A bit of an experiment. I posted this on the United Church Site and posted it here. i want to see how many posters will comment here and there. Something to do on a quiet Saturday night.

Who the heck is Chris Christie?

The church brand has never stood still, I do not think. It is in flux today.

Perhaps how it is seen by Hollywood, might tell us about how the psychological is perceived. I could say that church attendance might be indicative of the experiential aspect... but church mission and social services are also part of church and would be included in the experiential I think. Attendance is a smaller experience of church than what it was.

In both aspects, in some parts of the global the brand is blazing hot... isn't it?

Chris Christie, the Republican Governor of New Jersey, and would-be presidential candidate? It seems, though, that his brand has failed.

The Christian Church has, for centuries, branded itself as the saviour of humankind. It, too, has failed to deliver.

Can Christianity re-brand itself—and deliver? 

I think it is up to every individual to deliver her- or himself from evil. No organization can do that. For the Christian Church, as an organization, to survive, revive and thrive, it may need to re-brand itself as a humanistic organization.

I think everyone creates their own spiritual brand. What we all have in common, though, is the outward expression of our spirtuality as humanism in action.

I think all of us could and perhaps would unite under the banner of humanism. The UU has realized that a long time ago.

A moderate Republican governor (New Jersey) that many hoped might get the Republican nomination in 2016 thereby getting them a shot at bringing moderates back to the party. His excellent, bipartisan (he was actually criticized by Tea Party and other right wing Republicans for his close relationship with Obama) handling of the Hurrican Sandy crisis in NJ helped boost this already strong brand.

Recently, however, he's been up to his arse in trouble. Apparently, staff arranged for lanes to be closed on a bridge leading to a town where the mayor had criticized him, causing a massive traffic tie-up. While Christie says it was done without his knowledge, he has taken responsibility and sacked the ringleader. Unfortunately, there are now revelations that Hurricane Sandy relief may also have been affected by politics in a similar manner .

IOW, the brand has been rather badly tarnished, though it may still be salvageable.

Do  a search Google News and you'll probably find plenty about him.

Mendalla

The problem for the Christian church is that it has a couple different brands.

There is the brand that is, arguably, closer to the one established by Jesus where forgiveness and compassion are emphasized over judgement. Even the RCs are moving closer to this version under Francis, but it is best epitomized by middle of the road and liberal Protestant groups like the United Church of Canada, United Church of Christ, the liberal wing of the Anglicans, and so on. Individual Christians like Francis of Assissi and Martin Luther King, Jr. are probably the obvious standard bearers of this brand.

Then there is the fiery, judgemental, moralistic, crusading brand that is focussed on winning and "saving" souls and is determined to run the world its way. Right wing evangelical churches, fundamentalist crusaders and TV ministers, and the right wings of the Anglicans, Lutherans, etc. are the standard-bearers here. The RCs have a strong streak of it, too, esp. under J-P II.

The struggle now is which brand will actually revive the churches and put bodies in seats or is new brand entirely required to do that.

The problem of the former is that it doesn't offer much that isn't available in other philosophical and religious paths (e.g. UU'ism, Buddhism, secular humanism both also emphasize caring and compassion on different grounds and without some of the theological baggage of Christianity) and is often tied to a less clear, less focussed theological brand.

The problem of the latter is that it has mostly been most successful in winning over the converted (ie. pulling people from other churches), not from outside "the fold" and is negatively associated with the excesses of the TV preachers and Moral Majority Republicans.

The UCCan's brand has traditionally been the former, though there are those within its ranks drawn to the latter. If it could refocus on that brand, it could be a strong voice for it, but at same time, it also needs to "sex up" that brand; make it more appealing. The problem seems to be that no one really seems to know how to do that so you have many different approaches from alternative services that ape the more fundamentalist churches' style to focussing entirely on the values at the expense of theology, a la Gretta Vosper. I'm not sure how the church can re-focus on a single brand when the power to do that is kind of de-centralized through the various courts of the church.

UU'ism has the same problem to some extent. We are highly congregational so you can get a totally different experience going to my fellowship than you would one of the large churches in TO or Vancouver, and our focus on the religious quest of the individual means we can't sell a theological brand and, in fact, are often selling the fact that we don't have one.

Mendalla

Just to keep you posted

FB - 0

WC 7

Will BRAND be the new buzz word of the church?

A brand image of the United Church of Canada should be a pot-luck dish ~ symbolizing hospitality and community!

Does every United Church have this brand, Inukshuk?

All Christian denominations should probably be considered a single brand but I have no idea what that would be.  Maybe a group of cartoon people shouting at each other as that is how Christian denominations are viewed by many outside the walls of any church.  The overall logo would be a cross I guess. 

Then each denomination would need to define its own individual brand as well.  UC would be very different from Baptist or Alliance for example.   

Within each denimination it seems to me that congregations  require different logos.  One may identify with a walker, another with a bunch of grinning children, another with a steaming soup bowl or a Bible. 

Thanks Kay.

@crazyheart - I wouldn't think that all United Churches do pot- lucks well.  I think it would be next to impossible to brand each and every United Church - from coast to coast to coast - with the same symbol/logo

I agree, Inukshuk. It is just that the word"brand" is becoming popular like "awesome" I hate to hear words or phrases "All Good" being used to describe everything.

FaceBook - no comments

WC- 13

WonderCafe lends itself to conversation. FaceBook doesn't.

CH, I disagree.  It took me a while to even realize what you were talking about.  A FB group is not the United Church site.

FB is great for certain types of discussions, I have numerous discussions there that I wouldn't have here.  It's not great for forum type discussions, but that doesn't rule out all discussions.

The United Church have several sites on FaceBook. One is Wonder Cafe, one is United Church group, another is Edge(I believe), Chemgal.I just find that the discussion does not carry on for a long time - a day or two, sporatic, and then it is over.

Same for me. I thought Crazyheart was referring to United Future at first. 

Sorry I was talking about United Church Group.

Pinga just posted on FaceBook on WonderCafe app that it will stay regardless what happens here.

Is this making sense now or are you still confused.

I posted the exact same post on United Church Group and no one joined in and instigatsted this kind of conversation.

I set out to initiate a conversation on the United Church Face Book site. I wondered about the status of baptism, precept and practice, in the experience of  United Church of Canada persons and communities.

One person commented, expressing interest and curiosity about the conversation. Another commented, raising a primary response to the invitation to conversation. I replied and received one more reply. Then the conversation went cold. I commented, wondering if an opportunity for exploration of digital media as a locus for community could come into play. No comment followed. I once more commented, citing Jim Morrison of the Doors, "When the music is over, turn out the lights."

In the Cafe we share our insights freely. These represent a broad diversity of insight and commitment. We have earned the just wage of our investement. Some of us have been well blessed by the posting of others of us. Most of us have learned the value and practice of respect. We can call to mind exemplars of this characteristic.

Now for a bit about "Brand"

First some back story:

Old English, of Germanic origin; related to German Brand, also to burn1. The word originally meant ‘burning’ or ‘a piece of burning or smoldering wood’ (sense 3 of the noun); the verb sense ‘mark permanently with a hot iron’ dates from late Middle English. The noun sense ‘mark of ownership made by branding,’ based on the latter, arose in the mid 17th cent., and from it is derived sense 1 (early 19th cent). Link to Source

 A young person earns wages by working at some task (job) for some taskmaster (boss). That money grants access to housing and all that makes for conviviality. We might be curious to discover what percentage of the wages is given in payment for the benefit of some Brand. Money to Apple, to Toyota, money to Westinghouse and General Electric.

In my youth I was perplexed by the lack of insight expressed by persons raised in the way of John Calvin. At twelve I wondered how they could swallow Capitalism whole and reject Buddhism as foreign to the way of God. In these riper days, I see that persons have been seduced and exploited by the many Brands governing our social and economic experience.

Theologically, the proliferation of Brands, through market research and Brand placement, may be thought of as the proliferation of idols and the seduction of a population to the service of these idols.

We are also able to consider the matter of Name in the Western Canon. The main question is raised for our consideration: "In what Name will I say such things to this people?" Or, "What is your Brand?"

Fragmented to be sure...!

George

I had figured out you were talking about a FB group after a bit, but it was confusing as you never mentioned facebook in the first few posts.

Your recent post has me wondering though CH, there's a WC app?  Or are you just referring to a facebook page or facebook group?

chemgal. I think it is an app called "Wondercafe". It has been there for a long,long time and we always used it when wondercafe.ca was down for maitrnence.

My partner recently declared "We are almost impervious to brands".  Our conversation was quite interesting as it acknowledged that we choose to not have a tv, not buy magazines, and avoid mindless shopping.  This means that we limit our exposure to brand adverts (though we didn't realise that would happen when we made our decisions many years ago). 

A possible downside is that casual conversation is more difficult as many people mostly seem to talk about what they watch on tv.  

It's not an app, it's a Facebook group. There is a difference.

An app is a piece of software that plugs into a smartphone or Facebook to let you do something (FB games like Farmville, for instance, could properly be described as apps).

A group is FB's half-arsed version of a forum. WC is a group.

Mendalla

Thanks Mendalla, I was getting confused when CH referred to the United Church FB group, but then a WC app.

Okay, I want to get this right . There are two. FaceBook group and United Church group of Canada Sorry I used app.

Facebook says there is A United Church Page AND a Wondercafe Page. You can type in the names and find them.  They don't seem connected in any meaningful way.  Neither seems to have a decent discussion going on. 

If you're wondering about the difference between an app and a group, I'm pretty sure there's an app for that.

Going back to the original inquiry about branding - here's an informed explanation about brand, brand image, brand equity -  the 'brand' part starts about minute 2:55 - 

And then follow up by watching this VERY interesting video - I think there are some very helpful messages here for churches to consider in today's world ... 

There's an app for everything, including an app for guiding you through the bewildering profusion of apps, right to the one you need.