So - we are transitioning our campus, The Journey: Metro East, into an independent local church. As a result, we will be forming our own mission statement, core values, and, of course, a name. Since we are a daughter church of The Journey, we will bear many similarities to our mother church - it is simply in our DNA.
But we did have to come up with a new name. Easy enough right? Yeah, right. We started by brainstorming possible names - and came up with an initial list easy enough. The initial list was long but got shorter as we weeded out all the sarcastic suggestions. It was eventually shortened to a few that seemed to stand out to us. We were looking for names that would have spiritual significance and would speak to our unique identity in the Metro East.
A conversation with one of my leaders drove home the importance of a church name. She was walking far from God in 2005 when she was driving through Maplewood and saw one of our Journey services. She said that she saw the sign - and the name, the font, the logo - combined with what she saw of the people walking in for the service - and she felt like it looked like the kind of church she could visit. She felt attracted and invited. So she came - and kept coming. Today she is an incredible leader and humble follower of Jesus.
Did the name do all that? No, of course not. But it did play a part. It spoke to her of who we were. That is what names do - they speak of identity. That is why so many of us can't answer the question, "Who are you?" without first giving our names.
So - what name to give a new church? As I bounced the potential names around with our leaders, I found that different groups were gathering around different names. Some liked this one - others that one. It became clear that no matter what name I chose, I would be drawing some people in and potentially alienating others.
And then it dawned on me: I was asking the wrong group. My goal wasn't to make my insiders happy - it was to represent our identity well to those outside our church. I wanted a name that was going to speak to people who represent the values of our community - civic leaders, artists, lawyers - and, even more importantly, people in my community who weren't going to church (people that often referred to as un-churched and de-churched).
So, I put together a kind of focus group. I thought of people who represented these values - and I took our short list of names to them to ask which names spoke to them in a positive way. Interestingly, a name that ranked very high with my insiders (Christ Community Church), ranked poorly with my focus group. They commented that there were already a bunch of "Christ" churches around - and that the name would be like white noise (one person said, that sounds like a boring church and I bet your church isn't boring). No single name took first place every time, but there was one that stood out in first or second place pretty much with the whole focus group.
So - after that very long introduction - to the name. What is it? Trailhead Church.
I like this for a number of reasons. First, the trails run all through the Metro East. They connect the different communities and are a central point of awareness and civic pride. In addition, the trailhead is the beginning and the end of the trail - so it has real spiritual significance. Jesus, according to Revelation 1:8, is the "Alpha and Omega" - the beginning and the end. As a bonus, the name also thematically ties back in to The Journey, our mother church.
So, there you go. We have a name: Trailhead Church. It is my prayer that God will use this name to help us connect with people who are distant from the church and from God. I hope that this name will speak clearly of who we are - people who are centered on the gospel and walking with God, in community, and on mission.
But we did have to come up with a new name. Easy enough right? Yeah, right. We started by brainstorming possible names - and came up with an initial list easy enough. The initial list was long but got shorter as we weeded out all the sarcastic suggestions. It was eventually shortened to a few that seemed to stand out to us. We were looking for names that would have spiritual significance and would speak to our unique identity in the Metro East.
A conversation with one of my leaders drove home the importance of a church name. She was walking far from God in 2005 when she was driving through Maplewood and saw one of our Journey services. She said that she saw the sign - and the name, the font, the logo - combined with what she saw of the people walking in for the service - and she felt like it looked like the kind of church she could visit. She felt attracted and invited. So she came - and kept coming. Today she is an incredible leader and humble follower of Jesus.
Did the name do all that? No, of course not. But it did play a part. It spoke to her of who we were. That is what names do - they speak of identity. That is why so many of us can't answer the question, "Who are you?" without first giving our names.
So - what name to give a new church? As I bounced the potential names around with our leaders, I found that different groups were gathering around different names. Some liked this one - others that one. It became clear that no matter what name I chose, I would be drawing some people in and potentially alienating others.
And then it dawned on me: I was asking the wrong group. My goal wasn't to make my insiders happy - it was to represent our identity well to those outside our church. I wanted a name that was going to speak to people who represent the values of our community - civic leaders, artists, lawyers - and, even more importantly, people in my community who weren't going to church (people that often referred to as un-churched and de-churched).
So, I put together a kind of focus group. I thought of people who represented these values - and I took our short list of names to them to ask which names spoke to them in a positive way. Interestingly, a name that ranked very high with my insiders (Christ Community Church), ranked poorly with my focus group. They commented that there were already a bunch of "Christ" churches around - and that the name would be like white noise (one person said, that sounds like a boring church and I bet your church isn't boring). No single name took first place every time, but there was one that stood out in first or second place pretty much with the whole focus group.
So - after that very long introduction - to the name. What is it? Trailhead Church.
I like this for a number of reasons. First, the trails run all through the Metro East. They connect the different communities and are a central point of awareness and civic pride. In addition, the trailhead is the beginning and the end of the trail - so it has real spiritual significance. Jesus, according to Revelation 1:8, is the "Alpha and Omega" - the beginning and the end. As a bonus, the name also thematically ties back in to The Journey, our mother church.
So, there you go. We have a name: Trailhead Church. It is my prayer that God will use this name to help us connect with people who are distant from the church and from God. I hope that this name will speak clearly of who we are - people who are centered on the gospel and walking with God, in community, and on mission.
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