St. Stephen: A New Look for the Same, Strong Vision
St. Stephen United Methodist Church unveiled a new logo and branding during the Fall Kickoff on Sunday, Sept. 13. This new visual branding system for the church is designed to empower our congregational identity, streamline communications efforts, and, most importantly, support and strengthen our witness in the community.
The process of rebranding began in September 2024. For nearly a year and a half, more than a dozen members of the church offered their ideas and feedback as a working group brainstormed options and came into a consensus-based alignment. The new logo and branding was approved by Church Council in July.
The new logo is just one part of a much larger branding system, which includes a revised narrative story about who St. Stephen is as a church family:
St. Stephen United Methodist Church is an authentic, welcoming community of believers who meet people where they are on their faith journey. We actively serve together to grow spiritually, connect deeply, and bring Christ’s love to our neighbors and the world. We strive to be the hands, feet, and heart of Jesus Christ.
From the very beginning, one consistent maxim led our efforts: we will remain true to our strong church vision. You see it reflected in our revised narrative above and, though it was never a requirement we artificially imposed on the design process, you see it reflected again in our new logo:
The branding system we've adopted includes several elements designed to support our communications efforts, including the use of consistent brand fonts and a color palette. Additionally, we have created complementing logos for two of our most important ministry areas: St. Stephen Kids and St. Stephen Youth.
Branding, however, is more than just a set of logos, fonts, and brand colors. Our new brand is designed to inform the ways we interact with all kinds of people — from long-time members to first-time guests to people in our community who may never step foot on our campus. Above all, the brand seeks to communicate that we are a faith community where people hear and experience us as welcoming, humble, and caring and where they can feel loved, supported, and valued. Such belonging, we hope, will lead others to be a part of our friendly, missional, and nurturing faith community where they can benefit from formation and belonging leading to open-minded engagement as fellow Christians living an outward-facing, authentic, and relevant life of faith.
Finally, a thank you: Many people participated in this collaborative effort of re-envisioning St. Stephen's visual identity and brand story. In our discussions and presentations of our new logo and branding, we have, out of an abundance of caution so as not to forget anyone, refrained from providing a list of individuals. I'll continue this practice here; although the members of the Branding Working Group took on the lion's share of this work, many, many members contributed to this process — including those whose talents and passions guided and created the church's former logos and other visual elements. Please know that your work, time, talents, and dedication are all incredibly appreciated. Thank you.
