It is everywhere around the church. It appears on our published materials, printed on coffee cups, sewn into floor mats, etched into glass panels, even laid out in brickwork and carved into permanent outdoor signs. What is this strange three-colored triangle with its eye-fish-dove symbols? It has two major representations: our God and our community.

Jesus gave us the basis for the Wheeler triangle. Two days before His crucifixion, a Pharisee asked Him a question. The question and His response are here:

36Master, which is the great commandment in the law? 37Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38This is the first and great commandment. 39And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 40On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. -- Matthew 22:36-40

So what Jesus called the fundamental principles of our relationship to God became the mission of Wheeler: to worship God and to love others.

The triangular logo represents both our Lord and our neighborhood. It is three-sided and tripartite, signifying the triune nature of God—Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. The top partition of the triangle is gold, containing an all-seeing eye. This is the Father, the gold of royalty, the supremacy of omniscience (knowing all things), the top of the Trinity. The lower left partition is red, containing a fish. This is the Son, Whose blood redeems us all. The fish, ichthus in Greek, was the secret symbol by which ancient Christians in the Roman empire knew each other, much as we use the symbol of the cross today. The lower right partition is blue, the color of truth, and the dove symbolizes the Holy Spirit, Who descended first upon Jesus at His baptism, and then on the entire church at Pentecost. He is the indwelling presence of God Who teaches us the truth with power. All three of these are conjoined within the triangle, testifying to the oneness of the Trinity, “three in one.” That is the basis of our worship of God.

Our service to the neighborhood also began triangular. The area in which the church is located is a triangle bounded by Main Street to the west, the Gulf Freeway to the east, and Old Spanish Trail to the south or at the bottom of our triangle. We radiate beyond that triangle, but are especially dedicated to those who surround us. So there is a great deal of significance to that “strange triangle.”

-- Bill Lawson