Branding is important. Church names are becoming stranger for the same reasons that company names are, google searches. How many "First Baptist" churches have a top 10 results on a google search. There is also the requirement in most states of a legally distinguishable name that is different from every other legal name. In Chicago for instance, there are about 3000 churches inside the city limits. So you need to have 3000 separate names inside the city of Chicago. There is literally a "New St Rest Missionary Baptist Church #2" in Chicago.

Great list and observations.

And Adam, you beat me to bringing up SEO.

Thanks for sharing this extensive list. Times are sure changing but let's hope that the message remains the same.

You left out "The First Church of 'What's Happenin' Now". When I was in high school (long time ago) we had a 1st Baptist Church, 2nd Baptist Church and a 3rd Baptist Church. It was much easier when you just had to deal with numbers.

Some of them sound like names of blogs. Thanks "Out of Ur".

Here are a few more just for fun: Epiphany Station, eXperience Church, 12 Stones Church, The Quarry, The Crux, Evergreen, Mission Dei, & The Journey North

I would have to add the name of our church to the list: "Xaris", a variation of the Greek word for gift or grace, charis.

It does present a challenge initially for some people to pronounce the name, but it has been positive overall.

Institutional branding - in my opinion it's one more thought, idea, concept, image, etc that is put before the name Jesus, pushing His name somewhere into the background. It's one more man created key idea that is said to have great importance that has no relevancy to God's plan. Men can get so much glee at their coolness, but God is about much bigger things. It's one of so many reasons that point to the reality that institutional forms are a severe distraction from God's design for His bride. It brings in so much staining and wrinkling ("without spot or wrinkle") that God desires to purify out.

My friends pastor about 1/3 of these churches! Does that say something about me? my church is safely a boring lifeless and generic First Congregational Church.

Likewise Christianity is getting stranger by the day.

Perhaps the current need is twofold:

1. To stop calling local churches anything at all. By doing this, we avoid takng our cue from the corporate/business world with its preoccuptaion with branding. More positively, we affirm that a local church is an extended family. I have yet to meet a family (with the possible exception of the Osbournes) who seek to brand themselves like a business.

2. Making do with whatever the outsiders call us. Bible-believing Christians have a long history of this - from the Donatists to the Methodists, via the Ana-Baptists.

When my family was visiting Morro Bay, CA one summer they visited a church (First Baptist Church of Morro Bay) that was planning to change their name. They were asking for suggestions for the name change. Some my family came up with:

"The Last Baptist Church of Morro Bay"
"The Son Will Come Up to Morro"

:)

There's a few churches near me that recently went through name changes (previously had Baptist in the name):
Journey of Faith (formerly Community Baptist)
CrossRoad (formerly Calvary Baptist)

My own church is Life Covenant -- but the name sorta makes sense -- it's part of the Evangelical Covenant Denom.

I think we should be careful to bash on the names of these churches. Personally, when looking for a church in a city I'm completely unfamiliar with, I'm not inclined to go to a First Baptist or anything with a denominational name to it.

As a Christian and a 22 year old, I'm so tired of all of the tradition and politics that goes on in many of the very traditional church communities. I think that those things, more than branding, distract us from God.

I'm much more interested in checking out a church that has a name that maybe describes a bit of who the church is and what they care about. Who cares if it's Lutheran, Baptist or whatever? What matters is if the people of that church are following God's principles laid out for them in the bible.

Lastly, I think a lot of people in my generation associate 1st _______ Church with stuffiness and an unacceptance of anything but good little khaki and polo wearing Christians. Branding churches with "cooler" sounding names may get people who would not typically feel comfortable in a traditional church environment willing to attend. These "cool" churches offer a place for the weirdos, hipsters, punk rockers and outcasts in the world.

The biggest problem in many churches today is one of relevance. It's not because God's message is irrelevant. It's just as relevant today as it was when Jesus was telling it. The way many traditional churches convey it today is irrelevant. Music changes over time to reflect modern culture. Shouldn't the way we share God's message reflect our world today as well? We don't live in a vacuum.

Nothing like the body of Christ stabbing itself :-)

Element3: Where Faith, Authenticity, and Emerging Culture meet.

Brilliant. You can't see yourself until you look in the mirror. Seeing these 129 names back to back to back to back ... really does show us something about ourselves, doesn't it?

Names are necessary, but like any junior higher can tell you, any name can be twisted into a jibe.

And I go to a church with a cool name. The real definition of the name is determined by the people who embody it.

One night in his hotel room, right after a live concert, a musical artist performer had a dream. He dreamed he's finding his way on a long and winding road looking for a church.

In less than no time, he came to one - The Loving Church of God. The name roused him to conjure up a vision of John Lennon singing, "Love is real...feeling...wanting...touch...
reaching...asking...free...living...
needing to be loved.”

Then, he came to another church...

...The Joyful Church of God...with Three Dog Nights singing, "If I were the King of the world, tell you what I'd do, I'd throw away the cars and the bars and the wars...joy to the world...joy to you and me."

...The Peaceful Church of God...with Peter, Paul and Mary singing, "We shall live in peace...we shall live in peace some day, oh, deep in my heart, I do believe we shall overcome someday."

...The Patient Church of God...with Guns N' Roses singing, "It will work itself out fine; all we need is just a little patience."

...The Kind Church of God...with Joan Baez singing, "Be not too hard for life is short, and nothing is given to man."

...The Good Church of God...with Mary MacGregor singing, "Someone to share your good times, someone who you can count on; that someone who when you turn to, won't turn away."

...The Faithful Church of God...with The Bachelors singing, "He won't let you down, wear a smile, not a frown; and walk with faith in your heart."

...The Gentle Church of God...with Angela Bofill singing, "Did you think that your smile could hide what's on your mind? If you've had a change of heart, break it to me gently..."

Just then, he woke up. It's morning. He looked around his hotel room. On a coffee table, a passing strange eyeful invited his interest - a seeming still picture of an immaculate duo - an open Bible and a tray of cluster of grapes, fresh and slightly chilled. He run his eyes over the open page of the Holy Book and stared down at one particular highlighted verse. It was Galatians 5:22-23. He read:

"But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness..."

All at once, he closed the Bible and smiled. He believed he's just found what he's been looking for; and for such a long journey in his life.

Sometimes I wish there was as much focus on being relevant as there seems to be on trying to look relevant.

One church I have been to got it right. They called themselves Olive Drive Church, because they were on Olive Drive. I liked this approach because it emphasized that they are part of the universal church that just happened to manifest itself in that particular place.

If only we could get Ed Young to rap these names in succession... One can dream.

That was classic. I imagine going to http://www.thesaurus.com and trying to get some additional names could be fun as well.

I think in my city I passed the following churches: Our Lady of Perpetual Hope, Intimacy with Jesus Fellowship, Hope Community, Soma, Mountain View, Shepherd of the Desert, Desert View, Desert Life, Community Church of Everything and 4 churches called The Gathering.

I like the names of different churches for sure. My real question for all churches is do you understand that when people do an online search for a church in your city, they'll never look for your brand and will always search by your city name. That is why most churches that have their city name in them get found more often by online searchers.

(Laughing too hard to type...) I know there IS a serious point to this (as some of the commenters above have noted), but oh, my goodness, your parenthetical comments on the names were just too funny. I'm sharing this with my Facebook friends!

Hiiiiiiilarious. I love #15.

Thanks for having a sense of humor (unlike some in the commboxes).

Some thoughts:

1) I imagine that most readers of "Out of Ur" are well-churched. Our likes and dislikes for these names, including our thoughts on denominational affiliation and mention in names, matters little in these cases because most of these are (I'm assuming) young churches and recent church plants. Which leads to point two...

2) Despite what I've said in pt #1, I wonder whether some of these names resonate with unchurched people. Do they scratch their heads, too? "What the heck is Soma," they may ask. If these churches are new church starts aiming at unchurched people, why choose weird Christianese names that only Greek-reading pastors will get? Which leads to my next point...

3) Denominational affiliation. People poo-poo it but research has shown that SOMETIMES "brand affiliation" packs a punch! Many unchurched people, for example, claim they are more likely to attend a United Methodist Church than other churches (and I still wonder what that says about my UMC that the people outside supposedly like us but don't join us). Sometimes brand-names are good.

The sad part is many young pastors seem to 'need' to be at a church with a cool sounding named church. What a vain and prideful approach to church.

I know this church that was in a rut, so they changed the name from Church to Lighthouse...church. (Being less than 30 miles from the seacoast it wasn't too far a stretch.) The pastor wanted this to leave past troubles behind and turn a new leaf and declare it in the name. It didn't help.

Same church much more recently just changed it's name to Revolution...Church. The older, more conservative folks were lead to believe it was in reference to the American revolution (it's in New England so some of that history isn't too far away.). When the change finally was made the clear reference was to the Beatles and 'So you want a revolution.' It strikes me that anyone would latch on to this name. Rebels start revolutions and rebellious behavior is bad according to scripture.

I find it hilarious that Revolution is second on the list and if you Google Revolution church you get a lot of them. So I guess they are counter cultural like everyone else, NOT.

What this church has needed all along is real, Godly love from its leadership. This hasn't happened from the pastors office in nearly 20 years. I've finally stopped trying to help and moved on myself. I hate church hopping, but I must take care of my family. The boring named church we now attend has been a breath of fresh air with real Godly love and sound, challenging teaching. Why didn't I leave sooner.

I'd rather a boring name and real Christians than a cool name and apostasy.

Wow, i don't think i've ever posted my "comment" on a post like this before. But, first time for everything. It's amazing how judgmental several of you are.

Like this from the post above me...
"The sad part is many young pastors seem to 'need' to be at a church with a cool sounding named church. What a vain and prideful approach to church."

Glad you somehow have the inside scoop on the heart of "so many young pastors"

What the heck!??!?

Do you all really have nothing better to do with your time than read this post & get whipped into a frenzy that gives you the glorious mission of throwing your judgmental darts at the character & intention of other people & churchs who are, oh yeah, ON THE SAME SIDE.

I don't know but something about "not against us then for us..." rings a bell. Everyone picks the name they do for a reason and sure some probably are for reasons that could be easily criticized but really! We have nothing better to do than cut each other down for the name of our churches. I know a number of churches with these names and i know that for each one it is a name picked out of a deep desire & passion to communicate something of the character & work of God that is often shrouded in mystery. The names are as unique as the people leading these churches and as unique as the particular way God is leading that group to reach it's community for Jesus.

I'm sure some is thinking I'm some liberal "can't we all just get along" who am i to judge, hippie wanna be.

Trust me, there is enough in our churches that does need confronting, enough sin in the rank that needs purging, enough pride that needs confessing. And i certainly believe that part of our job of following Jesus is to call these things out & not just ignore them with some pathetic inability to confront sin. BUT, folks, we are so divided as it is that i just grow more & more weary buy the day with the level of stupid infighting among the church of Jesus Christ.

Maybe i should just read this & laugh, maybe I'm "taking this too serious" or maybe this is just one more small example of how we discredit the power for the unifying Gospel that we all preach.

Some days i just wonder what the heck I'm a part of and why are so many of us ok with this & just laugh at it instead of seeing the subtlety in how Satan fractures us with each other & discredited us with an already skeptical world.

As a peer of the 22 yr. old who posted, I have to disagree (not to invalidate his post because the new style of worship helps him and that is great!). I am a 23 yr. old who is tired of struggle to be relevant and modern. Yes, the church I was raised in was traditional and boring, but I'm sick of churches vying for attention and then falling back on the same tricks and tactics that other churches use. The poster I'm responding to wrote about "polo wearing Christians" in trad. church. They're the same people sitting in the "cool" churches-they may dress differently, but any congregation with more than a few members is going to have internal struggles-we're all humans. I don't have a solution-God is the only solution, however, I think adding the "cool" or "relevance" factor just complicates things without adding substance. Take away the coffee, the fancy "x" name, and the lights, and the church is still made up of people, reading in the same Bible, living the same lives. I'm not going to condemn any church because if the people there are being fed the Life Giving words of Christ, I have no reason to object. I guess I'm just tired to the constant fight to be the "coolest"-church doesn't need to be "cooler", church is church.

To "still"-you summed up the entire thought process behind my comment in a much kinder and brief manner. I wish I had seen it before I posted. Well-said.

As a pastor of one of these churches, and a friend of many pastors at churches represented on this list, I can say from first hand knowledge that many of the strangest names represented here are homes to some of the deepest (and conservative) theological convictions. Many mentioned here are pursuing authentic lives of worship and attempting to live historically informed, Christ-Centered lives, but in culturally meaningful ways. We must remember the lessons of Lesslie Newbigin about being missionaries in our culture, constantly translating (not changing) the gospel into new cultural languages for as yet unreached people groups right in our midst, just as the greatest international missionaries of our shared history have been doing for generations.

I'm familiar with some of these names. I have a couple more to add...

The New Testament Church of the First Born (yep, in Gastonia, NC!)

Renovatus (Charlotte, NC: Nice folks, no idea what a renovatus is... Latin for renovation??)

The Church Without Walls (also in Gastonia, NC, but I think they meet in a Seventh Adventist Building... I think those still have walls, right??)

Dear a,

To God be the glory!

I garnished my post with finishing touches just for you.

"But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness..."

All at once, he closed the Bible and smiled. He believed he'd found what he'd been looking for; and for such a long journey in his life.

Then he picked a grape and put it in his alcohol-lined dry mouth. He opened the door to the balcony. The bursting in of sunshine, the whiff of fresh air, and the sweet taste of the fruit, inspirited him to croon John Denver's "Today is the first day of the rest of my life."

I think this post is really mean.

You're publicly making fun of 129 churches.

Why would you do that?

I think the key to understanding this post, is the first sentence: "How Url Scaramanga thinks about cool new church names."

Who the heck is Url Scaramanga? lol

So did this post get a lot of hits?

Here are some additional names of very real, biblically-focused churches:
ZAREPHATH CHURCH
PILLAR OF FIRE CHURCH
AMERICAN RESCUE WORKERS CHURCH
GRACE AND HOPE MISSION
GOSPEL MISSION CORPS
PILLAR COMMUNITY CHAPEL
ALMA TEMPLE
THE WAY
THE TRUTH
THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS
However, here are a few fictitious church names that are quoted from Scripture:
"The True Tabernacle that the Lord Pitched and Not Man" for a very undenominational church with no founder (see Hebrews 8:2);
"The Tabernacle Called the Holiest of All"
for a church that thinks it is perfect already (see Hebrews 9:3);
"Greater and More Perfect Tabernacle Not Made With Hands that is to say Not of This Building" for a congregation that does not own the facilities where it meets but has a wide sign out front (see Hebrews 9:11);
"The Church in the Wilderness" (Acts 7:38);
"The Tabernacle of Witness" (Acts 7:44);
"Church of St. Ananias and St. Sapphira"
(Acts 5);
"Church of the Elect Lady and Her Children"
(Second John 1);
"Diotrephesan Church" (Third John 9)

Here are a few from our area:
Abiding Spirit, Abundant Life, Bay Pointe, The Bridge, The Community, Cross of Life, Crossroads Community, Eagle’s Landing, Faith Fellowship, Grace Community, Gulf Coast Fellowship, The Island Chapel, Liberty Outreach, Life Path Christian Center, The Living Church, New Covenant, New Life in Christ, Pathways Community, The Refuge, The Rock Baptist, The Rock of Tampa Bay, Salvation Saloon, Sea Breeze Community, Shepherd’s Way, Solid Rock, The People’s Church, Warehouse 727

I've heard that there is somewhere (I think California) a church called Saint John Coltrane. Where one can experience a Love Supreme, I guess.

Curious names for curiously marketed churches.......

I must add "Synagogue Baptist Church" to the list.

My contribution: I have some friends who belong to the "Cathedral of Joy", and they are the nicest, friendliest, and happiest folks I know, and are very good to this atheist.

I think they get the point.

Be quick to listen and slow to speak. I'm not sure I see any kind of spiteful shots towards other churches rather than just plain fun-poking. Folks seem to take themselves too seriously. When your church name is odd, expect some odd comments. Isn't that why we do it? To illicit a response? Your church name often tells a story of the people inside it. If the name is goofy, chances are there are some goofy, lighthearted folks inside who don't mind the laugh. I'm pretty sure God invented the sense of humor, and probably giggles quite a bit at us Himself.

If the post is meant to be lighthearted, than laugh along. If the post was meant to be cynical and condescending, than the only ones who know that is the post-er and the God who knows how to read as well. Let Him be indignant, the rest of you are wasting your time getting mad.

I am the pastor of a conservatively theological church without a fancy name. Our name actually has the city name in it...

With all that said, whether the original post was meant to be mean-spirited or not, some of the parenthetical commentary was spiteful and a bit unbecoming of a fellow member of Christ's body.

Not a fan of "hip-sounding' church names? Fine. It's a "conscience" thing. In such matters, Paul instructed us to let things go and seek unity. Who are you to judge another man's servant? Rom 14:4.

Furthermore, with the drastic decline in American church attendance, and the microscope that the church lives in as far as unbelievers go, it doesn't do us much good to argue and tear one another down for such inconsequential things as names. If we can't respect one another, why would they ever respect us? Paul wrote to the Corinthians (1 Cor 3) that we are all being used to build up the building that is His church, and woe to anyone who tears it down.

There is enough false teaching and doctrinal heresy out there to fight against. We're really going to give the body of Christ black eyes over names? (This sounds amazingly similar to the division that Paul was fighting in 1 Corinthians. "I'm of Apollos... I'm of Paul... I'm of a traditional church name...)

To be honest, I saw more names that glorify Christ in this post than parenthetical commentary. For instance:

" Life On The Vine (Even poop is organic.)"

A name that asserts the Biblical reality, as taught by Christ, that our Christian life is fruitless without a constant, intimate connection to Christ...

Commentary that literally "poops" on the idea.

Well done?

thank you very goodddd

Dear Beloved in Christ's family,
Holy greetings in the above name of Jesus Christ. We have gone through your website and seen the wonderful work God has given you to fulfill for His Kingdom purposes Glory and blessings to our almighty God Amen!
We are a young Christian fellowship from Africa, since we do not have enough resources to make the work of God expand according to Mark 16, 15 and 17.Please if possible through you we can grow in the Lord. We need you to be our spiritual parent.

Humbly and Kindly if our almighty God would allow you and open your hearts, we are attached in this work you are doing in the lord for building God's bridge to enter the Kingdom, to unite one spirit with you and further the Kingdom.
Yours,
Pastor Adrian Matongo