Names are important. We talk about the names of our children for months, debating back and forth; companies hire other companies to think up names for their company for marketing purposes; writers wrestle torturously over what to name their books, only to have it changed by the publisher. I am writing a Masters thesis right now, and while I am only half done I already know my title - which no one will actually see except the panel of men and women who have to read, and the three or four Regent College students who look at it for a paper or something between now and the second coming of Jesus (they get bound and placed in the Regent College library). The title? The Gospel of God: A Critical Examination of the "Sonderweg" Reading of Romans 9-11. I told you no one would read it.
So, when it came to naming the church which we are planting out of South Delta Baptist Church in South Surrey the challenge was on. First, we knew we could not name it South Delta Baptist Church for obvious reasons - it was not located in South Delta, but in Surrey. We knew it had to be something that made sense to South Surrey, something that connected to the people who live here - it had to be a missional and incarnational name. Secondly, it had to convey some of our values as a church.
Things to Stay Away From
The basic rule of thumb for naming churches today is that you try not to be explicitly geographically bound in your name, because it is limiting. For instance, when a church is called by its town name it has to work harder to include people from other towns which may be attracted to the church. And as today's churches move toward multi-site venues, video sermons, and campuses connected through movie-theatres etc., it is again limiting. For instance if my friends church, The Meeting House in Oakville was called Oakville Church - then what sense would that make to their Toronto sites, nevertheless to their new Ottawa site that gathers at a Famous Players in Ottawa?
We also wanted to stay away from trendy names because the one thing we know about trends is that they don't continue - sooner or later they stop being trendy and become, well, just look at your wedding photos and you know what I'm talking about. Many in this category choose not to have the word "church" in their name. From the outset we wanted to have "church" in our name. We are not a company, we are not a abstract entity, we are a church and telling people that in your name is, we thought, very important.
From names of churches already in the GVA for obvious reason, though this is not a hard and fast rule, many churches share names with other churches even in the same city! There may be another Village Church in the GVA but we couldn't find it.
Names that sound more like specified ministries. Churches today sometimes name themselves so that they sound like ministries instead of churches: The Warehouse, Elevation, The Highway. I am not being critical of these names, again, very successful church are named in this category (Guts Church) its just not the direction we wanted to go.
Names that mean nothing to anyone who is not a Christian or who does not speak Greek or Latin. Some churches like to be abstract so they name their church with a very Christian word, usually from Latin or Greek (i.e., Ekklesia, Imago Dei, Koinonia) which is something we also wanted to stay away from.
Names that need a lot of explanation. Its not wrong to have a name that may need some clarification if, for no other reason than to get a conversation started. So something like Mosaic Church is alright because then people say why Mosaic - "well because it is made up of many different cultures, and a wide variety of people." But sometimes church names are too abstract and again too Christian and need so much explanation: The Holy Tabernacle of the Anointed Ones, The Foundation Stone Temple Worship Centre, Church of the Incarnation., etc., etc.,
Why Village Church?
This is how it happened. I was away on vacation in March reading and thinking about
everything in regard to the church (and swimming in a very cold "hot tub" with my daughter, but that is for another day): How are we going to reach people? Who lives in South Surrey? What should we be called? One evening on that vacation we were talking to two members of what would go on to be the Core Launch Team over Skype and she said "What about Village Church?" - I liked it initially, but knew it was one word away from being the same name of church as a great preacher I listen to every week - The Village Church (Matt Chandler). So I told my wife that and she said "Where is that church?"... "Texas, I guess that's far enough away right?"
So I stuck it in the back of my mind, and it kept surfacing throughout the months. Once the Core Launch Team was assembled I gave them the assignment: research South Surrey, read your Bibles, and email me ideas. I expected lists and lists of names but that was not the case - people kept saying they liked Village Church. And then we moved into South Surrey and it all started to make sense. Everything in South Surrey is marketed as a village. You drive in over
the highway and the first thing you see is a massive sign with big block letters that says VILLAGE LIFE, promoting the condo/shopping complex they are building. On your way out you drive past a sign for a real estate developer whose website is southsurreyvillage.com - and all the housing complexes are marketed as creating a village lifestyle -
When I saw that I began to warm up to the idea that maybe we didn't need something completely original - and Texas was a long way away. Then we began to talk about what the idea of a village conveys to people: community, relationships, depending on one another, small in the midst of big, hospitality, etc.,. All of these cut to the heart of our values as a church.
I tested the name out on people I knew. Different reactions. Some scowled and said "It reminds me a horror movie" (referring, of course, to the M. Night Shamaylan movie The Village), and others "it reminds me of the Village People," all of which I took seriously - because it matters. Others said "it sounds welcoming" and "it sounds like you are building a community" - "it conveys relationship" - and even some who originally thought of a horror movie started coming back and saying "it is growing on me, I like it now."
In the end the Core Launch Team really adopted it, leadership at SDBC liked it and we decided that it really did communicate well to our demographic here in South Surrey.
I am still debating though, on Launch Sunday in January 2010, whether I should dress up like a police officer, or a construction worker. We'll see.
