What’s the name of your church?
I couldn’t help but chuckle at some of the church names listed in the post “A Church by Any Other Name.”
I also find it funny when people name their churches after biblical locations: Corinth (are they really that divisive and immoral?), Philippi (they sing songs in jail?), Bethel (oh… so that building is the house of God?), etc.
What happened to the true biblical designations for churches? You know… the church in X city, or the church that meets in Y’s house.
Would that ever work today? Or, are we beyond those simple designations?
We call our’s St. Thomas Community Church, but maybe “the church that meets at Durango Bagel” would be better. 🙂
Alan- our house church has a name which we choose to remind everyone that they/we are all missionaries with our own mission field. (We call our house church, “The Mission”).
However, one of the guys in our fellowship suggested that when he leaves to start his house church, he will not have a name.
While I think this is great, I also predicted that one way or the other people will give it a name. They will call it something, even if it’s “The nameless church” or “The church that meets at Kelly’s house” or…perish the thought, “Kelly’s Church”.
People need handles for their specific gathering so I don’t think there’s anything wrong with a name, as long as you don’t loose sight of the fact that there’s only One Body and we’re all part of it…and I guess as long as you don’t name your church, “The One True Church”.
The church I grew up in was called, “Church at Charlotte”. It’s the largest Evangelical Free church in the southeast. It works.
I’ve always been a fan of “(Insert Your Location) Church”… or “The Church at (Insert Your Location)”… It seems Biblical, timeless, efficient, and accurate. If we want cool name’s I have a few lined up… “Crosstitute Church” (where we sell out to the cross) or maybe go with Darren Patrick’s suggestion of “Abraham’s Inner Thigh”
Grain of Wheat Church Community … so i guess we fall under a more precocious category.
Whatever the name, most Christians call it “Our church” when talking to insiders or “My church” when talking to outsiders (who either aren’t churched at all, or go to “Their church”).
By the way, wouldn’t it be fun if we became really accurate, and named one “The 26th Baptist church of X.”
I always respected the way Baptist marquees often take street names. Somewhere in Atlanta, I believe there’s a “2nd Ponce [Avenue] BC”.
The best house church non-name I ever heard was “some christians in X”. The best homemade marquee I ever saw in front of a private home said “Christians meet here.” It didn’t even say when.
2nd Ponce Ave is pushing it, though 😉