Remember when denominational names were en vogue? Remember when you could figure out which denominational church came to the city first: First Methodist; First Baptist; First Presbyterian? Remember when you could tell two churches that split: Harmony Baptist Church and Greater Harmony Baptist Church?
Those days are gone. But what has not changed is that many churches have commonalities in names. In their attempts to be different, they have become common. I went to social media and to Church Answers to learn from my community about church names. Their responses were both fascinating and funny.
- “Point” has become ubiquitous. LifePoint. CrossPoint. Add an “e” to be fancy: GracePointe; LifePointe; CrossPointe.
- “Life” has a new life: Life Church; Real Life; New Life; LifePoint or LifePointe (see above).
- Tim Keller put Redeemer back into vogue. Both Redeemer and Redemption get a lot of love.
- City Church, usually with another name in front of it. These churches can be found in the city, suburbs, and the country.
- Christ Church. It’s simple and popular.
- Five biggies the past ten years: Journey, Bridge, Foundry, Mosaic, and Generation.
- Cross has made a surge. Cross Church. Cross Fellowship. Cross Roads. CrossPoint or CrossPointe (see above).
- Simple Church. Sorry, that was a book (available at LifeWay.com).
- Meaningful names. Impact. Potential. Epic. Transformation. Renovation. Innovate.
- Fellowship can be found in almost any town. It usually has other words, but sometimes it’s just Fellowship Church.
- Grace. Especially in the Reformed churches.
- Many churches like the new factor: New Life. New Hope. New Song. New Now (I made up the one). NewPoint. NewPointe (see above).
- Moving on up. Elevate. Vertical. Summit.
- Not English. Pick a Greek or Latin name you remember from seminary. Eklessia. Ecclessia. Koinonia. Agape. Many others.
What are some contemporary church names you could add? Got any funny examples? Let me hear from you.
Posted on June 18, 2018
With nearly 40 years of ministry experience, Thom Rainer has spent a lifetime committed to the growth and health of local churches across North America.
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199 Comments
If you’re thinking about a new church name, the Babylon Bee has provided a random church name generator…https://babylonbee.com/church-name-generator/#name
Gotta love the Bee!
We are in the middle of a rebrand from Atlanta Faith in Action to “The HUB”
Folks kept saying we were the center or central point for Help, Hope and Healing so we enlarged our Vision and changed the name.. (Same mission though.)
There ya’ go!
In the Austin area, the word “Abundant” is in abundance (Abundant Life, Abundant Grace, Abundant Joy, Abundant Hope, Abundant Peace)
Leave it to Austin . . .
We changed our name in 2015 from First United Methodist Church to New Hope, but New Hope was actually the original name of the church in 1875.
Makes sense.
Beautiful name.
A split gave birth to “Immanuel” because “God is with US!” Ouch!
I don’t guess the other church changed to “God Left Us.”
Maybe they became Ichabod church after the glory departed.
Glory Be Gone Church!
Recently I came across New Harmony and New Fellowship. I thought, where is Old Harmony and Old Fellowship?
Yep!
This article is both informative and hilarious! 🙂 Thanks. Two other trends I’ve observed, both of which are subsets/variations of trends mentioned in the article:
1) “Spring” is quite popular. – NewSpring, LifeSpring, WellSpring, etc.
2) The definite article is in vogue. – The Bridge, The Chapel, The Journey, etc.
Good pointes.
In East Texas there is Little Hope Baptist Church.
How appropriate to Baptist life is the one in Vicksburg, Ms.
Battlefield Baptist Church
That first one is sadly funny.
I know of 2 in East TX called Little Hope…. one west of Tyler, the other west of Gilmer. I think they are named for the area community, but it sure does communicate a defeated attitude.
The next iteration has to be “No Hope.”
In Atlanta there is a church called “The Perfect Church.” If I hadn’t seen it I wouldn’t have believed it.
I’m not eligible to attend.
Me either.
Misplaced churches….when a church relocates but keeps it’s old geographical name….I know a few but don’t want to use their real names but here’s an example, First Baptist Church of Temple Hills moves to Waldorf but keeps it’s old Temple Hills name.
Excellent point, Joanne.
We’ve adopted and breathed new life into the name of the building we rescued from demolition. A former dairy farm, turned into a night club and music hall called SECOND CHANCE. We are leveraging the history of the building along with the wonder of redemption at Second Chance Church.
I like it.
Directional names — ours: Southpoint (no fancy “e”). Northpoint, Eastside, North Ridge — multi-site making those directions meaningless…
Churches with numbers as names — taken from Bible verses: 242 [Acts 2:42], 1721 [John 17:21].
Good adds, Brett. Pointe on.
Nice pun, Rev Rainer.
Catholic Churches are yet named (often renamed with the myriad consolidations) with saints, martyrs or the blessed sacrament.
Much has gone astray in Catholicism, but I cherish the beauty of
its parish names~ especially when the name is attached to the beautiful historical architecture of our diligent immigrants one hundred-plus years ago.
Closing Note: I thoroughly enjoy my subscription to Thom S Rainer, and I admire the Baptist faith traditions and especially its commit-ment to bringing others to Christ. There are other Protestant sites I follow as well~ respecting one another’s faith is especially important
with this dangerous and divisive POTUS.
Thank You!
Thanks for kind words, Candice.. Glad to have you in the community.
I failed to thank you for sharing your gift of writing~ I have purchased a number of your books and have taken the knowledge to my parish leadership.
The books I have read: Becoming a Welcoming Church; Autopsy of a Deceased Church; Who Moved My Pulpit; Transformational Church… You are a prolific writer, and I look forward to reading others.
It would be wonderful if my parish would contract with you to provide revitalization assessment and strategy; my parish is at the bottom of *maintenance* mode and nearing the death cycle.
But, with a staff without vision and one that choses to “let go and let God” there is a huge disconnect between trusting our Lord and implementing the gifts our Lord has given us to pray, plan and improve. We are an inward-focused congregation~ with some disciple-making initiatives, but absolutely no evangelizing other than sending money!
And worst of all, it is not inclusive and *allows* only paid staff and a handful of the same members be the decision-makers. Loads of authority but no Leadership.
Thank you for the inspiration; please pray for my parish.
POTUS;now there is a name I could be proud of.