Building Community and Outreach Through the Web
Faith Baptist Church of Taylors, SC wanted a website where they could effectively promote church community and involvement as well as spark outreach. To achieve this, YCP created a website with a clean and organized home portal that encourages involvement by clearly presenting what is currently happening at Faith. This presentation also gives visitor a clear view of church life and beliefs.
A Distinct and Recognizable Brand
When Faith Baptist Church commissioned us with the development of their new identity design and website, we were excited to work with a local client with whom we could conduct all of our meetings face to face. Responses to our brand surveys and the subsequent meetings we held, helped us define Faith's core values and stylistic expectations. This large, well-established church congregation is known for its quality music, consistent preaching and sound doctrine. We pulled together all our resources to create a strong and authentic identity which would have a lasting impact on their congregation and surrounding community.
A New Logo With Relevance
The old 90's-style calligraphic logo was ditched and replaced by a solid mark that embodies the church's main goal ("A passion for God and a compassion for people") through symbolism and simplicity. The mark reflects several of the church's relevant themes: the outer shape is solid and stone-like, while the bold counter form in the middle can be seen as the letter "f" or as a cross. The clean inside of the letter symbolizes the rebirth, and openings on three sides symbolize the welcoming of new people. A subtle shepherd's crook in the loop of the "f" is a reminder for the need of Christ's guidance. The mark is made up of three parts to symbolize the Trinity as well as the multiple members the church is made up of.
A rich red tone was chosen to create a warm and personal feeling for the mark. Following the identity materials, we designed various tracks, brochures and connect cards with plans for signage and environmental graphics still to come.
A Whole New Website, A Whole New Dimension of Possibilities
The biggest item on the branding to-do list was the redesigning and development of the website. An organized and intuitive layout with an inviting look and feel makes exploring the site a pleasure. Faith Baptist is just five minutes away from YCP's office, but their website is a far greater leap than than the 3 mile drive. Faith now has the most feature-rich ministry website we have ever built, providing a host of useful tools for visitors, members and staff. Besides mainstream features that inform about the church, the following features make church life more efficient:
Member Manager
Faith Baptist Church now has the ability to set up tiers of member login levels with customized, password-protected access to information. The pastoral staff may have more access than a choir member, who on the other hand may have access to items a regular member could not see. Prayer requests, missionary updates and service outlines can be managed with Backstage and easily distributed to the interested parties. A member can also easily change his contact information in the church directory.
Online Sermons
Backstage makes it easy to upload, listen to and download sermons, along with associated Scripture readings and sermon notes. Faith can effortlessly integrate messages with SermonAudio and iTunes. Subscribing to an rss feed is only a matter of clicking a button. Sermons can even be searched for by series, themes, or speaker.
Calendar
Members now have an easy tool to update and organize their church events. Members can RSVP to events right through their new website, and church administration can manage RSVP's and plan for events based off of the data they collect in Backstage. Members can even print all of the information they need right from the Calendar portal in the website. Furthermore, an agenda list of upcoming events lets members read all the details of happenings in the near future. Backstage has made it easy for Faith to help their church members plan for and attend church-related events.
Branding and Websites Matter to Everyone
While not every church may be the size of Faith Baptist Church and require their unique set of materials and features, effective branding and a useful website is imperative to every organization. Take a moment to explore fbctaylors.org and see for yourself how you like it.