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One day a friend recounted to me a sad but true story from his childhood. It occurred in the late 1960s, when David was about eight years old. On a Sunday night service at his church, a hippie family came to their church. The husband had a scruffy beard, and they were all wearing beads. Some of you remember those days. They obviously stood out in the congregation. The pastor got up, looked across the auditorium, and said, “It is so nice to see everyone clean shaven and well bathed this evening.” By the time David turned around to see the hippie family’s response, he saw only the back door flopping back and forth. They got the message, and left.
I don’t know the name of that church, but it should have been called the “Clean-Shaven and Well Bathed Only Baptist Church,” because the hippie family was not welcome there. This story made me wonder about church names, and the testimony of a church when compared to its name.
In the Bible a name often described the character or something unique about the person–Abraham means father of nations, Amos means Burden, and Jesus means God is Salvation. Just think for a minute–what if we named churches based on how they acted? What if we gave churches names which represent their real convictions? Have you ever noticed how churches that come out of splits often call themselves Harmony Baptist Church or Unity Baptist Church? Have you ever noticed the variety of names we have for churches? Well, of course there are lots of First Baptists, and more than a few Calvary Baptists. But think of all the unique names. Some are geographical, named for roads or rivers. My parents attend Duck River Baptist in Alabama, although I have never seen the Duck River. Biblical names abound as well–Shiloh, Bethel, Ebenezer, and Canaan come to mind.
Imagine just for a moment that a church was given its named based on the character it reflected in a community. In the eighteenth century the Holy Club was a term of derision given to the band of John and Charles Wesley, George Whitefield, and a handful of others, because of their diligence in the study of Scripture and desire for holy living. They were later called Methodists because of their, well you guessed it, methods.
Our Baptist progenitors, the Anabaptists, were so dubbed because they “re-baptized,” or baptized adults following conversion. What if our church names reflected our character? Here are some church names I have observed:
The “You Ain’t Our Kind” Baptist Church–refers to those churches who particularly refuse to allow African-Americans to attend. Better name: The Racist Club.
The “If-You-Aren’t-Kin-To-Me-Get-Out” Baptist Church–the church where everyone is related. Better name: The Weekly Family Reunion.
The “We-May-Be-in-the-North-But-Will-Do-Church-Like-Rural-Kentucky” Baptist Church–the church that refuses to reach anyone but folks just like them. I saw some of these when I served in Indiana. Better name: The Geographically Challenged Church.
The “I-don’t-Care-What-the-Bible Says” Baptist Church–the church with the convictions of a wet noodle. I have met a few of those. Better name: The My Way is Yahweh Church.
The “Dinner-On-the-Grounds” Baptist Church–the church that considers Homecoming Sunday the most spiritual event of the year. Better name: The Fellowship and Gluttony Chuch.
The “I Don’t Have That Gift” Baptist Church–made of members who do only what they want to do, which is mainly nothing, and use spiritual gifts as their excuse to ignore the Great Commission. Better name: The I’m Special Church.
The “We’ve Never Done It That Way” Baptist Church–the church that will probably not be in existence in twenty years. Better name: The We Will Soon Be Closed Church.
The “Best Dressed Baptist” Church–the church whose members like GQ magazine more than the New Testament. Better name: The Easter Is for Fashion Church.
The “First Baptist Church of Insomnia”–the church that is so dead, if the Holy Spirit left they wouldn’t know it for six months. Better Name: ZZZZZZZZZ.
The “Anti-Praise and Worship Chorus” Church–the church that sings only songs written before 1700. Better name: The We Will Not Change Church.
The “Only Praise and Worship” Baptist Church–the church that loves its music more than its Master. Better name: The Musicians Church.
And finally, the “If the 1950s Come Back, We Will Be Ready” Church–the church who looks like a time warp into a previous generation when you enter the services. Better Name: The Institutional Church.

Well, you probably can think of others. Of course, I could also name many churches whose character does reflect Christ in a wonderful way. I am simply trying to illustrate that the most important word in our name is church–and we ought to resemble the Body of Christ we are.
We need to examine the ministries, the convictions, and the practice of our churches regularly to see if we can honestly be called a church. The one word that should be removed from some church names is church, because that is NOT what they are. A church is a group of saved, baptized believers who honor Christ in their beliefs and their practice. Some think the church is the building (that is the edifice complex). Across the nation there are 350,000 churches, but how many are really a New Testament Church?
After all, the name Christian was given to the early believers in Antioch (Acts 11:26) because they reflected the Christ they followed. Can it be said that the church you attend, regardless of its particular name, is a reflection of the Head of the Church, our Lord Jesus? It will only be so as you and I, the members of a local body, reflect Christ in our lives.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 24th, 2006 at 4:47 am and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.