"c"hurch No More

Posted by: Tom,

I think the use of the word "church" should be banned for 5 years in North America. I preached a sermon one time explaining the difference between the big "C" Church made up all followers of Jesus around the world and little "c" churches that we use to describe our individual local congregation that may or may not include followers of Jesus. And I still see a lot of confusion between the two. In fact, I was recently listening to a nationally know author speak and he mixed the two freely and had them mixed up in the same sentence. So, until we get it straight, I propose banning the use of the little "c" church from our vocabulary.

Every church name would have to relate to THE Church. No "Community Church" or "First," "Second," or "Third Church." Every church name would start with "The Church That Meets at ____________," where the blank would be the street address. Our church could no longer be called "ZUB Church" but would be named "The Church That Meets At 3092 W. Broadway."

Sure, it would cause a lot of problems. Just the website confusion alone would be a major headache. But maybe we would finally start thinking straight about the Church.


2
But, but, but...how would we then be able to send subtle and not-so-subtle signals via our church, er, congregation names? For ex., I've long had the view that the longer the congregation name, esp. the longer the name that includes theological tenets as part of it, the more narrow-minded and scary that congregation probably is. So, "1st Baptist Church" - nice and generic. The Christian equivalent of the "Always Save" brand (pun intended). "Holy Bible Tabernacle of Yeshua Son of Yahweh," OTOH, is probably going to have some "interesting" theology.

Similarly, just recently it dawned on me, out of the blue, that some denoms use "1st" and "2nd" as code words for "white" and "black" denominations, at least in the border states and on south. So geez, what's a good prejudiced person going to do if he can't tell from the name which congregation to stay away from? :)
I guess we could call it "worship surprise."
 
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I'm Tom. I have a wonderful wife, 4 kids, a dog, and a cat. What more could a guy want.

@Tue 24 Feb, 2009 20:16Green Banner: 24 February, 2009Green Banner Vector Graphic http://tinyurl.com/an5ptx

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