Announcing New Veracity Hill Brand Identity

Dr. J provides a brief history of Veracity Hill and shows the new brand identity system.

Kurt: For more than five years, Veracity Hill has been providing theology and apologetics content to a wide range of people. Over these years, we have grown from infancy to adolescence. As the need increasingly continues for solid apologetics and theology teaching that doesn’t shy away from complex issues, it’s important for us to answer the question, What is Veracity Hill?

Veracity Hill started as a simple podcast out of the spare bedroom of my first home. As that spare bedroom became not so spare during the growth of my family, my non profit organization, Defenders Media, took up office space in downtown West Chicago, Illinois. For four years, Veracity Hill streamed live over the internet each week Saturday at 1 p.m. Central Time. I was honored to interview some of the best and brightest scholars in theology and biblical scholarship, along with some social movers.

After a hiatus in 2020, Veracity Hill came in a different form, with different types of video content, new social media material, formal debates, and opportunities to present winsome Christianity online. We test drove a new motto for the ministry, Disentangling Complex Theology. My friend and video producer at the time told me, sometime later, Kurt, you’re not actually disentangling, you’re making it MORE complex.

It was a fair point. Sometimes, in order to understand the truth, we have to realize that it is complex. But complexity doesn’t have to be murky. Complexity can be clear. One of the other challenges we faced with Veracity Hill was narrowing down what exactly I did. As best as my own small staff at Defenders could describe it, Veracity Hill is whatever Kurt wants to do.

A fair point. But a terrible, terrible marketing approach. We have held numerous discussions attempting to put a scope on the type of theology and apologetics work that I do through the Veracity Hill brand. And I’ve settled on this. The mission of Veracity Hill is to clarify complex issues, to build faithful Christians, and consequently, We do this by clarifying complex issues, build bridges in our culture, and engage in fair dialogue about Christian theology.

This work is performed through online forums, conferences, and a book club to facilitate these conversations. I vividly remember sitting at my dining room table, sketching out basic iterations for a ministry name. Veracity. Habitual truthfulness. That’s fitting for an apologetics ministry. Veracity. City.

City on a hill. In Matthew chapter 5, Jesus said, You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others. So that they may see your good works and give glory to your father who is in heaven.

Veracity Hill, a theology and apologetics ministry that demonstrates how Christians should engage in a fallen world. So that others may see our good works and give glory to God. Many people familiar with apologetics know of 1 Peter 3. 15, always be prepared to give a defense for the hope that is in you.

Yet do it with gentleness and respect. That last part of verse 15 isn’t mentioned as often, but it is part of how I try to conduct myself. This concept of gentleness and respect is consistent with Matthew 5’s shining light. When I launched the podcast, I had an illustrator design a small town on a hill.

The building was intentionally vague. A school. A chapel. A place to go and learn. It’s a flat animation style, and if you’ve watched the start of this video, then you’ve seen it. But, it’s a complex image. Difficult even to have embroidered on a shirt. And, it doesn’t best reflect the conceptual values of Veracity Hill.

While it has served me dutifully all these years and will continue to be conceptually employed elsewhere as a new illustration, I would like to present to you our new logo through this new video bumper.

The lantern is a simple clean mark that identifies the ministry with light. Veracity Hill hopes to be a shining light in our time. A shining light and thus bringing clarity to complex, dark issues. With Veracity Hill, you’ll continue to see the types of videos that have been produced and will continue to put on the annual Defenders Conference.

I’m hopeful to get more involved with writing and publishing. Here is a prototype of a book project I have been a part of. But, more on that for another time. One of the things I’ve been itching to get back to do has been the livestream. the podcast. There is far more theological content on the internet today than there was even four years ago.

Between the rise of deconstruction movements, an ever vocal and active online LGBTQ community, and popular TikTok channels like progressive Mormon Dan McClellan, There is no shortage of material that calls for a response. But, I’ve also missed doing some of those interviews that I did. And, truth be told, I’ve missed the free books publishers would send me.

So, we’re bringing back the podcast. It won’t be on Saturdays, that time is now carved for the family. So we’ll be streaming during some day during the week. My new video producer Gabe and I have been getting the cords set up, running tests, and we’re hopeful to be streaming on a consistent basis once again, very soon.

If this sounds exciting to you, perhaps you like the new look of the brand, would you do me a favor and drop a link to a video from which you would like to see a Christian response? Be sure to subscribe to my channels and consider partnering with Veracity Hill to clarify complex issues to build faithful Christians and to consequently reach a skeptical world.