Second, I apologize for taking so long to respond. I am not ignoring anyone. Here is a glimpse into why its taken me so long. My family left town almost 3 weeks ago. Since then I have signed a contract to build a house, leased a house, and sold a house we owned. That’s three houses to juggle. Craziness.

I have also moved from house to house and cleaned two houses. All of this has happened while also having several meetings for the new church, choosing a church name, trying to meet people in the community, and establishing 501C3 status, getting accounts set up, etc.

Oh, and I don’t have an internet connection because AT&T stinks.

So, forgive me for not replying fast enough.

Third, I confess my ignorance and I apologize to all of the designers out there who are hacked about this. My intentions were certainly not to upset anyone. I chose to do this at the advice of a good friend who owns a very reputable design / website company who was already slated to design us a logo. He even thought it was a great idea.

Also, I had my own design business for churches for almost 5 years. At the peak I had 36 clients in 16 states…not the big time I realize, but not too shabby either for a pastor with a laptop and Macromedia Studio 8. Oh, and I charged $250 to do logos…

Designers and creatives, please understand that I love you and value you a great deal. I myself am a creative. I also served as Executive Pastor / Creative Pastor at a church plant for almost 5 years working with creatives who all loved this idea of a logo contest. This will not be our last logo. Shoot me your design company’s info so that I can keep it for future reference if you are a designer.

Fourth, to the guy who threatened me on twitter, bring it. I will not tolerate threats on my life and I don’t care how manly you think are sitting behind your computer and haggling people on twitter. Do you always threaten people for having contests? Have you threatened Ed Mcmahon? Are you the leader of some designer mafia? Ridiculous. You have been reported.

Fifth, the thing that really makes me feel bad is how we’ve all acted here. Sheesh.

And finally, the contest will continue. With over 85 submissions, I can’t pull it down. BTW many of those submissions are people who own and operate design companies and were excited to be a part of this. And we’ve already received some INCREDIBLE logos. I am blown away by the creativity out there!

Thanks to everyone working on logos to help us as we begin our journey of reaching people here in our community.

And thanks to everyone else for sharing your thoughts. The one thing I admire most is when people stick up for what they believe in, whether I agree or not. And I REALLY admire those who can do it in a way that is not mean-spirited or detrimental to the mission that all Christians are called to.

I’ll just remain big in Japan, eating my chocolate Jesus

“I’m big in Japan.”

how on earth is that even the least bit relevant? i think you should all stop being so hateful about a silly request and design a logo! if you don’t like it, stop reading the blog!
as a creative in the art community, i’m not offended in the least, zak. keep on keepin’ on!

Bottom line it hurts the position of a designer, it degrades our – God given – skills and abilities.

The irony: it’s rarely the pastor who is working without a salary that expects everything for free, it’s the pastor who is making his living as a pastor who expects others to work for free. And that’s not right.

I know this was never meant to get as out of hand as it has! I think that both parties are at fault here. I think that the people who are calling Zak a cheap-o or devaluing design, are taking things waaaay out of hand. Zak never asked a professional to design a logo! He just asked for people who love photoshop, to make a design. He didn’t ask for the king of all graphic designers to give it a shot. If you’ve got a problem with it, then don’t enter in it! As someone who has designed logo’s and things like that, I’m in NO way, offended! If you think $250 is too little, then don’t enter, and move along.

The only thing that I think Zak is at fault here for, is not addressing some of the concerns that have been mentioned. People have mentioned they were offended, but it doesn’t seem like Zak has tried to make amends with them. However, we don’t know if he has tried! When you submit a comment, you put your email, so for all we know… Zak might’ve shot a few emails to people have been offended.

Honestly, Zak is trying to plant a church. Further the Kingdom. C’mon guys, there are bigger fish to fry, than to waste time blasting a church planter (most of whom none of you have ever met) for asking people who like photoshop, to create a church logo. Really? Are we gonna get all up in arms about this? It’s not worth it.

I hope that is true, but I’m not seeing it by his response. He’s been told he has offended people (the design community) and yet seems to think it’s a joke.

Give sparingly, get sparingly…works both ways. This isn’t simply being financially wise. It is about giving a worker his worth. And yes, some of what you read here is anger (caused by the actions). We give pastors cars, and homes, and salaries…and then expect the designer to work for peanuts. It doesn’t feel good, it hurts and people can only get punched so many times until they get angry.

My hope is that you can step back from your position and see this from a different angle. I have, and I understand not having a lot of money to start a church…I’ve worked with a number of them…but this is the wrong way to do that.

Bottom line, it hurts people. Just read the comments. You can either chuckle at the silly designers, or show that you care.