COLLEGE PARK CHURCH COMMUNICATIONS GUIDE

Transcription

1 COLLEGE PARK CHURCH COMMUNICATIONS GUIDE

2 TABLE OF CONTENTS

3 INTRODUCTION 4 TIPS TO GET THINGS DONE 47 HOW DO WE DESCRIBE OUR BRAND? 6-13 Things to Remember In-House or Outsource? THE COLLEGE PARK VISUAL STYLE Fonts Colors Vendors We d Vouch For Contact the Team Hungry For More? Logos APPENDIX THE COLLEGE PARK DICTIONARY 51 WRITING, WEB, AND PHOTOGRAPHY Writing Style How to Write an Grammar Style & Rules Verbiage Bible Abbreviations How to Write a Postcard 35 How to Write an Event for the Newsletter 35 Signatures 36 Business Cards 37 Our Website Digital Graphics Photography Notes for Photographers 45 3

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5 GOD HAS WRITTEN QUITE A STORY THROUGH COLLEGE PARK CHURCH... And that story has been written with the lives of our people. Our story is a narrative of life change. Brokenness. Healing. Growth. Loss. Gain. Passion for Jesus and the lost. Hope for an eternal future. This guide will equip you to preserve and perpetuate College Park s story with the tone, style, logos, and resources that express our brand and personality in an authentic, humble, clear, and unified way. As we strive to ignite a passion to follow Jesus in our city and world, we have a great responsibility to steward the grace of God and communicate this grace to others. 5

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7 THE COLLEGE PARK BRAND Brand is by no means a perfect concept but it s a good term to capture all of the visual identity aspects, look and feel, personality, tone, and experience factors you have with College Park Church. You could also call it our DNA. Part of our unique DNA is the diversity, unity, and beauty in areas where we live with boths: both suits and flip-flops, both young and old, both long-time believers and new believers. When you see both the organic and structured aspects found at College Park, you re experiencing a part of our brand or DNA. A consistent brand is important to keep our message (the gospel) and our ministries aligned around our ultimate mission. We live among competing demands for our attention, and the clarity of our message helps further our mission. Let s get started with the basics. 7

8 8 WE AIM TO BE CLEAR, CLASSIC, UNIFIED, & ACCESSIBLE IN OUR COMMUNICATIONS.

9 CLEAR Simple, effective, without clutter. Calls people to action. CLASSIC Modern without being trendy, done with excellence, trustworthy. UNIFIED Cohesive with the whole, consistent, communicates unity among the diversity of the boths. ACCESSIBLE Uses language and imagery that communicates well to both the churched and unchurched. 9

10 HERE S WHAT CLEAR, CLASSIC, UNIFIED, & ACCESSIBLE LOOKS LIKE. LESS IS MORE Design layouts should be simple and clean. They should invite people in with their ease of readability and clear focus. They should also use whitespace purposefully and extensively. The message is the main focus, and all visuals should support it. 10

11 SOLID AND SIMPLE Backgrounds in brochures, bulletins, and other print pieces should be solid white and texture-free. If a solid color background is used on an accent page, text should be limited and bold enough to not disappear into the background. NO FUSS AND FRILLS Gradients, drop shadows, glows, and outlines should not be used within design. 11

12 THINK: STRONG Flat, clear typefaces are used for event graphic headers. The overall message and visual feel should be strong, linear, and masculine. NOT TOO FUZZY When we uses photos as backgrounds, we might put a subtle and light texture. In Photoshop-speak, this is a noise filter of 1.5% - 4%. 12

13 NEON, PASTELS, & GLOW-IN-THE-DARK INKS ARE NOT OUR FRIENDS Our designers stick to our muted jewel tone color family when designing College Park pieces in order for design elements to blend seamlessly with our official color palette. This means you don t see neons, pastels, and glow-in-thedark ink. BRIGHT WHITES (NO BLEACH NEEDED) Neutrals should be based off our browns in the official color palette. If you use a gray, it must be a warm based gray that doesn t conflict with the browns and whites. When using white, it should be bright. 13

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15 THE COLLEGE PARK VISUAL STYLE FONTS, COLORS, & LOGOS 15

16 hello. MEET OUR FONT, MYRIAD PRO. 16

17 We love our Myriad Pro font. Like a comfortable coat or a good cup of coffee, Myriad Pro fits just about every occaision. It s not going to distract it s understated just enough to fit who we are. If you want more variety than Myriad Pro, you can use the Arno Pro font for body text of a publication. Arno Pro has a friendly, unassuming simplicity that is a great complement to Myriad Pro. This document uses Arno Pro for its text, and it s easy to see how well these fonts work together. To the right are the College Park fonts. Please don t secretly sneak in your favorites Comic Sans or Papyrus. Myriad Pro and Arno Pro are the standard we will apply on all print & web publications. Only exception: is fine as Arial, Calibri, Tahoma, or Myriad Pro. The bottom line: use Myriad Pro Regular for all uses. You can download and install these fonts from the folder W:/Communications/Design Starters or see the Communication Coordinator. HEADLINES MYRIAD PRO BLACK CONDENSED (USE ONLY IN ALL CAPS) ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ SUBHEADS MYRIAD PRO BOLD CONDENSED ITALIC (USE ONLY IN ALL CAPS - MUST BE SMALLER THAN HEADLINE) ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ INTRO BODY TEXT Myriad Pro Italic or Myriad Pro Light Italic ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz BODY TEXT (& MOST OFTEN USED) PRIMARY FONT Myriad Pro Regular or Myriad Pro Light (Body Text) ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz ALTERNATE BODY TEXT Arno Pro ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 17

18 18 HERE S A SAMPLE DOCUMENT WITH THE FONTS & LAYOUT:

19 EVANGELISM RESOURCES SIMPLE & BOLD HEADLINE USE MYRIAD PRO BOLD CONDENSED IN ALL CAPS EASY TO READ SUBHEADS USE MYRIAD PRO BOLD CONDENSED ITALIC IN ALL CAPS PLENTY OF SPACE BETWEEN SECTIONS DOUBLE-SPACE BETWEEN SECTIONS TO CLEARLY SEPARATE SECTIONS AND INCREASE READABILITY ONLINE ARTICLES Going Back to Believable Evangelism TheResurgence.com The Evangelism Archives TheResurgence.com Evangelism and Motherhood The Gospel Coalition VIDEOS The Gospel Sermon Jam by John Piper What is the Gospel? by Tim Keller CLEAR & ACCESSIBLE CONTENT USE MYRIAD PRO REGULAR IN SIZES PTS. B Everyday Church Tim Chester & Steve Timmis SERVE 13 featured book Bringing the Gospel Home Randy Newman great book for how to share your faith with family members The Gospel Primer Milton Vincent very basic explanation and introduction to the gospel The Explicit Gospel Matt Chandler good for churched people too familiar with the gospel The Gospel & Personal Evangelism Mark Dever Argues for personal evangelism from the Scriptures, explains the gospel, and some helpful suggestions for evangelism 19

20 OUR COLOR PALETTE: STRONG, DEPENDABLE, & TIMELESS Our color palette is strong, dependable, and timeless, just like a good cup of coffee. We use classic colors like white, brown, green, and blue, which communicate in a clear and accessible way. See the primary and accent colors on the opposite page as your guide to the brand colors of College Park. 20

21 PRIMARY COLORS ACCENT COLORS MEDIUM BROWN PANTONE 7532 C RGB 103/87/71 HEX LIGHT BROWN PANTONE 7530 C RGB 168/158/43 HEX a89e92 DARK BROWN PANTONE 412 C RGB 55/45/43 HEX 372c2a LIGHT BLUE PANTONE 116 C RGB 126/153/170 HEX 7e99aa LIGHT GREEN PANTONE 7489 C * RGB 137/173/85 HEX 89ad54 DARK BLUE PANTONE 5405 C RGB 68/104/128 HEX 44687d DARK GREEN PANTONE 7483 C * RGB 61/111/62 HEX 3d6e3d PURPLE PANTONE 667 C RGB 122/102/145 HEX 7a6691 * Please note: there is not an identical PMS match for these greens. 21

22 STUDENT MINISTRIES COLORS THE ROCK BLUE PANTONE 302 RGB 0/72/101 HEX THE GROVE GREEN PANTONE 7490 RGB 100/154/65 HEX 649a41 22

23 CHILDREN S MINISTRIES COLORS NURSERY THEME COLOR LILAC PANTONE 258 C RGB 171/98/167 HEX ab62a7 LIME PANTONE 368 C * RGB 138/197/63 HEX 8ac53f VIOLET PANTONE 2593 C RGB 125/46/146 HEX 7d2e92 TANGERINE PANTONE 716 C RGB 245/128/32 HEX f58020 ELEMENTARY THEME COLOR CRIMSON PANTONE 1797 C RGB 188/19/35 HEX bc1323 PRESCHOOL THEME COLOR TEAL PANTONE 7473 C RGB 24/169/161 HEX 18a9a1 * Please note: there is not an identical PMS match for this green. 23

24 WE OUR TREE (& LOGO). The College Park Church logo has seen about a dozen variations over its lifetime. When we landed on the College Park tree back in 1998, this tree helped represent the timeless strength and organic utility that has become College Park Church. After 15 years, the tree has remained a helpful and familiar identifier of our church. To express our strong and clean visual lineage and to better accomodate web, , and other digital applications of our logo, we are now using a one-color version. When using the College Park logo, be aware of what is around it. Like a car, the logo needs to be driven correctly and belongs in certain places, and should be placed in a certain way. 24

25 PRIMARY LOGO SECONDARY LOG0 Primary Logo Medium Brown Secondary Logo Medium Brown Primary Logo Light Green Secondary Logo Light Green Primary Logo Reversed Secondary Logo Reversed Download the College Park logos from yourchurch.com/staffhub. The leafless logo is used when the application/context is limited in height. Avatar OUR AVATAR Our avatar should be used when there is not sufficient room for the entire logo to be placed in a design piece, especially square contexts. That said, the square avatar will mostly be used for digital purposes (social media and the College Park app). 25

26 IF YOU USE THE LOGO IN ONE OF THESE WAYS, SOMEWHERE A POOR, INNOCENT TREE WILL LOSE ITS LEAVES. This is a cute color, but the only colors appropiate for our logo are the official College Park colors (Medium Brown, Light Green, and White). Always carefully resize so it doesn t end up squashed like a tree we hugged too tightly. Our tree loves the letters around it and does not like to be separated from them or changed. Be kind. Don t separate the tree to change the color, angle it, put it in a heart, or change it to a unicorn. Flying is fun, but our logo doesn t have wings. Keep our logo on the ground by not adding drop shadows, glows, frills, textures, or gradients. THIS IS WAY TOO CLOSE Remember to always leave white space around the logo so it can breath (0.5 on each side). Um, yeah... If you mess with the logo with some crazy Comic Sans like this or Papyrus (or any other font as a matter of fact), you will make us very, very sad. 26

27 WE OUR TREE. LET S TAKE CARE OF IT. 27

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29 WRITING, WEB, & PHOTOGRAPHY WRITING GUIDE, DICTIONARY, WEB FORMAT, PHOTOGRAPHY, & SIGNATURES 29

30 WRITE THIS, NOT THAT You could describe the College Park writing style in eight words: LESS IS MORE CALL TO ACTION ACTIVE VOICE Although this may be the section of this guide that you want to skim, DON T! This is the important stuff the stuff our readers are looking for when they visit our website or are picking up a brochure. A NOTE FROM YOUR FRIENDLY GRAMMAR NERDS ON THE COMMUNICATIONS TEAM We follow MLA style and like it for most of our written content. Online publications or web materials only need one space between sentences. Something getting printed needs two. Check out all of our grammar school specifics in Appendix. To see more about MLA go to this link. 30

31 LESS IS MORE Serve the reader the main point and be simple about it. Use bulleted lists rather than lengthy paragraphs, and minimize the extras (no www in web addresses = yourchurch.com). CALL-TO-ACTION Think of the reader and what they must to know. Is there is a next step? Include a registration link and a contact person if registration is required. Remember that headers and sub-headers are your good friends and always lead your readers towards something and be clear. ACTIVE VOICE Use a friendly active voice when creating content so write with language welcoming to new attenders or guests. Write with the subject doing the action e.g., Pastor Mark preached on Sunday. And try to avoid overly churchy language or hard-tounderstand terms or acronyms unless good explanations are provided. 31

32 THE CLIFF NOTES VERSION Didn t read all of that? Okay, then maybe this acronym will help: A.I.D.A. A I D A Grab attention early on Build interest Include the details Add a call-to-action 32

33 2-MINUTE SAMPLE OF THE COLLEGE PARK DICTIONARY Do we really have a College Park Dictionary? You bet we do! Check out the entire collection of our rules on grammar style and College Park verbiage in the Appendix. Below is a quick snapshot of things included in our very own dictionary: College Park Church For the first reference, always write the entire name College Park Church. Because acronyms are hard to understand for new attendees and can be taken out of context, use CPC sparingly. College Park is the preferred way to shorten our church name in publications and all other written pieces. Capitalization Headlines have all capital letters while sub-heads do not. Our postal address has all capitals while our signage generally does not. Web Links Don t say Register here in web content but say Register for VBS. For questions, link the persons name instead of spelling out their Questions? Kristin Gilbert Bible Book Abbreviations Check the dictionary for our specifics on how to abbreviate books of the Bible. Months Capitalize the names of months in all uses. When a month is used with a specific date (Aug. 12), abbreviate only Jan., Feb., Mar., Apr., Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov., Dec. EXCEPT when a month is used in a sub-head or headline, it can then be spelled out. Spell out when using alone or with a year alone. When a phrase lists only a month and a year, do not separate the year with a comma (E.g., July 2007). When a phrase refers to a month, day and year, set off the year with a comma (E.g., Aug. 4, 2007). Times Use figures except for noon and midnight. Use a colon to separate hours from minutes. Use a.m. and p.m. (E.g., 12:30 p.m.; 4 a.m.). Not AM, am or A.M. Do not use zeros at even times, e.g., 3 p.m. instead of 3:00 p.m. Avoid redundancies (E.g., 10 a.m. in the morning). Print Material Links Never include the www for a web link in printed content. For referencing a website or of a person in print do the following: Register at yourchurch.com/vbs or Questions? kgilbert@yourchurch.com 33

34 SHOW ME! SHOW ME! SURE. HERE ARE A FEW EXAMPLES: SAMPLE OF A CLEAR & WELL-FORMATTED SAMPLE OF POORLY-FORMATTED Hi all, Curious about the plan for our staff lunch tomorrow? Here are the details about our schedule for tomorrow: Staff Meeting Meet at 9 a.m. in the East Room (A8A) Will be a time of staff prayer Staff Lunch Meet at 11 a.m. in (A8A) Eat at 11:15 a.m. We ll eat a tasty meal served by Staff Elders and watch the inauguration ceremony (11:30) Hi all, As we usually do for staff meetings and on our Tuesday schedule, we ll be doing a couple of things as a staff tomorrow. Hopefully you ll be able to join us for what we ll be doing as a staff. We ll be in the fellowship hall in the morning for both of the meetings. At our regular staff meeting we ll be praying for the needs in our staff and church family and we ll be meeting at 9 a.m. We ll be doing our every third-tuesday staff lunch also, when we ll be meeting to each a meal served by the Staff Elders and then we ll be watching the inauguration ceremony. The meeting time will be 11 am and later we ll eat at 11:15 a.m. Thanks, Paul Thanks, Paul 34

35 SAMPLE OF WELL-WRITTEN POSTCARD SAMPLE OF WELL-WRITTEN EVENT FOR THE NEWSLETTER Membership Class EVENT TITLE (R) MARK IF REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED WITH AN (R) Oct. 4 EVENT DATE 9 a.m. - 1 p.m. EVENT TIME Who is the person who most inspired you? Was it a mentor, teacher, or coach? We want our children to answer that question with YOUR name in 20 years. Inspiring others is one of the most beautiful opportunities we have in life. And God has built into His church the opportunity for us to inspire the next generation. Will you come alongside our kids and inspire them to follow Jesus? Be part of our Sunday School or Awana teams this fall to experience lifeon-life ministry with kids who will be growing as you grow in following Jesus. The class is designed for those pursuing membership at College Park and is open for those who simply want to investigate more about the church. Enjoy breakfast, lunch, and a tour as you find out more about the vision and values of College Park Church. Child care is provided. Register online and fill out an application (each family member attending the classroom part of the day should fill out an application) Get more information and register at yourchurch.com/membership CLEAR REGISTRATION LINK To learn more, visit yourchurch.com/volunteeratthepark or contact Debra Scheffler at x525 or dscheffler@yourchurch.com You can also visit our table on June 22! 35

36 THE EVERYDAY STUFF SIGNATURES Just as we desire other communication pieces to be simple, clear, and effective, our signatures should be also. signatures are an important representation of the unity of our staff and also reflect the humble professionalism that is a part of our culture. We keep it simple and have removed all images, primarily due to the changing trends of being read largely on mobile devices and the unpredictability of how different clients handle images. Below is the much simplified signature we use at College Park Church. We ve eliminated the logo (saves space too) and the opportunity for random fonts and sizes by offering this. You can find it in stafffiles/communications/ communication team files/church general/operations/ staff/ signature. To add your Twitter handle, contact the Communications Coordinator for the preferred format. Mark Vroegop MYRIAD PRO BOLD 12 pt. Lead Pastor MYRIAD PRO REGULAR 12 pt. College Park Church x110 yourchurch.com 36

37 BUSINESS CARDS Business cards are an extension of the College Park brand. Cards will include your name, title, office phone line, and as the standard information. Twitter handles can be added if you so desire. To order new business cards, complete a Project Starter Form with the Communications Team. Back Front 37

38 THE WONDERFUL YOURCHURCH.COM On the following pages are the ins and the outs of our broadest communication tool: the College Park website. With College Park s ministry ever-expanding, it s critical for us to keep yourchurch.com as the central source for communicating the vision and heart of College Park along with the practical information of church life. And the foundation of our site is strong and accurate written content. While a vivid, high-quality image speaks 1,000 words, poor-quality images only detract from the main messages on our webpages: the written content. Graphics used on our webpages are treated like a well-thought-out garnish placed on a few select pages where they enhance the content. But wait? Won t webpages without graphics feel left out? Maybe at first... but when they realize that their real value lies in the strength of their content, not a graphic, they ll be happier than a cow in a clover patch. 38

39 PURPOSEFUL PHOTOGRAPH (HEADER 2) STRONG SIMPLE HEADER ENGAGING CONTENT QUOTED SCRIPTURE CLEAR CONTACT PERSON & CALL-TO-ACTION (HEADER 4) (HEADER 3) SUBHEADS MAKE CONTENT EASY TO READ AT A GLANCE BULLETED CONTENT & LINKS Please note: this page is an example and aspects of its design may change in the future. 39

40 UNDERSTANDING THE LINGO OF DIGITAL & WEB GRAPHICS PHOTOGRAPHIC BACKGROUNDS If a photograph is serving as a background image for a text based graphic, it is recommended that the image should be converted to black and white with lowered contrast (blacks should equal 85% gray) and have two color layers added (one at 100% soft light and one at 40% normal). A noise filter at 5% should be added as well. 720 px ATRIUM SLIDE 1280 px TYPOGRAPHY ON IMAGES If the design calls for it, white text should be placed directly on the photograph (without drop shadows or distracting color/tint underneath). 241 px 704 px WEB HEADER 1280 px SOCIAL MEDIA GRAPHIC 1280 px 40

41 425 px 951 px TIER 1 These are the main banners on the website rotating every few seconds. When designing a Tier 1 graphic, please refer to the general branding guidelines and/or event design guidelines for visual specifics. Design should be simple and feature the logo of the event or announcement. Remember, less is more. 129 px 129 px 288 px 288 px TIER 2 These are the secondary static images below the scrolling Tier 1 graphics. Tier 2 s should be photographic when promoting a ministry or event with white Myriad Pro Black Condensed text. Tier 2 s should be a solid color flat design when they are related to an announcement (e.g., Congregational Meetings, closures, Who is Jesus?, etc.). 250 px 560 px EVENT GRAPHICS These are the graphics that appear with the events in the College Park web event calendar. Event graphics should be photographic when promoting a ministry or event with the event logo placed overtop. If there is a simple event graphic background, the event graphic may simply feature a logo on the background. 41

42 WE LIKE OUR PICTURES. Photography brings the vibrancy of the College Park culture into our communication pieces in a relatable and memorable way. Photographs used should always be high-quality. If your photograph is 72 ppi or stretched, it s better not to use a picture at all than have a messy final piece. 42

43 PEOPLE FIRST Photography should focus on people and promote community and togetherness. Images should be bold, clean, and clearly focused on a single subject. They should show emotion and energy and capture the memories and emotions of the moment. 43

44 ENVIRONMENT SHOTS If you use environmental photography of College Park, use images that include people engaging within the space. Images should be bold, clean, and clearly focused on a single or group of key elements. STOCK PHOTOGRAPHS Stock images (generic images from the Internet or clip art) should be used minimally. Do not use generic inspirational or overly Christianeeze stock images or stock images of people. If you need an image, please search the College Park photography database (collegeparkchurch.smugmug. com) or contact the Communications Team. 44

45 BONUS TIPS FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS Thanks for taking pictures for College Park. You are capturing a critical piece of our brand: our people, so we share the following as best practices as you shoot. CROP Images should be cropped simply in squares or rectangles. COLORATION Images should be bright, but not over-saturated. Blacks should be softened a few points in Photoshop. Please do not over-process images for College Park in Photoshop. FILTERS, EFFECTS, & TINTS While they are fun on Instagram, overlays should be avoided and the original color and lighting of the photography kept intact. If you ever have a photography question, please reach out directly to the Communications Team. 45

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47 TIPS TO GET THINGS DONE THE PROJECT STARTER FORM, IN-HOUSE VS. OUTSOURCING, & CONTACT THE TEAM 47

48 HOW TO GET PROJECTS STARTED OR DO IT YOURSELF All projects with the Communications Team at College Park need to begin with the Project Starter Form. You can find this at yourchurch.com/staffhub, and it will prompt you with questions and needed information the Communications Team must know to successfully help you with a project. THINGS TO REMEMBER Like the Boy Scouts, come prepared when you fill out a Project Starter Form. Know the end date you would like the project completed, a budget or number of copies for anything printed, and any other reviewers for the project. TEMPLATES AVAILABLE ON THE STAFF HUB: Powerpoint presentation Letterhead document Logos & the Communications Guide IN-HOUSE OR OUTSOURCE? This is a question you may or may not think about, but your budget does. Besides budget, what else determines if a print job will be done in-house or outsourced? This really depends on a number of factors: quantity, page count, type of material, and binding. Connect with the Communications Team with your printing questions. VENDORS WE D VOUCH FOR For items that we outsource, here is a list of vendors we use if you would have a need to contact them. The Media Factory (formerly Robbins) banners, booklets, posters Metropolitan print publications GotPrint postcards, business cards HMC Printing t-shirts Discmakers CD or DVD duplication, case design 48

49 CONTACT THE COMMUNICATIONS TEAM Who should you call (er, or ) whenever you re in a pinch or you have a burning branding question? The Communication Team of course! HUNGRY FOR MORE? Find even more branding details like the complete edition of the College Park editorial dictionary, a library of logos, and more at yourchurch.com/staffhub. COMMUNICATION@YOURCHURCH.COM 49

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51 APPENDIX GRAMMAR STYLE, VERBIAGE, & BIBLE BOOK ABBREVIATIONS 51

52 COLLEGE PARK CHURCH DICTIONARY Welcome to the awesome and exciting College Park Church Dictionary! In this, you will find all of the ways we prefer words to be used, spelled, abbreviated, etc. We get excited about consistency so when in doubt, check the dictionary. Note: We use many terms at College Park to refer to things unique to this church, including programs, building rooms, etc. (another reason for this awesome dictionary). Capitalization rules are reflected as they appear unless noted otherwise. 52

53 COLLEGE PARK GRAMMAR STYLE (& NIT-PICKY RULES) Acronyms Acronyms communicate exclusivity in harmful ways, as people newer to the church don t know what you are referring to. Therefore do not use acronyms unless you first use the full name with the acronym in parentheses. Bible Book Abbreviations See the end of the dictionary for the entire listing of how we abbreviate books of the Bible. Capitalization Headlines have all capital letters while sub-heads do not. Our postal address has all capitals while our signage generally does not. Commas Include a comma before and in a series e.g., I like apples, oranges, and pears. We like the Oxford comma. Dashes Dashes set off material with more emphasis or spark than parentheses, but too many will make writing appear informal. Dashes can set off an idea or a series of items with drama and assertion. We advise to use them only when added emphasis is clearly needed, and we suggest a less is more approach. Dates When listing dates, always use numbers only, without st, nd, rd or th (See also Months). Headers Keep them short and concise. Internet Internet is a proper noun and should always be capitalized. Monetary references $ before figure. No zeros if even amount. E.g., $10 instead of $ Months Capitalize the names of months in all uses. When a month is used with a specific date (Aug. 12), abbreviate only Jan., Feb., Mar., Apr., Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov., Dec. EXCEPT when a month is used in a sub-head or headline, it can then be spelled out. Spell out when using alone or with a year alone. When a phrase lists only a month and a year, do not separate the year with a comma (E.g., July 2007). When a phrase refers to a month, day and year, set off the year with a comma (E.g., Aug. 4, 2007). Noun/Pronoun Agreement Plural noun = plural pronoun, singular noun= singular pronoun (E.g. Your child, he NOT your child they) Numbers No apostrophes, e.g., 4s and 5s. 53

54 Percent Spell out unless there is a case to use the symbol. (E.g., Twenty percent of the class was made up of College Park Members). Phone numbers Phone numbers must include the area code and a period between the first three and last four numbers, not a hyphen (e.g., ). Print Material Links Never include the www for a web link in printed content. For referencing a website or of a person in print do the following: Register at yourchurch.com/vbs or Questions? kgilbert@yourchurch.com Quotations and periods Always and we mean always, put the quotation last and all commas and periods inside the quotation. The only exception to this rule is if scripture is written this way. (e.g., Welcome to College Park Church! ). Scripture Capitalize when referring to the Bible as a whole. (e.g., The pastor referred to various portions of Scripture in his sermon.) Lowercase when referring to a verse or passage, (e.g., scripture verse). Scripture references To honor copyright laws, cite the translation abbreviation at the end of the reference, outside the quotation marks, inside the parenthesis. Times Use figures except for noon and midnight. Use a colon to separate hours from minutes. Use a.m. and p.m. (e.g., 12:30 p.m.; 4 a.m.). Not AM, am or A.M. Do not use zeros at even times, e.g., 3 p.m. instead of 3:00 p.m. Avoid redundancies (e.g., 10 a.m. in the morning). Titles Titles of books, movies, TV shows, plays, and CDs should be italicized. Titles of chapters, episodes, songs, and poems should be in quotations. (Always put the punctuation within the quotation marks, not outside of them.) Bible verses longer than four sentences need to be italicized and indented while one-three sentences verses should be within quotes. Verse abbreviations Use v. for one verse reference and vv. for multiple verses. (E.g., v. 16:5 / vv. 16:5-6) Web Material Links Don t say Register here in web content but say Register for VBS. For questions, link the persons name instead of spelling out their Questions? Kristin Gilbert Who vs. Whom Who is a subject pronoun and whom is an object pronoun. E.g., Him is an object pronoun. Sub-heads Only capitalize proper nouns and the first word, otherwise everything else is lowercase. (E.g., VBS is only a week away) 54

55 COLLEGE PARK VERBIAGE (I.E., SAY THIS, NOT THAT) Adult Bible Fellowship/ABF For the first reference, write the entire name. All subsequent references, write ABF. This is an unfamiliar acronym for visitors. Next Generation The term to refer to children from age 0-college age; does not need to be capitalized unless using it with a title of a staff member, etc. Bible Bible study biblical child care Lowercase; two words. child / children Use child or children when referring to children; avoid the use of kids often and do not use the word kid. Refrain from using child(ren) go ahead and make plural, so children. College Park Church For the first reference, always write the entire name College Park Church. Because acronyms are hard to understand for new attendees and can be taken out of context, use CPC sparingly. College Park is the preferred way to shorten our church name in publications and all other written pieces. church Not capitalized in general uses; capitalize when used in official name (e.g., We went to church today. or We went to College Park Church today.) Lowercase except at the beginning of a sentence; only E needs capitalization. Always include a hyphen between e and mail. Small Group Use Small Group instead of Bible Study. Both words are capitalized in all uses. godly God / Him / Holy Spirit Pronouns for trinity are capitalized in general gospel Only capitalize when used alone to refer the actual written gospels or when used as a title for a section of Scripture (it is not capitalized when used as a common noun). It is also not capitalized when used to refer to the good news of Jesus Christ. 55

56 guest reception area Lowercase. atrium / commons / resource area Always lowercase. Do not use foyer, lobby, or narthex to refer to this area. premarital One word, no hyphen. Sunday School class website One word. ministry/ministry Capitalize when used with the name of a specific ministry (e.g. Children s Ministry, Women s Ministry). Lowercase when using in general terms (e.g. the ministry in which I serve). NEVER use ministries/ministries unless referring to more than one ministry. Welcome Desk Not Resource Counter or Guest Services. Capitalized in all uses. Word of God nondenominational One word; lowercase in all uses. online One word, no hyphen. pastor Capitalize if used before a name (E.g., Pastor Joe Bartemus); do not capitalize in general use (E.g., Eric Anderson is the pastor who oversees worship.) When an issue is not covered by this guide, we will default to AP/MLA Style for grammar and punctuation consistency. When in doubt ask the Communications Team for right uses of grammar or verbiage. You can also check with the MLA experts at bit.ly/mlastyle. 56

57 COLLEGE PARK CHURCH BIBLE BOOK ABBREVIATIONS OLD TESTAMENT NEW TESTAMENT Gen. Genesis Eccles. Ecclesiastes Matt. Matthew 1 Pet. 1 Peter Exod. Exodus Song of Sol. Song of Solomon Mark Mark 2 Pet. 2 Peter Lev. Leviticus Isa. Isaiah Luke Luke 1 John 1 John Num. Numbers Jer. Jeremiah John John 2 John 2 John Deut. Deuteronomy Lam. Lamentations Acts Acts 3 John 3 John Josh. Joshua Ezek. Ezekiel Rom. Romans Jude Jude Judg. Judges Dan. Daniel 1 Cor. 1 Corinthians Rev. Revelation Ruth Ruth Hos. Hosea 2 Cor. 2 Corinthians 1 Sam. 1 Samuel Joel Joel Gal. Galatians 2 Sam. 2 Samuel Amos Amos Eph. Ephesians 1 Kings 1 Kings Obad. Obadiah Phil. Philippians 2 Kings 2 Kings Jon. Jonah Col. Colossians 1 Chron. 1 Chronicles Mic. Micah 1 Thess. 1 Thessalonians 2 Chron. 2 Chronicles Nah. Nahum 2 Thess. 2 Thessalonians Ezra Ezra Hab. Habakkuk 1 Tim. 1 Timothy Neh. Nehemiah Zeph. Zephaniah 2 Tim. 2 Timothy Esth. Esther Hag. Haggai Tit. Titus Job Job Zech. Zechariah Philem. Philemon Ps. Psalms Mal. Malachi Heb. Hebrews Prov. Proverbs Jas. James From: 57

58 2606 WEST 96TH STREET, INDIANAPOLIS, IN OFFICE HOURS MON-FRI: 8:30 A.M. - 5:00 P.M. PHONE FAX OFFICE@ YOURCHURCH.COM YOURCHURCH.COM