Are Cool Church Names Really That Cool?

I have to admit.  When we first talked about planting a church 2 years ago, I got very excited about the possibility of having a really cool church name.  Naming your church after the street you sit on or your denomination seemed so lame when there are churches named "Paradox" and "Epicenter" down the road.  I wanted the kind of name that only sounds right if it's spoken like Macho Man Randy Savage as he's snapping into a Slim Jim.  

When we first considered the name for our new church we originally landed on the name "Water's Edge."  I liked it because it sounded "edgy."  Unfortunately, a church located about 3 miles south of us thought it was edgy too, and they beat us to it.  So we had to keep looking.  Since Jim really wanted a name that brought to mind the feeling of being on a lake shore, I started searching thesauruses and Google, looking for catchy synonyms.  I stumbled upon "Waterfront."  I was only familiar with the word because of the Marlon Brando movie.  Jim thought it sounded like a real estate development.  But in the end we decided to go with it, naming the church "Waterfront Community Church."  And it was a nice name, but I'll be honest . . . I didn't think it had the same bite and "reach out and grab ya" power of a church name like "Mosaic" or "Mars Hill" (both very large, popular churches).

That was 2 years ago.  And now  "Waterfront" has become a community and a family, not just a name.  And I've begun to realize a few things about church names. . .

1.  Church names really make little impact on the success of your church.  I've seen churches with cool names do very well, and I've seen churches with cool names do very poorly.  And I've seen churches with REALLY boring names do REALLY well, and churches with boring names . . . well . . . be very boring.  With all the energy churches put into the meaning behind their church names, the reality is that church names really only become meaningful when the people behind the name begin changing lives and communities. 

2.  Cool church names are probably more important to churched people (or formerly churched people) than unchurched people.  It's a dagger in the heart of post-evangelical ministers like myself, but there have been some statistics showing that unchurched people are more likely to visit a church called "First Methodist Church" than something like "The Awakening."  It's kinda weird, but surveys seem to indicate, contrary to conventional wisdom, that unchurched people are more traditional in their preferences about church than churched people are.  Go figure. 

3.  As time goes on, snazzy church names will grow just as tired and uninspired as something like "Peachtree Boulevard Baptist Church."  I remember a time when "Crossroads" was the new, cool church name, layered with meaning.  Then church after church after church started calling themselves "Crossroads" and all the coolness got drained out of it.  I kinda wonder if after fifteen or so years, people will look at these church names that are cool in the 2000s the same way people are going to look at the thousands of 40 year old women who decided to get a "Tramp Stamp" tattooed on their lower backs when they were 19. 

4.  As hip as it is to remove "Church" from a church name (and trust me, I totally understand the rationale for doing so), I think it's counterproductive.  I think people really want to know that they're going to a church.  And on this point, clarity trumps mystery.  Even though a name like "The Expedition" is catchier that "Expedition Bible Church," I think an unchurched person who's seeking a church would be more inclined to visit the latter.  My opinion.

5.  This is more of a personal pet peeve . . . Church names that start with the word, "The."  'Nuff said.

If you want to see a nice list of snazzy church names, Out of Ur blog put together a list of 129 names he's stumbled upon, and added some funny comments.  Of course, none of this is meant to make fun of other churches.  At the end of the day, I don't think there's anything wrong with having a hip name for a church and in some ways I'd prefer it.  But by way of a reality check, I think these things carry less importance than we sometimes think they do.  Just food for thought as we move forward making missional churches that are equipped to reach a lost world. 

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