The meaning behind the dune grass in our logo mark. 

Transforming Community is a network of leaders who are connected under the surface of things. And when we first founded the Transforming Center 21 years ago now, um, a metaphor that you don't see on our website or anything very much anymore, you'll see little images of it, maybe, and that is the image of dune grass.

How many of you are familiar with dune grass? How many of you have sat on the side of a lake like Lake Michigan and you see the erosion and you see the roots of the dune grass underneath? You see the sand, the dryness of the sand, then you see these little tufts of green, and then when there's erosion, you see the roots of the dune grass that go down way deep.

In fact, there's more evidence of the dune grass under the sand than on top of the sand. And that was the image that was given to us when we first began. Is that the transforming center would be these little tufts of green. And every tuft of green was a transforming leader. You know, uh, doing what was theirs to do in their own setting.

But underneath there was this network of connection, these roots keeping us green. And, um, you know, not only contributing to the life of each and every leader, but also being under the surface of the life of the church. And trying to, you know, connect underneath the surface and in a way to keep them. The very essence of who we are and what we are from eroding away.

And that, um, if you were to dig down deep, you would see that the roots are deeper than even what you can see on the surface. That's really the dream. And so the transforming community is a network of leaders who are connected with each other, like the dune grass, underneath the surface through this very complex, um, set of roots where we're connected underneath.