Our Summer Worship Logo

June 29th, 2023

Have you noticed the logo for our summer worship series: Generation to Generation? When we were brainstorming ways to visually represent the concept of “generations” in our church, one idea that emerged was the story of God telling Abraham his descendants will be as numerous as the stars in the night sky. Since our scriptures this summer are focused on following the family narratives all the way from Abraham to Moses, it was clear that stars were a poignant representation of this worship series.

And, instead of a simple smattering of stars in our logo, we decided to represent the family narratives as constellations. But what makes constellations so special (and why they’ve been inspirations for mythologies around the world) has always been the narratives we weave from their abstract shapes. By linking together star patterns to create heroes, myths, and legends, we tell the same stories again and again — passing them down from generation to generation in an expanding millennium of connection.

Now we could have created our own random collection of stars, but you might have noticed there are actually two famous constellations in our logo. These two are often referred to as the Big and Little Dippers. And maybe someone taught you that you can find Polaris (the North star) in the Little Dipper by following the forward edge of the Big Dipper’s scoop. But you might also know them by the names: Ursa Major and Ursa Minor: the Big and Little Bears. And while there are countless versions of the bear constellation myths, many recognize these two as a mother and son immortalized as a family together in the sky forever.

There are many forms of family and even more members of a generation. None of us can trace our family histories all the way back to the age of Abraham and Sarah, but still their stories persist. And when we continue to read these narratives in the context of our world today, hopefully we can continue to trace the movement of a God who keeps showing up in transformative, joyful, and unifying ways.