An Identity Worth Living

In the marketing world, a new visual identity for your brand is never just a design decision. It is a declaration. It says to your community, this is who we are, and more importantly, this is who we are prepared to be. A mentor once captured it for me simply: “you only get one chance to take the first bite of the brand apple.” In other words, once you declare who you are, you need to be ready to live it.

That understanding shaped much of the approach to the work to create a distinct visual identity for Mount Pisgah Church. This was never about novelty or reinvention. It was about discernment as we uncovered the unique calling of our congregation to act in the community around us. Together, we worked to answer the question, “how might we faithfully express who this church has been for nearly two centuries and is poised to live anew?”

Anchored by the biblical story of Mount Pisgah, the repeated rhythm of wilderness, path, peak, and promise surfaced as the truest way to tell our story. That story’s accompanying image, or “brand mark,” reminds us at-a-glance of a faith that is walked, shared and shaped by God’s presence at every stage. Even the negative space within our new mark reflects that posture. It is not absence or ambiguity. It is a visual reminder that on the other side of that negative space is a path that leads to hope - the hope of the Gospel. 

As we celebrate the new visual mark that tells the unique story of our church, I am reminded that, at its best, Mount Pisgah Church has always pointed outward, toward neighbors, toward Hope, and toward the quiet and faithful work God is already doing in the community around us.

When people see the mark, the hope is that they feel invited rather than impressed. That they recognize a church committed not to performance, but to purpose. A church rooted deeply in care for our neighbors and bold enough to live that care more fully.

This identity matters because it shapes more than how we look. It shapes how we live. And our brand mark, faithfully lived, becomes not just a symbol of who we are, but a signpost pointing our most immediate neighbors toward the Hope of the Gospel for another 200 years.