What Name?

Image by ~jjjohn~ via Flickr

A name is important, but it isn't the MOST important thing to figure out when it comes to church planting. Nelson Searcy says the four calls that make up the call for church planting are: 1. the church planter's call, 2. the church planters' wife's call (though he says 'spouse'), 3. the call to a geographical area, and 4. the call to a people. I think we're getting there...

But names are running through my mind. churchmarketingsucks.com didn't help very much. I did a search on their site and all I found was a story of a church in Australia that held a country-wide contest to name their church, with the prize being a brand new Wii! The result: CitySoul. Don't love it.

I DO like the name The Village, but my main influence in preaching, Matt Chandler, has already coined it and I don't wanna copy. "Soul Survivor" is a great name too, I think. But I'll not use it, unless there turns out to be some partnership...

Names I've used for youth stuff in the past are Threshold, Shine, Fuel, and Hero - none of which would make a great church name, I think (though Threshold is kinda cool...). But within those ministries, I've named events and programs Forum, reFuel, Soularize, All Access, Bonfire, Explosion, Sabbath (and there are others)...

So, maybe Access Church might work, or Soularize, maybe even Refuel.

I'm not thinking LOTS about names, but I do want to have something to invite people to when it's time... Please leave a comment and let me know what names work for you, or if you have any other church name ideas. I won't promise you a Wii if I use your idea though!