Just because two things are good ideas separately doesn’t mean they’ll be good ideas together.
For instance, at a planning meeting several years ago, these two (separate) ideas were shared:
1. Writing prayer requests on flash paper and lighting them, to symbolize giving them up to God.
2. Writing prayer requests on slips of paper and nailing them to a cross, to symbolize giving them up to God.
Then someone shared combining the two: nailing papers to the cross and then lighting them.
The group decided, fairly quickly, that a burning cross was not a particularly good idea.
everyday theology 
you southerners are soooooooooo touchy…hahaha
What do you think society or the community sees when they see the ‘Cross and the Flame’ of the UMC?
I thought about that as I was writing, actually. I have not heard that it has caused problems, but then, not everyone knows to come to me and tell me what it they have trouble with about the UMC…
Most people just have no idea what it means. I think that it looks more ‘bad’ than it does ‘good’. The concept makes sense. We want to emphasise both the Holy Spirit and the Cross. I don’t think the execution is the best when you put the two together, however.