• US$280

• 34 designs

• 10 designers

---

Graphic Design Brief

Our church worked with a consultant to develop a 5-year vision statement centered on a graphic conceived by a group of church leaders. The graphic will be for the church, not something publicized as our main graphic. Here are some notes from the group
- The group developed a visual metaphor of a net to represent the church’s role in the community.
- The net symbolizes the church body and its members; each knot represents an individual believer.
- As more disciple-makers are formed, the net grows, expands, and covers more of the community to “catch” the lost.
- The metaphor connects naturally to the local context because of the area’s fishing culture and the Natchez/Neches River’s role in community life, including events such as Riverfest.
- The strength of the net depends on the health, connectedness, and cohesion of the church body.
- A key theme emerged: the church must both strengthen and extend the net.
- Strengthening involves equipping current members and developing leaders.
- Mending involves maintaining spiritual health, restoring weak places, and preparing people for mission.
- Extending involves gospel outreach beyond the church building toward geographic saturation.
- The group recognized that the net must be strengthened and mended before it can be effectively extended, or it may fall apart.
- A proposed sentence was: “As the knots in the net increase in number, so does the catch for the creator.”
- The team continued to wrestle with how the metaphor works when a “fish” becomes a “knot” in the net, meaning how a new believer becomes an equipped disciple-maker.
- The group reached broad consensus around the three-word theme: Strengthen, Mend, Extend.
- These three words were favored because they are memorable, visual, locally resonant, and marketable.
- The sequence was discussed as mending, strengthening, and extending, though the public-facing wording remains “Strengthen, Mend, Extend.”
- “Mend” was retained for its biblical and local fishing resonance, but the group continued to discuss whether “tend” might better communicate maintenance and care.
- “Mend” can imply repairing brokenness, while “tend” communicates broader ongoing care: inspecting, maintaining, removing debris, washing, drying, and proper storage.
- “Tend” also connects with the familiar ministry language of tending the flock.
- The group recognized a communication challenge: “mend” may be more readily understood, while “tend” may require explanation.
- John 21:1–7a was read in detail and selected as the primary passage.

There is a lot going on with this! It is mentioned in the notes, but the image of the river was chosen because it is a well-known landmark in our area. Images of houses/businesses were discussed. Our area of influence include Port Neches, Nederland, and Groves Texas.

Our website is fbcpn.org
First Baptist Church of Port Neches is the name of the church

---

Files