MANDORLA

Wow. You're reading about our logo, and you weren't even scared off by a strange word like "mandorla." (What's a mandorla?)

We're impressed, but we're also a little nervous about making this page worth your while. Here's our best shot...

In the Bible, we discover that God’s plan is to bring unity to all things in heaven and earth under Jesus (Ephesians 1:10).

And so our prayer is to be a community of people who are bringing our stories into alignment with the Bigger Story that God is authoring. We're asking God to take the beautiful and broken parts of our lives, and bring healing and connection and fulfillment to all we were created to be - as our lives become centered around Jesus.

So what kind of image would sum that up really well?

Again, we read that God's Story involves all things. All things in heaven and earth.

In our logo:

• The blue circle represents heaven - God's space.
• The green circle represents earth - our space.
• The almond-shaped space where they overlap - that's called a mandorla.

The circles overlap, but not completely - that's because God's Story hasn't reached it's final destination... not yet.

As a church community:

• We recognize that we live in that overlap - things are not as they should be in the world, not yet.
• Our hope is that God is going to bring all things to a final and ultimate Reunion (see what we did there?)
• Our prayer is that, in the meantime, we will participate in all that God is doing to bring Reunion to all things.

Don't you feel so artsy and educated? See if you can drop the word "mandorla" into a conversation later this week.

(See: Heaven & Earth, by The Bible Project; Surprised by Hope, by N.T. Wright; All Things New, by John Eldredge)