During a renewal campaign in 1998, one of the members of the steering team had a dream. In the dream people were standing around a big gray stone admiring its beauty. The dreamer approached them and could see it was beautiful, but she also knew that they weren’t seeing its real beauty. It was literally radiating energy. She tried to get them to notice it, but they couldn’t for some reason. Then the scene shifted. People were standing around a beautiful car again admiring it. But the dreamer approached them and asked them if they realized the keys were in it, and if they only turned it on, then they would experience its full power.

I helped this person to interpret her dream and we realized that it was the Spirit trying to send a message to the other members of the steering team. The big gray rock was Canadian Memorial Church, and it was indeed beautiful with all its stained glass and gothic architecture. But this was only looking at the surface. The real dynamism and vitality was yet to be tapped; the power was waiting to be turned on. The dream helped us to develop a vision for the steering team, which would focus, not solely on the historic, memorial dimension to the church, but rather on the real power which was waiting to be unleashed; the power of Christ working through our members. In the epistle of 1 Peter, Christ is called the “living stone”.

The symbol of Canadian Memorial had always been a window. We decided that we needed to put a person in front of the window; an activated disciple of Christ, arms raised in praise and thanksgiving! The curved line s/he is standing on represents the living rock. This symbol came to be affectionately known as “the little guy”. The little guy reminds us that the church is not the building or the windows. These are legacies which we must be responsible for certainly. But the church is the people, alive in Christ and ready to proclaim and enact the gospel in word and deed.