In our second installment of this series on church marketing/promotion (to see the first article go here), we're going to look at those time-consuming, costly components of the marketing process that are absolutely essential to getting the word out for a new ministry. This is your ministry's "bling-bling," and it appropriately comes in two pieces: logo and website. These two marketing tools alone can cost a ministry thousands of dollars a year, but they don't have to. Networking is huge in making these "essentials" more affordable.

Having a graphic designer and a web designer on your team volunteering their services can save you a lot of money. I'll admit, I scored big here. My brother Travis, a graphic designer, created our logo and designed our website.

For those who haven't found the pot of gold at the end of the graphic design rainbow, don't lose hope. My advice: Start poking your head around at some LAN parties, tech conventions or computer stores. Develop some relationships with these digital gurus, strike up some conversations, cast your vision their way and see if God brings anyone your way who can design your stuff for cheap … or even free!

Sprite Was Right: Show Them Your Motto

The first step to any marketing journey is crafting a name. It's not only the foundation of your ministry's vision, but it's also the starting point to any logo design. Here are some principles I've learned from our naming process.

In our initial conversations with our leadership team, it became evident that a significant challenge to the young adults in our community centered on one question: What's my purpose?

Our leadership wanted to be a community that helped people find their purpose in God and His story. Somewhere along the way, we came across the Latin term VOX. Vox means "voice, cry or call." As soon as we all heard it, the collective light bulb came on. It was perfect! VOX would be about helping people find their voice in God's story, cry out to Him in worship and explore their calling in His kingdom. We had a name and came up with the motto: find your voice ...

The name "VOX" achieved a number of key things for us.

· It was birthed from our vision

· It relates to the needs of the community we're trying to reach.

· It provokes. A strange, but short and catchy word like "Vox" causes people to stop and think.

· It's unique. No other ministry or non-profit in the area shares this name.

Logo Logic

With a vision, a name and a motto, it was now time to develop a logo. You can check out the variations on our logo on our flickr page here. When creating a logo, here are a few things to consider (hat tip to our graphic designer, Travis, for the wisdom).

· Make sure your logo will stand the test of time. If you want your ministry to transcend the changing times, design it to stand the test of time. In other words, don't rip off the Survivor logo. When the show runs its course, your business card is going to look really lame.

· Make sure the logo will look great in color as well as black and white. We do as much as we can in color, but it's expensive. Sometimes black and white is just fine as long as your logo can handle it.

· K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple, Stupid). Don't go overboard in the design. Let the logo clearly, professionally communicate your vision, and then let it be. If your logo has too much going on visually, you can't scale it down. A good rule of thumb: Imagine your logo on your business card. If you hand someone your business card, and they pull out a Sherlock Holmes-esque magnifying glass, you have a problem.

Spinning the Web

All right, you've got that snazzy logo, and you're ready to plaster it everywhere you can. The first place to put it to use is a website. Websites are now people's primary initial exposure to churches and ministries. Spend the time and money to do this right. You can check out our website here. Here are the things we wanted to accomplish with our site:

· K.I.S.S. (again). We wanted a simple, professional design. Our community isn't incredibly artistic or tech-savvy, so we went with a fairly simple, sleek design.

· Make it user friendly. A person's first exposure to your ministry should be so user friendly your dog could navigate it. If they're confused by your site, they'll likely pass on checking your ministry out any further.

· Keep scrolling at a minimum. Scrolling requires movement on the viewer's part. People are at a computer because they don't want to physically "move" at that particular time. Forcing them to scroll over and over again will frustrate people.

· Limit clicking. This incorporates the previous two. Nobody wants a maze to navigate with their mouse. Keep the clicks to a minimum.

· Optimize your images. Use professional, high-quality digital photos to ensure clarity. But also be sure to optimize them to the proper size. This will keep your page loading time at a minimum.

· Don't write a book. It's a website, not a book. Get your point across. People surf the Internet because they want information quickly and conveniently.

· Permanent vs. flexible. This is a crucial point to think about in your design. Do you want to be able to change information on your site easily and often? If so, you better have someone with the expertise to tweak your web design. We went with the more fixed route and tried to leave the flexibility to free web based programs (tease alert: an upcoming installment in this series will be devoted to all the glorious free programs you can take advantage of!).

By no means am I saying that we've cornered the market on young adult ministry logos or web design. We'd certainly do some things differently. Hopefully the principles offered in this article will help you as you discern how to best design a logo and a website that effectively communicate who you are to your surrounding neighborhoods. Just remember one thing: "bling bling" is meant to shine. Polish it … and let it shine as an excellent expression of your community.

Drew Moser is the pastor of VOX (www.voxohio.org), a blogger (www.drewmoser.blogspot.com), and a diehard, eternally optimistic Cubs fan. There's always next year….