhaps evidence that 'emerging church' is now a brand of sorts. Actually we did consider another name for this site: "Who's the monkey?" - a joke on the nature of evolution and perhaps a sly dig at fundamentalism. But we eventually decided that 'emerging church' was rapidly becoming the term under which a wide variety of fresh expressions of church were being grouped and we decided to go with it. Besides, throwing coconuts at homosapiens from high up in the trees just isn't our style.

One year on, and we must have made something of a name for ourselves as we've already got a book named after us - well, nearly - you can read an excerpt from michael moynagh's 'emergingchurch.intro' in next month's issue.

But why an issue on branding? Isn't that something for multinational corporations, not churches - emerging or otherwise? Well, a quick look at some of the stories we've featured over the last 12 months would show a different story. Groups such as Sanctus 1, Graceway, Legacy, Eden, Ikon and Visions have all taken their image seriously, partly with an eye towards evangelism but more often as an indication of their holistic creative approach to being church, and particularly to worship. As Anonymous Workers explain in their article about the identity for Vaux - a worshipping community in Vauxhall, London UK - it's about more than a logo. Identity encompasses everything that makes an act of worship, the visual, the spoken, the experienced. "God is in the detail."

It's no coincidence that many of the groups mentioned above have come from the alternative worship movement, where groups have engaged with (and often subverted) contemporary issues such as consumerism and globalisation. Steve Collins, who has been visually documenting alt.worship for several years gives his ideas for how church might look if Anglican church culture fell in love with American coffee culture. We also take a visual journey with Grace alt.worship group who celebrated 10 years of creative worship this year.

It all shows that we've come a long way from Christians in the 1970's wearing little silver fish or doves on their jacket collar. We can no longer ignore the branded culture we live in, and if we are to communicate the gospel afresh, we need to take identity seriously. If our faith is the most dynamic, exciting, creative thing in our lives, surely we have to communicate that with the rest of the world in a way that is equally dynamic, exciting and creative. What is your brand?

Adrian is the editor and designer of emergingchurch.info.

He runs the graphic design and website business 'Electric Angel' in North Yorkshire UK who recently rebranded the Church of England Diocese of Bradford and are currently developing visual identities for the Boys' Brigade 'Anchors' and 'Juniors' sections.