About a month ago, we unveiled the brand new logo for Northminster Presbyterian Church. Since that time, there’s been all kinds of feedback. Some of you absolutely love it! Some of you don’t. And that’s ok.

What I’d like to do is walk you briefly through the logo and what is represented in it.

People: The center of focus in the logo is on the people—that is, us! We are Northminster Presbyterian Church. Our church building is conspicuously absent from the logo, and that is intentional, because, as we all learned in Sunday school as children: the church is not a building, the church is the people.

Diversity: As the people of God in this place and at this time, we want to reflect the diversity of our community. Do we reflect that diversity? Not yet. But as we continue to follow Christ, I believe that we will. My hope is that we become a church of all kinds of ethnicities, ages, personalities, etc. In the logo, this diversity is reflected by the many different shapes and sizes of the people.

Going: We are the sent people of God (John 17:21, Matthew 28:19)—sent into the world to love people, to share the good news about Jesus, and to invite them into His kingdom. There is a sense of movement in the logo. These people are not static or still; they are going!

Worshiping: While we are sent out to reach others, as God’s people we are also called to be a people that worships God. This is represented by the raised hands. This doesn’t mean that all our worship must involve raising our hands (though we should be free to do so if we desire). The image of raised hands, however, is a clear symbol of a worshiping people.

Local: We are a specific church (Northminster Presbyterian Church), in a specific place (Clairemont Mesa Blvd.), at a specific time (early 21st century). This doesn’t mean we won’t reach out to other parts of the world (in fact, we should!), but it’s important to recognize that God has put us here and now for a reason. God is at work in our community here and now, and as God’s people we are called to be on mission with Him here and now. The local nature of our church is represented by the hill—the mesa—on which the people are standing.

Some of you have also noticed that the word “Presbyterian” is nowhere to be found in the logo. Why? Have we changed our name? No, we haven’t. We are still Northminster Presbyterian Church. And what about the words, “Christ’s Church on the Mesa”? This is not a name change; it’s a tag line. Simply a descriptive statement (hopefully somewhat catchy!)—that we, the people of God in this location, belong to Christ.

As to the question of why the word, “Presbyterian,” has been left out, this was an evangelistic decision more than anything else. We live in a world that has quickly become “post-denominational.” This doesn’t mean that denominations will cease to exist, but that name-identification will no longer be important as people choose which church to join. In fact, in a world in which institutions are viewed with increasing skepticism, words like “Baptist,” “Lutheran,” “Episcopalian,” “Presbyterian”—these are all increasingly thought of as institutions and, hence, not be trusted (you’ll notice that Saddleback Church in Orange County never advertises the fact that it belongs to the Southern Baptist denomination). In fact, at its March meeting, the Presbytery of San Diego passed a report from a team called The Way Forward Work Group in which the presbytery has committed to “Lead as a Presbytery in a Post-Denominational Setting as we Create a New Way of Being Presbytery.”

We live in a new—and I dare say exciting—world! A world full of new opportunities for reaching people with the love of God. As God’s people, we are striving to follow God wherever he might take us in this new world. Our new logo is a reflection of that desire to follow God!