The Missing Guide
Most ministries struggle to grow their online audience. They consistently release content but find their reach hindered by inconsistent branding. If this is your ministry, then you need a style guide.
A style guide is a collection of fonts, colors, and images that can be used to design your graphics. By the end of this article, you’ll know how to create this guide and use it to produce eye-catching content for your members.
Setting The Tone For Your Style Guide
By this, everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another.”
Jesus taught His followers to love one another. Acting with this tone or attitude would allow them to reflect God’s mercy, humility, and compassion to others. As a result, they would fulfill His desires, and draw others to believe in Him.
Everyone we reach should recognize the tone and personality of our ministry. They should see our love for Christ and the passion to empower them.
Setting The Tone For Wisdom In Christ
The tone for Wisdom In Christ is friendly, practical, and thought-provoking. We desire genuine relationships with others and want to teach them practical ways to grow with Jesus.
Action Step
Write down a tone that matches your ministry vision and values. If more guidance is needed, please look at Hubspot’s Brand Voice article in the resources.
Free Brand Guide Workbook For Churches
Use our free workbook to build a brand guide to produce eye-catching content and graphics for your ministry.
Adding Color To Your Style Guide
The hairs on his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire.
In Revelations, the apostle John vividly describes the appearance of Jesus. Looking beyond His physical body, we can see His qualities through the colors used. White is symbolic of righteousness. Fire represents purity and holiness.
We must use colors in our ministries to reflect our character and values. Doing this helps our members form and connect with our purpose.
The Power Of Color
The colors for Wisdom In Christ are blue and gold. Blue symbolizes the presence of God and the peace He offers. Gold represents the incredible wealth we gain in Christ because of our relationship with Him.
Action Step
Write down two colors representing your ministry tone. For more guidance on color theory and meaning, please refer to the smash magazine article in the resources.
Choosing Fonts For Your Style Guide
See what large letters I use as I write to you with my own hand!
Many places in scripture point to Paul having eye problems. The Galatians (who knew Paul’s condition) could recognize his writing and empathize with his care and attention towards them.
Like the Galatians, our members should recognize our writing. We can achieve this by choosing a font related to our tone and purpose.
Connecting With Fonts
Wisdom In Christ uses the Montserrat and Libre Baskerville fonts because they’re easy to read. These fonts emphasize our tone of desiring deeper relationships with God and others.
Action Step
Choose two fonts that match your ministry tone. If needed, please refer to Canva’s Font Pairing guide in the resources.
Grabbing Images For Your Style Guide
1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters.
In Psalms 23, David compares the Lord to a Shepherd. He uses imagery to show how God leads us through a life of prosperity (green pastures) and peace (still waters). As a result, we can relate to Him more and embrace the life He offers.
Images reflect our ministry vision and values with others. Using them in our graphics empowers people to connect with our teachings and draw closer to the Lord.
Invaluable Images
The images used for wisdom in Christ-centered around faith and online communities. Using these images tells others we are a virtual ministry that follows Jesus and desires to connect with them.
Action Step
Write a list of images that match your tone. Search for these royalty-free images online and save them to a folder. Use these images in your website and graphics.
Designing A Logo For Your Style Guide
Wisdom is a tree of life to those who eat her fruit; happy is the man who keeps on eating it.
Wisdom is the skills we receive from the Lord to navigate all areas of life. Wisdom allows us to solve problems in our faith, relationships, and finances. Given its value, Solomon describes it as a tree of life that produces fruit for people to find nourishment and substance. This metaphor shows how wisdom wisdom is to the reader.
Our logos must communicate a similar message. Through our use of colors, symbols, and fonts, people should be able to relate to our ministry and see the value we offer them.
A Logo Of Relationship
The logo for Wisdom In Christ displays its value in several ways. The word Christ is placed at the bottom to show that Jesus is the foundation of our lives. The cross symbolizes our faith and the flame represents the trials we face and overcome. Altogether, this logo depicts the value we receive from having a personal relationship with Christ.
Action Steps
Write the text, shapes, and symbols that reflect your ministry tone and values. Each aspect should express the vision and value you offer others.
Combine these elements to design your ministry logo. If you need assistance, hire a logo designer or use a logo generator tool.
Composing Your Style Guide
Your ministry needs a style guide. With these elements, you can create jaw-dropping content to reach and empower your members. We designed our style guide with these steps. And regularly create graphics and presentations. If your guide feels dated, review this document and make changes as needed.
Assignment
- Using the action steps above, create each element of your style guide.
- Add these elements to a singular document and use them to design your ministry graphics.
