Much of my learning I gained from reading books and learning from others. Each of these books will undoubtedly help you communicate with simplicity, intentionality and effectiveness.
Top 10 Books to Read for Church Communication Leaders -
Designing Brand Identity - An Essential Guide for the Whole Branding Team
by Alina Wheeler
Description -
From research and analysis through brand strategy, design development through application design, and identity standards through launch and governance, Designing Brand Identity, Fourth Edition offers brand managers, marketers, and designers a proven, universal five-phase process for creating and implementing effective brand identity. Enriched by new case studies showcasing successful world-class brands, this Fourth Edition brings readers up to date with a detailed look at the latest trends in branding, including social networks, mobile devices, global markets, apps, video, and virtual brands.
Church Unique - How Missional Leaders Cast Vision, Capture Culture, and Create Movement
by Will Mancini
Description -
Written by church consultant, Will Mancini, expert on a new kind of visioning process to help churches develop a stunningly unique model of ministry that leads to redemptive movement. He guides churches away from an internal focus to emphasize participation in their community and surrounding culture. In this important book, Mancini offers an approach for rethinking what it means to lead with clarity as a visionary. Mancini explains that each church has a culture that reflects its particular values, thoughts, attitudes, and actions and shows how church leaders can unlock their church’s individual DNA and unleash their congregation’s one-of-a-kind potential.
The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding
by Al and Laura Ries
Description -
Smart and accessible, The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding is the definitive text on branding, pairing anecdotes about some of the best brands in the world, like Rolex, Volvo, and Heineken, with the signature savvy of marketing gurus Al and Laura Ries. Combining The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding and The 11 Immutable Laws of Internet Branding, this book proclaims that the only way to stand out in today’s marketplace is to build your product or service into a brand—and provides the step-by-step instructions you need to do so.
Cracking Your Church’s Culture Code - 7 Keys to Unleashing Vision and Inspiration
by Sam Chand
Description -
Why is it that the best strategic plans and good leadership often are not able to move churches in the desired direction? Sam Chand contends that toxic culture is to blame. Quite often, leaders don’t sense the toxicity, but it poisons their relationships and derails their vision. This work describes five easily identifiable categories of church culture (inspiring-accepting-stagnant-discouraging-toxic), with diagnostic descriptions in the book and a separate online assessment tool. The reader will be able to identify strengths and needs of their church’s culture, and then apply practical strategies (communication, control and authority, selection and placement of personnel, etc.) to make their church’s culture more positive.
Zag - The Number Strategy of High-Performance Brands
by Marty Neumeier
Description -
“When everybody zigs, zag,” says Marty Neumeier in this fresh view of brand strategy. ZAG follows the ultra-clear “whiteboard overview” style of the author’s first book, THE BRAND GAP, but drills deeper into the question of how brands can harness the power of differentiation. The author argues that in an extremely cluttered marketplace, traditional differentiation is no longer enough—today companies need “radical differentiation” to create lasting value for their shareholders and customers.
The Advantage - Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business
by Patrick Lencioni
Description -
In his immensely readable and accessible style, Lencioni makes the case that there is no better way to achieve profound improvement in an organization than by attacking the root causes of dysfunction, politics, and confusion. While too many leaders are still limiting their search for advantage to conventional and largely exhausted areas like marketing, strategy, and technology, Lencioni demonstrates that there is an untapped gold mine sitting right beneath them. Instead of trying to become smarter, he asserts that leaders and organizations need to shift their focus to becoming healthier, allowing them to tap into the more-than-sufficient intelligence and expertise they already have.
Making Ideas Happen - Overcoming the Obstacles Between Vision and Reality
by Scott Belsky
Description -
According to productivity expert Scott Belsky, no one is born with the ability to drive creative projects to completion. Execution is a skill that must be developed by building your organizational habits and harnessing the support of your colleagues. As the founder and CEO of Behance, a company on a mission to empower and organize the creative world, Belsky has studied the habits of especially productive individuals and teams across industries. Now he has compiled the principles and techniques they share, and presents a systematic approach to creative organization and productivity.
Content Rules - How to Create Killer Blog Posts, Videos, Podcasts and EBooks
by Ann Handley
Description -
Blogs, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and other platforms are giving everyone a “voice,” including organizations and their customers. So how do you create the stories, videos, and blog posts that cultivate fans, arouse passion for your products or services, and ignite your business? Content Rules equips you for online success as a one-stop source on the art and science of developing content that people care about. This coverage is interwoven with case studies of companies successfully spreading their ideas online—and using them to establish credibility and build a loyal customer base.
The Brand Gap - How to Bridge the Gap Between Strategy and Design
by Marty Neumeier
Description -
The Brand Gap is the first book to present a unified theory of brand-building. Whereas most books on branding are weighted toward either a strategic or creative approach, this book shows how both ways of thinking can unite to produce a “charismatic brand”—a brand that customers feel is essential to their lives.
Making Vision Stick
by Andy Stanley
Description -
A vision. You as a leader may have it, but has your organization caught it? If a leader’s vision is all about what could be and what should be, why are you buried under what is? Noted author and pastor Andy Stanley points out that if followers don’t get the vision, it’s because the leaders haven’t delivered it. He reveals the three reasons vision doesn’t stick.
What books would you add to the list?
(Ed. Note: Book descriptions are quoted from Amazon.com)
