I posted this over at our church plant website
(www.lafayetteinitiative.com),
but I’m copying it here for those who don’t read the other site too much.
Please post your comments, and if you want to participate in our church
name straw poll,
click
here. And whether you can participate in the poll or not, please take
a moment to pray for us.
I’m about to bring up the topic of what we should name our new church
in Lafayette. Are you ready?
Basic Naming Philosophies
As I see it, there are really only a few basic naming philosophies when
it comes to naming a church.
Name the church according to how many churches there are in that community of the same denomination.
- In the town where I grew up, there was First Baptist, First Nazarene,
and First Southern Baptist all within a mile of each other.
Name the church after the church’s location.
- Willow Creek Community Church got its name from its first meeting
place, the Willow Creek theater. - Saddleback Community Church is officially “Saddleback Valley
Community Church” I believe, and it got its name from the fact that it is
in the “Saddleback Valley” of Southern California.
Name the church after a patron saint.
- Of course this kind of naming scheme is rarely employed by
Protestants who don’t seem to think that some saints are more saintly
than the rest of us.
Name the church after the church’s predominant metaphor.
- This is employed by Mosaic in Southern California.
- Another example is “Faith” which is employed by many denominations.
Name the church after something vague that will lose all meaning in a few years.
- I’m sad to say that the church in which I currently am serving has
employed this tactic. We are Northwest Baptist Church, but we are on the
northside of the city, we are northeast of “Northeastern University” and
we are southwest of “Northwestern University.” No one has ever been able
to explain to me just what we are north and west from.
Basic Naming Principles
These are some of the basic principles for church names that people talk
about these days.
- Church names should be unique and memorable.
- Church names should communicate something meaningful to the
unchurched (denominational names are fading away from church signs at a
remarkable pace). - Church names should be a rallying point of identity for the members
of the congregation.
However, I have to wonder what names like that accomplish. In my
estimation, names like that serve to do a few things well.
- They show how churches are distinct from each other.
- They give people a sense of solidarity with their church but not
necessarily with other churches. - They give the well-meaning unchurched a sense of confusion as they
wonder which church they should attend in the myriad of choices. - They give the hardened skeptic even more reasons to make fun of the
church because there goes another group of religious nuts trying to
pretend they are something they really are not. I can hear them say,
“Hope Community? I’ve seen happier faces in line at the DMV!” - Any name that sounds like an organization will turn off members of
the Postmodern Generations because they are inherently opposed to
“organized” religion.
My Point of View
I think it is important for churches to be “marketable” in our market
driven society, but that “marketability” should not come at the expense
of our Christ-given mission: to demonstrate our love for God, to
demonstrate our love for the entire body of Christ, to serve others like
Jesus did, and to spread the good news of Jesus to all the
world.
As such, I don’t have anything wrong with any church that selects a
snappy name for itself to communicate their uniqueness (I know of one
church called “Threads” and a couple churches called “The Next Level
Church.”) However, it is my dream to see the church (here I’m speaking of
the total body of believers) in a community to share a name that
demonstrates the unity of the body both to insiders and to outsiders.
After all, Jesus told us that we would be known as his disciples by how
much love we show each other!
My “Solution”
I’m not going to presume to tell others what they should do in this
situation, but as it regards our church planting efforts in Lafayette, I
am becoming increasingly sold on this idea for a naming scheme.
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references our geographic region and connects us as a group of people to
Jesus Christ. Some examples of that would be:
- Christ’s Church of Lafayette
- South County Church
- Lafayette Christian Community
marketable names and base our advertising on the individual ministries
rather on the church as an organization. However, when we refer to the
ministries, we will say, “Ministry Name: A Ministry of South County
Church” or something like that.
The advantage of this way of doing things is that our church will never
feel like a monolithic organization with programs as much as it will feel
like a network of interrelated elements that minister to people wherever
they are.
plant daughter churches (North County Church), and to network with
existing churches to present a unified presence (Lafayette Church
Network) to the people of the area.
Holding Two Things in Tension
- Jesus wants us to be unified and claims that our loving unity will be
the hallmark of our true connection with him. - Jesus wants us to reach people and in our society that means
marketability.
We need to be forming churches that connect to people wherever they are
in their spiritual journey and then draw them together in loving unity
with fellow believers.
I’d like to hear your feedback on this. When it comes to a church, what’s
in a name?
I got this comment today by email from Mike Estes, and I thought I would post it here…
—-
This is a long-winded, answer to your post on church naming.
“Jesus wants us to reach people and in our society that means
marketability”
That needs to be my tagline when I tell people that I am going back to
school and that I feel God may be calling us to full-time ministry in the
future. Why, if you want to be in ministry, would you go back and get a
marketing degree? I hear that question a lot from people @ church. If you
want to be in ministry, wouldn’t you go to seminary, or something. No, I
tell them. My passion is not for teaching from a pulpit. It’s not in my
gifting. Me becoming the lead teaching pastor is about as unlikely as me
becoming a worship leader unless God were to miraculously heal my
tone-defness. From what I hear (via others) that would be a miracle akin to
the feeding of the 5000. My passion is for connecting with people, helping
them draw closer to Jesus, and helping them find their fit by using their
gifts, talents, and abilities. I am also passionate about how churches
present themselves in attempting to reach others. We as churches are not to
be closed door societies. Gone are the days of churches like 1st
Evangelical Presbyterian Non-Ecumanical Bi-Partisan Missouri Synod
Lutheran. Take BridgeWay for instance. We do not have a pluthera of bridges
nearby. BridgeWay was named because our founding pastor wanted this church
to be a bridge that connects God to people. I pretty much shot down his
idea of us naming it The Bridge. I felt it was to trendy/grunge for the
part of town we are in. In other parts of the Indy area, that would be a
great name. So, thus BridgeWay came out of that conversation.
I feel a number of things need to be taken into account before naming a
church:
1. What’s the vision for the church
2. Who/what is your target market. I feel you should name it differently if
its in South County vs next to Mackey Arena.
a. Who are the people
b. Where is it located
In regards to the names you mentioned…my thoughts on each:
-Christ’s Church of Lafayette – What about all the other churches in
Lafayette. Are they not Christ’s church? This name also sounds older, and
not like a new church.
-South County Church – It’s a quickly growing area isn’t it. What about
when the area just booms and 10 years from now when it’s not referred to as
South County? Do the folks there refer to it currently as south county?
-Lafayette Christian Community- To me, it just sounds kinda blah.
Other things to think about…
What’s the church really go to be referred to as. – Christ’s Church? SCC?
Lafayette CC?
Website – Is http://www.christschurchoflafayette.com available? Would anyone want
to type all that in? What about googling the churches name?
Signage, logo, etc…
When it comes to a name…a lot is in it. Branding/product naming can help
make it or break it. It’s true for products and ministries, including
churches. I’ve been going around and around in my head with a good name for
our men’s ministry other than ‘BridgeWay men’s minstry’. I thought of
B-Men…too me, though, that connotes the thought that I don’t want to
challenge you to be spectacular, just above average is okay.
Okay, I need to get back to work. I hope this comes across the right way.
Just checked your blog for the first time in a while and saw this. Didn’t
read anything else on there yet…how are things going? Is January still
the timetable for moving? What about the relationship with that group
that’s got people ready to start a new church?
I responded to Mike by email, but here it is for posterity…
—-
Hi Mike,
Great insights here. I have done some googling on some church names in the area, and I have some familiarity with the other churches.
You asked how people would refer to the church? My answer is that they would rarely refer to the church. My vision is to see the “church” be a hosting organization to many sub ministries that would be clearly “branded” and labeled to reach a specific target audience. As an example, when we send out our Easter mailers and advertisements, we wouldn’t advertise “Christ’s Church of Lafayette” at all. Instead, we would advertise the specific name of our Sunday worship service (“upward,” “inspire,” “The Gathering,” “True North,” “The Bridge” or something like that), and we would add the tagline “a ministry of South County Church” or whatever our name is—“Come hear dynamic teaching this Sunday at ‘INSPIRE’ or relax into spiritual reflection on Sunday Night at ‘Breathe’ (ministries of South County Church).”
That way, we would be analogous to Proctor and Gamble. What do you ever buy that has Proctor and Gamble as the product name? Nothing. The corporate name is only for the people who care about corporate names and therefore, it is almost completely irrelevant except for the fact that a name does impact the culture for those who are not consumers but who are members / employees.
My thinking is that a generic name would make it easier for us to have sub-brands that can easily flex with the changing times and also make it easier for us to engage in multi-church efforts—“a ministry of the Lafayette Church Network.”
What do you think?