Naming Your Church?
Published by Matt Glover June 18th, 2006 in Emerging Missional Church, Questions of FaithA lot of churches around where I live have been changing their names recently. Many of them have “new” or “hope” or “community” in their names, whilst others have gone a step further and chosen titles that seem to have nothing to do with a faith community.
With my community, we decided against changing our name out of respect for our heritage and those that had served faithfully over the years to get us to where we are today. At the same time, we did decide to name the building and clearly identify it as a gift to the people of Mitcham. The sign out the front says, “The Factory - A Community Facility Provided by Mitcham Baptist Church.”
My feeling though is a lot of name changing is happening as part of a fad, and also in the mistaken belief that the word ‘church’ in a name stops people from coming. I reckon that if people won’t come with ‘church’ in your name, taking it out isn’t going to change much…
Anyway, this has all been prompted by an article I read in the local paper today. Two ageing Anglican churches have recently combined, and rather than stick with tradition and name the newly formed congregation after St Somebody, they have decided to go with an indigenous Australian name.
The new church is called ‘Djerrnong’ meaning “many feet walking together to where eagles gather.” The Rev Janet Turpie-Johnstone is quoted as saying that the name was important in helping the people of the community belong to their own place and time.
With all the fad-driven, trendy-named communities out there, I think this is very refreshing, and the name perhaps is more indicative of an effort to be ‘incarnational’ than any other I’ve come across.
Here’s hoping that what goes on in the midst of the Djerrnong community is just as refreshing as the name.
There was a hotshot preacher in Tampa in the fifties, who renamed himself John 3:15 Jones, who prayed daily that the Lord would “Set him on fire” One day, he accidentally drove into a gas pump, and his prayer was answered. Jess Moody TRUE!
We are struggling with naming our church. 2 United Methodist Churches came together and we are in the town of Le Mars, Iowa. Right now we are called the United Methodist Church of Le Mars which is like calling your child “The Glover Kid” or in my case “The Larson Kid” We have been kicking around Heritage UMC so it is ironic that heritage comes into your blog in the 2nd paragraph.
I agree, names get to be a little trendy like New Hope Baptist or New Faith Community or Fresh Wind UMC. We are looking for a name that is indicative of us and yet one that does not feel fake 25 years from now. It is not a major dilemma because the business of the church remains but it is nice to have a fitting name.