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#Illuminare – THE JESUS BRAND starts now.
1. Many, many, many years ago I got a call from a church to design and produce invitational fliers. The church was new – it was a demographic outreach of a particular denomination. #Illuminare
2. The church is located in the high brow section of town. Successful people live in that part of town and certain pedigree of businesses occupy the real estate. It is an expensive locality, one of those areas rent is paid in dollars per square metre. #Illuminare
3. The church comprised the affluent, the successful, the succeeding. They wanted to reach out to their kind – their business and professional colleagues. #Illuminare
4. In practical terms it is easier for the successful to preach to the successful. The poor don’t have access to these people. They’re barricaded in boardrooms and country clubs. Some live in forbidding estates behind imposing gates that reach up to high heaven. #Illuminare
5. And some live in high rise condominiums. (The Tower of Babel must have been a high rise for the rich). They have security guards. These serve as winnowing forks separating the wanted from the uninvited. #Illuminare
6. These people won’t listen to the poor. And yet rich or poor we all need salvation. Therefore locating that church in that tony end of town was an evangelistic master stroke. #Illuminare
7. But the proposal given me by representatives of the church made no sense in my professional judgment. They were proposing to print cheapskate fliers as invites for the rich. #Illuminare
8. I had seen those cheap fliers before. They were very common in churches, still are common. They are garishly colourful. It seemed the graphic designers were determined to maximise the cost of their computer. #Illuminare
9. The graphic designers employed as many typefaces as possible. It was graphic butchery. There was no discipline in the design whatsoever. I called them bread wrappers. #Illuminare
10. The question was, how do you invite successful people to church with such quality of fliers? These people have rarefied taste. They’re used to high grade invites. And how do you invite them to church using the cheapest printing material? #Illuminare
11. In those days broadsides - what we call evangelism tracts were printed cheaply, mostly 60grams bond paper, one colour, usually black. They weren’t particularly inviting. #Illuminare
12. We can argue that those who printed those broadsides did what they could according to their means. Those tracts were mainly distributed in buses plying high density population routes. They gave their best. #Illuminare
13. But how do you reconcile successful people using the same cheap materials to invite successful people to church? Those fliers won’t even get past their gatehouse. #Illuminare
14. The second and the more important issue for me was I felt they were degrading the brand of Christ. That’s the most valuable brand in the world and Paul said as much: #Illuminare
15. “Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honour and gave him a name above other names...” Philippians 2:9. #Illuminare
16. To get a sense of the value of the brand think of the price tag on a human soul. According to scripture the human soul is so expensive it’s practically priceless. “The ransom of a soul is too costly,” David wrote. Psalm 49:7,8. #Illuminare
17. But the brand name of Jesus was the credit card used to purchase salvation for mankind. We were bought at a price. 1 Corinthians 6:20. That name has paid for billions of souls, and this has been going on for millennia. #Illuminare
18. God literally issued an open cheque for the redemption of mankind. The economics of salvation is mind boggling. The challenge for me was, how do you present such a brand with the cheapest available print material? #Illuminare
19. I was even more troubled when I learnt some of those present at the meeting printed their business stationeries in England. I told them in no uncertain terms I wasn’t going to do the job. Obviously that wasn’t a business decision. #Illuminare
20. This is what compounded my difficulty, at that time I was designing and producing materials for the Italian Embassy. I designed and produced the invites to programs of the Italian Cultural Institute. These were high grade productions. #Illuminare
21. The Italians never ordered fliers. They ordered high grammage materials. The graphic standard was sophisticated. #Illuminare
22. Now, the Bible says we’re ambassadors of Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:20. Each church to me was a mini embassy, comparable to the Italian Embassy. Therefore same standard should apply. #Illuminare
23. If the Italians could use high grade materials, God’s people should use high grade materials. That was my simple logic. Why weren’t they I asked myself, especially when they can afford it? I was angry, very angry. #Illuminare
24. I still don’t know why but I was. I was angry all the way home. I kept muttering in my thoughts, they want to use bread wrapper for God, can you imagine! I went to bed angry, and I was angry in my sleep. #Illuminare
25. Now, I’m not the temperamental type and so I couldn’t understand my anger. I was even angry in my dream! But God came to me in that dream. He told me to produce the materials and give to the church. Same standard as the Italian Embassy. #Illuminare
26. I remember telling God does he realise how expensive that is – contractually it was the cost of the annual rent for my office. But he told me to do it. #Illuminare
27. So I took my money and produced high grade invitation cards for the church. I went and handed it over. They were pleased. The invite was so good the church rationed the distribution. This was thirty something years ago. It’s a story known to a few. And now you know.
28. I have never believed one should give God anything less than the best. He gave us his best. He’s called Jesus. And it’s not always about money. There has to be a reverence and respect for God through his brand. #Illuminare
29. We get away with our disrespect because he’s liberal, very understanding and very accommodating. As people of faith we need to pay better attention to the brand of Jesus. #Illuminare
30. I dream of a major advertising campaign for the Jesus brand, one that is no less than the standard of Coca-Cola. They’re both in the beverage business. Coca-Cola purveys carbonated water, Jesus gives living water. #Illuminare
31. I find it a bit disturbing that churches spend so much advertising programs but pay scant attention to the corporate brand of Jesus. And yet everyone is running on his endorsement. #Illuminare
32. It’s what we technically refer to as endorsed brand architecture in brand strategy. Who will come to our church if his name is absent? He’s the star attraction, the primary brand. He’s our primary asset. #Illuminare
33. I am particular about the visual representation of the Jesus brand. There must be brand standard. Such a standard should be no less than our corporate brands. #Illuminare
34. I do remember that after we designed the letterhead for Alder Consulting I felt ashamed of the letterhead of my church. It wasn’t impressive. The logo was a brilliant idea but the execution was amateurish. #Illuminare
35. What I did was redesign the logo, bring it up to international standard. I added a flourish that was emblematic of God’s sovereignty. #Illuminare
36. I did this in gold because our corporate crest contained gold. God’s logo could be no less. I had felt like David who lived in a cedar palace while the ark of God dwelt in a tent. 1 Chronicles 17:11. #Illuminare
37. I showed the redesign to my pastor and he liked it very much. He asked if I could reproduce it to that standard. I said yes. And so I took my money and replaced the entire stationery for the church. And I kept restocking at my expense for many years. #Illuminare
38. Does all this have a bearing on the fortune of our company? I don’t know. That wasn’t the motive. It wasn’t a quid pro quo transaction. I wasn’t making a deal. I just loved God. That was all my motivation. I still do. #Illuminare
39. God brings tears to my eyes when I think of how wonderful he is. He’s so nice, so accommodating, so forgiving, so kind, genuine, real, trustworthy, loyal, a true friend. And he doesn’t hold grudges. #Illuminare
40. We can express our love for him in so many ways. And about the Jesus brand... We all need to do a rethink. #Illuminare
41. If you’ll like to know this God, please pray this prayer: “Father I acknowledge that I am a sinner, that Jesus died for me, that you raised him from the dead. Father please forgive me. I accept Jesus today as my Lord and my Saviour. Amen.” #Illuminare
43. To read and download FREE copies of Understanding Tithing (Parts 1, 2, 3 and 4), please go to myilluminare.com. #Illuminare
44. To read my new book on the science of Genesis, order or subscribe for The Genesis Project at genesisprojectonline.com. #Illuminare
45. © Leke Alder | talk2me@lekealder.com. #Illuminare
