All in Favor?

All in Favor of a New Church Name?

Our game plan for changing the name of our church.

One Monday morning at staff meeting, Jerry, our pastor of student ministries, told us that it had happened again. A high school student had invited a friend to the church youth group, and the friend was planning to come, until he found out it was at a "Baptist" church. Then he backed out because he felt his parents would disapprove.

This had become an ongoing problem. Nassau County, just outside of New York City, is about 55 percent Catholic, 25 percent Jewish, and the remaining 30 percent covers everything from any world religion to atheism. In our neighborhood the word "Baptist" is met with complete ignorance or is considered a form of extremism.

The high school student was open about it, but we knew that for countless others, even if they didn't say so, our name was an obstacle.

When I was called to be senior pastor of Manhasset Baptist Church in the fall of 2002, I realized that changing the name of the church would need to be one of my early priorities, if we were to reach beyond the boundaries of Manhasset and beyond the boundaries of those already positively inclined toward Baptists.

But in a congregationally governed church, it wasn't my decision alone. I needed to proceed wisely and carefully. I waited until the third elders meeting to broach the subject. While none of the elders felt our current name was an asset to accomplishing our church's mission, some were concerned about the timing of any change.

We agreed to wait one year before going public with any recommended name change. That way the congregation could get to know and trust my leadership.

In hindsight this proved wise because building relationships is crucial to any bold leadership decision. Many people, because they know you, will give you the benefit of the doubt even when they may disagree with you over something.

That first year the elders and I laid out a plan of action:

Present the idea of a name change at the October 2003 congregational meeting and ask them to pray about it.

Teach the theological underpinnings of a name change. We focused on 1 Corinthians 9:19-23, which culminates with the phrase "I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some."

Hold an all-church prayer meeting, inviting people to an informal meeting for them to ask questions, and then calling them to come before God concerning the issue.

Vote on the concept of a name change at the January congregational meeting. This would be done without a particular name proposed. Any specific name could become a distraction. Voting only on the concept would keep the main issue on the table.

Upon a favorable vote, we would then give the whole church, members and regular attenders, an opportunity to suggest possible names via postcard.

The elders would then select the three top names and send out another letter, announcing the possible names, and asking the congregation to return the enclosed postcard as a straw poll, identifying which name they considered the best.

Propose the name that had the greatest support for a congregational vote at our April congregational meeting.

Hold a "Celebration Sunday" to get the word out and reemphasize our desire to see people come to Christ.

The plan proceeded mostly the way we anticipated. The whole process, from the first October meeting to our Celebration Sunday in June 2004 took about nine months. We had 120 names suggested, and going through them all was one of the most enjoyable parts of the process. We all had our favorites that made us chuckle like "The Love Church" or "Streams of Living Water of Jesus Christ."