If there are two things I love, they’ve got to be hamburgers and international travel.
But if there are two MORE things I love, they’re diversity and a challenge. I got both when I signed on to help Praise Church in Beaumont re-write their copy as they went through a serious redesign.
The Challenge:
Praise was looking for content that was less “Billy Graham in the 80’s” and more “Apple meets Jesus”. As people both inside and outside of churches will confess, sometimes the way Christians communicate seems like an entirely different language (I’ve heard it referred to as “Christianese”).
This exclusive way of talking completely isolates anyone who isn’t used to hearing it and can be especially confusing for those who aren’t church-goers – which is exactly the opposite of what a growing church wants to sound like.
I was trusted to find a middle ground: A way of speaking that would click with the church’s existing members while keeping would-be attendees from checking out early.
The Solution:
Working with Praise’s existing copy, I was able to pull out the core values of the church (acceptance, growth, discovery) and write them in a way anyone could connect with and understand. The copy was kept brief and energetic without getting cheesy or falling back on clichés.
Faith and church can be sensitive items for people; there’s nothing that gets people fired up quite like the things they believe (or don’t believe). There could be no wishy-washy middle ground for the church, but there had to be a sense of openness and friendliness behind their messaging. It had to be inviting. I focused on making it sound more like a dialogue waiting to happen than a sermon waiting to be preached.
For someone who spends a lot of time working with digital firms and brands, this was a welcome bit of variety and a chance to prove I can do a lot more than blog about content. A big thanks goes out to Josh Ferris for bringing me on to the project.
