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How to Choose the name of your church
Deciding on a name for your church plant is potentially one of the most important decisions that you will make. Usually the name will stay with the church for a very long time so getting it right is crucial.
There is no one right way to decide the name of a plant, however there are some common principles that can be followed.
Timing
The sooner a name can be agreed the better, however enough time must be allowed for things to take shape.
Who is involved in deciding the name?
If we were a Baptist Church the decision would probably be with church meeting, in an Anglican church maybe the Bishop would decide. In our context it is less clear. In my experience a number of different people have an involvement in the decision. These include the Church planter, oversight, or the planting team.
What I have found great fun is to have a brain storming exercise involving everyone associated with the plant. Everyone is free to offer up names without comment. Then when names are exhausted people are given 3 votes each to vote for their favourites. The top names are then taken away for prayerful consideration.
What factors should be considered?
When deciding on a name I would recommend you avoid any geographic limitations which limit the size of the vision.
I would ask various questions –
- What does the name communicate to Christians?.
- What does it communicate to non-Christians?.
- How does it further the communication of your vision?
- For example, I know of a church in a small market town that decided to call itself City Church. This probably communicated to Christians that the church saw itself as a city on a hill, but non-Christians just thought they were daft!
Spiritual significance.
In both the Open Door Church and Hope Church the name has been a prophetic statement of intent. It is therefore not surprising that we have had to fight for both.
My experience has certainly made me very sensitive to the importance of choosing the right name and being aware of the statement being made which needs to be lived with. E.g. Calling ourselves Hope Church we have had to fight to ensure we ourselves are a people of hope rather than despair!
A few examples
The first church I planted was called the “Open Door Church”. This was chosen through a brain storming exercise but ultimately by unanimous consent. We had previously narrowed down our vision statement to “Open to God, open to you”. Open Door Church just seemed the right name to communicate this.
The second church I planted is called Hope Church. This again came out of a brainstorming exercise but was chosen as we agreed that Hope was the antidote to despair and we felt that despair characterised the area in which we were serving.
Richard Thomas gives an example of a church that regretted its choice of name:
‘Whilst thinking about the identity of the church a clear prophetic word came, “I will make the valley of trouble a door of hope” (Hosea 2v15).
After consideration “Church of the Valley” was chosen as our name. - It was a good attempt to follow prophetic leading. but more thought probably should have been given to what the name conveyed to those not aware of the prophetic word. To some “valley” conveyed a church for those in deep trouble, but only for a few Welsh speakers.
The name was later changed to HOPE CHURCH, with an up to date logo of an open door. This was much clearer, better for guests, and still faithful to what God had said.’
Phil Dowling tells his story of a spirit led decision:
‘We had some principles that we knew the name had to demonstrate.
- The name had to describe what we were doing. It is almost a ‘mission statement’ in itself.
- It had to be meaningful to the wider community.
- We did not want it to be geographic as we see our mission as wider than just Rushden and Higham Ferrers. We definitely did not want either Rushden or Higham Ferrers in the name. They are two very distinct towns and if it had the name of either town in the name it would put off people from the other town.
- We wanted the name to be short. We were thinking in terms of publicity; a long name is difficult for websites.
- With these principles established we then had a brainstorm with the core group. I did this as I am not desperately creative and wanted to tap into those with other gifts. That produced a couple of options, neither of which we were happy with.
However that night, I woke up with the name ‘New Life Church’ going though my mind, and someone rang me the next morning saying that they too had woken up with a name in their mind. It was also New Life Church.
As we thought and prayed about this name it just seemed right. It fit the four principles. It is a name that constantly reminds us that we are here not for our own benefit, but to bring new life to people, to the community, and actually to the other churches in the area.’
Jonathon Crowhurst tells his story of a group effort:
‘We initially brainstormed a few names with our church plant team, we wanted something that would both have a local meaning and say something about who we are and what we had received so far prophetically about who we would become. We also wanted something that would sound contemporary and non-religious and hence appeal to the main group of people we were targeting to reach – young professionals and families. We got down to a shortlist of six. Eventually the name the exchange stuck. (Exchange St, is the major street in town).
The whole process took about three months.
Since then we have used the exchange to summarise our strategy for the church:
Make the |exchange
A place where salvation happens on a regular basis
Live the |exchange
A people who are being transformed as they get to know Jesus better
Share the |exchange
A community that reveals Jesus to those that don’t yet know him’
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