Artist Statement: Julie Eastwood
Logo for Church of the Lamb
“The Lamb who was slain has begun his reign!” And we are his beloved, the ones he gathers around his table. We share the bread and the cup. We have the medicine. As we abide in Him, draw close to Him and watch carefully His face, He reveals more and more of His vision for His Kingdom to us.
We in our days here have the delight and responsibility to reclaim kingdom territory, right where we are, by doing the work He gives us to do. And as we delight in Him, abide in Him, as we do the work He invites us into, He sings His song over us.
As I was working out the design, a song lyric played over and over in my head: “Jesus the Lamb of God, oh what a Savior! He took the altar and made it a table.” What an incredible sacrifice, victory, and invitation.
I was completely honored when Pastor Kevin asked me if I would be up for reimagining the logo, and for the trust he placed in me, even in light of comments like, “If I don’t like it, you won’t see it” and, “Are you OK of it looks like a children’s book illustration?” His only specific request was that he would like to see something of our area, our surroundings, in the logo. That’s a lot of freedom— super fun, a little terrifying (in a good way!) So that was the start. It would obviously need to involve a lamb (which was a little harder than you might think... check out the faces of some of the Lambs in the old icons.) A lamb surrounded by our valley’s chromatic hills and huge sky. An image that somehow reflects & honors not only our family and our table, but our Victorious Lamb, our Father, our betrothed, our King Jesus.
Here is a closer look at the parts of the logo:
The Setting - Church of the Lamb is located in the breathtakingly beautiful Shenandoah Valley, specifically Rockingham County. This is where most of us live, work, play, raise our families, love our friends, serve our neighbors, and worship our King. It’s hard to get anywhere out of sight of the violet blue mountains and I think it would be pretty fair to say, we all feel really lucky about that! The rolling mountains and green hills and big sky are a natural backdrop for our logo.
The Lamb - Jesus, the Lamb of God is everything. Just everything. Powerful, victorious… and still, a lamb. He left heaven and joined humanity in the humblest of forms, a little baby. After weeks of sketching and coming up with not much, I decided to look into exactly what kind of lamb Jesus might have seen in the fields He walked. After some really fun research— look up Jacob sheep and their recent return to the Holy Land!— I decided the Jacob, or Hebridean, sheep would make a great model. I skipped the horns for the sake of simplicity and, um, friendliness (they can have up to six!) but the lamb you see is based on an ancient breed.
The Cup - Our freedom and feeding came at a great price. The blood that was shed by our King purchased our freedom, our healing, our citizenship in His Kingdom. As we come to the Table each week and partake of the Bread and Cup, the body and blood, we’re reminded that we are dearly loved, deeply valued, and truly and rightfully God’s own children through Jesus’ sacrifice.
The Halo - This is His crown, His victory, His glory. We are called to reflect that Light, to bring it with us wherever we step foot. Even the smallest light dispels the darkness! The Flowers- a bit of the same red from the Lamb’s heart, to remind us that His kingdom is spreading, bringing life into our real-life landscape. Kind of how when Aslan returns, the winter melts away, Christmas comes, spring explodes the Narnian landscape, and the curse of winter is broken. The flowers are reminiscent of poppies or fully blossomed tulips. I love the Victorian tradition of the language of flowers, in which different flowers represent certain sentiments. The poppy can symbolize “memory, continuance, sacrifice, revelations, you are always in my memory.” The red tulip can mean “believe in me, declaration of love, passion, desire.”
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Even though to some extent this is technically branding, I hope that as a family, this Lamb might be more like a seal or a crest. A symbol that reminds us when we see it, that we are together. That we share a table, a cup, a hope. That we share deep love for our Papa, and we have a passion for His creation, a passion to bring the hurting and lost ones to His big Table. A reminder that even as we rest and abide in His love, that we have work to do. A real hope. A promise. A Kingdom to claim and defend.
