UCC Southwest Conference sets out to let spiritual sojourners know it’s ‘not that kind of church’

Not that kind of church: No judgment. No hierarchy. No kidding.

This is the new slogan of the Southwest Conference of the United Church of Christ, officially rolled out this past summer.

Their campaign to create marketing materials with a new Conference slogan and logo “grew out of a question many of our churches are wrestling with,” said Conference Minister Rev. Toni Hawkins. “How do we communicate who we are to people whose understanding of ‘church’ is often shaped more by past experience or perception than by who we actually are?”

So the Conference created a collaborative process that brought together the Conference staff and moderator, clergy serving congregations across Arizona, New Mexico, and El Paso, Texas, and the brand strategy teams Lightbox PR and Root + River, to brainstorm a message to communicate just that.

“For the Southwest Conference, this campaign is part of a broader effort to communicate more clearly and confidently who we are: communities seeking to embody extravagant welcome, courageous faith, justice, belonging, and compassion, while engaging the real questions people are asking today,” Hawkins said.

‘A phrase I already say all the time’

The Rev. Sue Joiner, senior minister of First Congregational UCC in Albuquerque, New Mexico, was involved in the brainstorming sessions. When she heard “Not that kind of church” was an option, it immediately resonated.

“I was kind of stunned,” Joiner said. “That’s a phrase I already say all the time. When I meet someone and am telling them what I do, I feel like I have to follow it with ‘but it’s not that kind of church’ so that people will understand that we approach church with a very progressive, open, inclusive mindset.”

The Conference landed on this slogan compelled by how it could peak people’s curiosity, said Hawkins. “We want people to be able to say, ‘So what kind of church are you?’ The slogan gives us the opportunity to explain who we are, our identity, and why we are.”

“We wanted language that did more than sound good,” said Wende Gonzales, Southwest Conference communications and operations coordinator. “We wanted it to communicate something meaningful about who we are becoming and the kind of church we are committed to being.”

‘To be more visible’ in contexts of Christian Nationalism

This slogan speaks into the current context where a recent study showed that, for many in Gen Z, associations made between Christianity and President Donald Trump have had a negative impact on their ideas of church. Nearly half agreed with the statement that “Christians’ support of Trump has made me less likely to go to church.”

The Southwest Conference offices are located in Phoenix, Arizona – the same city that houses the headquarters of Turning Point USA, a nonprofit organization that focuses on, as its mission statement describes, “the underlying principles of America’s founding, Western Civilization, and Christian ethics” in alignment with conservative politics.

“Turning Point is very popular out here, and they are doing a very good job of sharing who they are,” Hawkins said. “We felt like we needed, as a Conference, to be more visible, and this is just the beginning.”

The Conference’s next steps are creating a plan to address the need for greater support in youth and children’s ministries in the conference.

‘A church community that they don’t know exists’

The Conference slogan and new branding seeks to especially reach ‘spiritual sojourners,’” shared Gonzales.

This refers to “thoughtful, community-oriented people who may be skeptical of institutional religion or performative expressions of faith but have not necessarily given up on spirituality, meaningful community, or the possibility that church can be different.”

“So many people have given up on church,” Joiner said. “There’s a group of people out there that would like to have a church community like this that they don’t know exists.”

This is what “Not that kind of church” seeks to get at, with three additional phrases adding clarity to the statement. According to the brand guidelines, “No judgement” means people can come as they are with questions, doubts, and messy lives; “No hierarchy” means power doesn’t determine who matters; and “No kidding” means this is a serious promise.

‘Committed to building what is next’

In landing on this slogan, the collaborators spent time defining what kind of church they are.

“One of the main answers is that we’re rooted in covenant, we’re rising in hope, and we’re committing to building what is next. So there’s never a conclusion to our answer, because we’re always becoming,” Hawkins said.

They considered the fact that the slogan states what the church is not and whether this could come across negatively, Hawkins said. But focus groups across the Conference’s region didn’t show this response. They largely showed people wanting to know more.

“We want people to be curious about who we are and what makes us not the kind of church people might be used to,” Hawkins said.

“I just feel like there has to be a way to distinguish us and say there is a church that is inclusive and committed to justice and is horrified at what is happening in our country right now. I’m proud of that and proud to be part of a church like that,” Joiner said.

‘Outward expression, inward transformation’

First Congregational UCC in Albuquerque was the first congregation to use the new Conference slogan for their church’s participation in their local Pride March in June. They carried a banner with the new slogan boldly printed and wore t-shirts designed with the UCC rainbow comma on the front and the new Southwest Conference slogan on the back.

“For us, that is where the story becomes especially meaningful: when something developed through a Conference-wide process becomes language our local churches can use to tell their own communities who they are,” said Gonzales.

Joiner reflected how part of the conversation in the Conference brainstorming sessions acknowledged what a “gamechanger” it was when the “God is Still Speaking” campaign was rolled out by the UCC National Setting in 2004.

The Conference was inspired by the ongoing impact of that campaign to seek an additional phrase that could speak today to “the people hungry for community, the people who want to do something to make the world more just, but they have no idea where to start,” Joiner said.

As the Southwest Conference invites its congregations to put this new slogan into use, there is a hope that it offers words for a church that Hawkins describes as “always evolving.”

“There’s always inward transformation taking place,” Hawkins said, “This slogan is an outward expression of it.”

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