Photo by HMCC-AA Publication Team
Over the years, people have asked me about our church logo. The genesis of this logo goes back to 1990 when I was a student at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana. It was my senior year and it was a difficult year. I felt completely overwhelmed with all the responsibilities of church, as well as my responsibilities as a student, a son, brother and friend. There was so much going on that I felt as if I was about to implode.
It was in this moment where I got in my car and drove out to a park that was about 40 minutes away from campus. I wanted to get away from everything and just spend some personal time reconnecting with God. Allerton Park was the former estate of Robert Henry Allerton who donated his property and turned it into a beautiful park. There is about 1,500 acres of some incredible landscape and artifacts collected from different parts of the world.
It was in this beautiful scenery, when I came across a reflecting pond. The birds were chirping and there was this sense of peace that came over that pond. In the stillness of the moment, I remember taking a deep breath and asking God to show me that He was still with me. Then I picked up a small rock from the ground and threw it in the calm pond.
As the pebble hit the water, I heard the sound of the waterdrop and then, the ripples started to expand outwardly in an increasing magnitude until it hit the edges of the pond.
This is when the revelation came.
I felt as if God was saying that I was like the pebble and that if I would just trust Him, He would use me to send ripples out to the nations. It was hard to believe what I was experiencing especially because of the emotional state that I was in at that time. But for some reason, there was this incredible sense of peace and trust that filled my heart.
As I pondered upon what just happened, I realized that from one single, seemingly insignificant pebble, there was a powerful rippling effect that literally invaded the whole pond.
Then I thought to myself: What would happen if a life can be transformed with the power of the Gospel in this way? What would happen if a transformed life then can send out ripples to reach the nations?
I remember after this epiphany, I made it my mission to make a different for Christ as long as I lived. I treasured this in my heart and shared it with only a handful of people.
Fast forward six years.
During the summer of 1996, as we were getting ready to plant the church, we had to come up with a logo for publication purposes. It was at this moment, when God brought me back to the experience I had at Allerton Park. From there, I just knew that God wanted our logo to be the water ripple. As lives are experiencing transformation, we were confident that God would use us to transform the world; hence our mission tag line: Transforming Lives. Transforming the World.
Solia Deo Gloria (glory to God alone or for God’s glory alone)!