Name Change

On Sunday night, there was a meeting for the name change of the church. Even though the website says a place of hope the church is actually the First Church of God.

I came to the meeting optimistic (and for me that is a good thing) that the name would change. I feel the First Church of God is a name that scares people from testing our church out. So in a sense it is a hinderance to the "unsaved" of our community. I know several people who have had negative experiences in a church but who are searching and I sense a name could drive them to another place.

Anyway...

I felt that the name would and should change. There was a long discussion that night, that ranged for reasons of keeping the name and reasons for changing the name. Some reasons were said out of ignorance and some were valid.

After the vote, which did not carry (so we are still First Church of God), I was dissappointed. I was discouraged. Not because I didnt get my way but I felt it was a step of doing the same old thing. We are stuck in the same old box we have been trapped in for years.

Our church has grown and it has had fewer people. But the truth of the matter is that the "lost" was not who grew the church. We were church-nappers, when someone wasn't happy with thier church they came to our church. We lost people for the same reason. When people werent happy they left to another church, they didnt leave to the "world".

People blame a lot of things, the people in the church, the pastor, the programs, the music, etc., I blame our inability to innovate, to look at things new and different. To share the story in a different and dynamic way, and whats new and works today might not work tomorrow. The process of the church is evolving because the world is evolving and if the local church doesn't stay with it, the name of the church will have no meaning because there will be no name, and there will be no church.

I am discouraged, but I also have hope. I see good things from our pastor, I see good things from our people. We need to learn how to "restructure" what we are doing, to utilize peoples gifts and talents that can further God's kingdom. We need to be intential on changing how we think in order to move forward and grow. We need to stop being church-nappers and become a place that truly is a place of hope and the lost will truly come and want to experience what we should be experiencing.