Curb Appeal – Is your church seen from the street?

Even churches that pay attention to the interior of their building do not share that same care for the exterior.

As some of you know, I spend a lot of time talking about ‘curb appeal’. It’s more important than most churches realize.

If you have ever purchased or sold a home, you know how important curb appeal is.  Driving up to a house that doesn’t have any visual appeal will taint your opinion even prior to walking inside, if you ever choose to go inside.  I remember my wife and I buying our first home, we rejected so many homes based on their curb appeal, never stepping inside to see if it was just a diamond in the rough.

Why is this so important to a church.  As long as it’s clean, the grass is mowed and the flowers aren’t dead, things should be alright.  Pretty short-sided unfortunately.  Allow me to present a couple of scenarios.

1. New people move into town.  They don’t know anyone and are looking for a church.  Most will start with looking at websites (that’s another story).  As they are exploring the neighborhood, looking for stores, gas stations, banks they also drive around looking for a church.  What does the exterior of your church communicate to someone who knows nothing about you?  Be honest. Does it say “WELCOME – God is moving amongst us“, or is it saying “hi, here we are, come in if you wanna”.

2. Let’s assume that your church is on a well traveled street.  People drive by every day.  They may have noticed you the first or second time they drive by but very soon they won’t notice you all.  It becomes forgettable, you blend into that landscape. Marketing (and no, it’s not a 4-letter word as some pastors would like to think) is bringing about awareness of you product or service.  And a key to successful marketing is making sure that when your target is in need of your product/service, you will be the first person they think of.  So, let’s put this in church terms – “There are no atheists in foxholes,” meaning, when that person has hit bottom, when the Spirit of God is tugging on their hearts, don’t you want the opportunity to minister to that person?

3. You have invested in signage but it still isn’t working.  You don’t understand why the green vinyl sign with white lettering, strung between two trees is driving people through the doors.  How about the fact that the sign hasn’t changed in 3 years. In the top picture, this church changes it’s signage with every new series that the pastor is teaching.

There has to be a strategic plan and that plan has to be followed.  Secondly, there has to be quality associated.  In America today we are assaulted with amazing amounts of high-quality media and when you see something that does not have quality, or it’s not up-to-par with what else we are seeing, or (my personal favorite) it’s tainted with so much ‘christianese’ that a normal person can’t understand what you are saying – you are just wasting your (Gods) money.

“If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur!” ~ Red Adair

If you need help, 3 Penguins Design is here.  We offer cost-saving monthly agreements where you contract us to be your graphic, promotional, strategy developer.  We’ll take care of this end so you can place your time, effort and gifting in the area of the Kingdom.