Church Brand Architects

On Wednesday May 21, 2008, over 250 faith based and non-profit organizations came together at the New York Theological Seminary for a one day conference on economic development. A world class panel of 12, (interesting that number 12, it’s the same number of disciples that accompanied Jesus on his journey, but I digress) were on hand to assist others in helping to decipher the intricacies of developing church properties.

For those who may not know, development is simply making a property better than it was. Many ministries today are owners of some of the most valuable real estate in the world. Yet they have little knowledge or expertise on how to maximize what they have. Abundant Communities Together , a faith based economic development corporation (CDC) saw the need and produced this conference and your Church Brand Architects were there.

What did we bring to the table? We brought an often neglected perspective on how to communicate the vision as it relates to the development of church properties, by asking four questions:

• Who are we?
• What do we do?
• Who do we serve?
• And most importantly why should anyone care?

This is the first step that any church must take in the vision casting process.

This conference had major sponsors such as Citicorp. Aetna, the Greater New York Development Corporation, the Community Preservation Corporation and a host of others.

Dr. Calvin Butts, pastor of Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, and Dr, Fred Lucas, president and CEO of Faith Center For Community Development, Inc., a national, nonprofit organization providing training, technical assistance, and funding for church-based community development headquartered in Manhattan, New York.

This stellar group dropped some serious knowledge on all who attended. Progressive ministries are looking for ways to go beyond their church walls to impact their communities. But the general consensus at the end of the day. If there is no marketing or communication plan in place, the project will go no where.

Vision without a plan and Execution is a Hallucination.

Stay tuned for more posts on faith based economic development and best practices on communicating the vision.

Lloyd Duggan is our resident guest blogger on word of mouth marketing. Known as the Word of Mouth Guru, he has been a panelist all across the country. Lloyd is the president of gL Marketing Consultants of Connecticut. Lloyd’s insights can be found on his Blog The Word of Mouth Guru.