Dear Partners in Ministry,
In the coming weeks you will notice a new look to our blog. As a new organization the only thing that will never change is change. Months ago and after hours of praying, thinking, brainstorming and asking trusted friends we came up with our original “ripple” logo. I wanted a brand that said, “Impact, leadership, and masculinity.” The original ripple logo had a Royal Coachman (a famous artificial fly) sitting on the calm water with its effect sending ripples. Because the “fly” was too difficult to reproduce we went only with the ripples.
The Generation One group of eighteen men tolerated the logo but I could tell most of them were not excited about it. Originally I loved it but after numerous comments I realized it is a little soft and everywhere I looked I saw ripple brands saying, “Hey come up with something original guys.”
I wanted something that seemed natural, looked sharp, bold, and unequivocally said, “This is for men!” I also noticed that we often use GH4G to shorten our name when writing out our ministry name. The GH4G became our abbreviated identifying mark, but something was still missing. We needed a brand, a symbol that identified with our movement. After weeks of generating and processing ideas we came up with an arrow fletching.
I did an internet search for every archery company I could think of and searched every company that had a fletching design in the brand but found very few. It seemed to be a creative idea that was virtually unnoticed among the companies I searched.
The reason, I believe, is because people do not notice the fletching. The arrowhead gets all the attention. It is sharp, it is first, and it hits the target. The fletching on an arrow does none of these things. Or does it? Let’s consider the fletching. Its three veins direct the arrow and without it the arrow it flies off course missing its mark every time. Arrowheads come in various shapes, weights, and sizes but your fletching must remain true for an arrow to hit its target. Furthermore, the fletching leads from the back. As the fletching directs the arrow it can (if it had eyes) see everything it directs. The fletching is in the back but always looking forward.
Just like a man.
He often goes unnoticed but the Godly man leads, directs, and encourages from the back. He keeps his eyes on his loved ones directing them with through servant leadership and total encouragement. A man leads from the back.
Philippians 2:3-5 reminds us to, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus…”
The more I thought about the concept of leading from the back the more excited I became. Men lead from the back!
As I pondered how this style of leadership reflects the character of God I remembered Isaiah 30:21, “Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, “This is the way, walk in it.”
God leads from the back. Men lead from the back, The fletching leads from the back. Perfect!
Next month I look forward to sharing about our incredible time speaking on Colorado and what God is doing there. Until then thank you for partnering with us and your commitment to serve from the back!
Leading from the Back,
Jim Ramos
