April 08, 2014
Identifiers
A college class assignment required that I analyze
the community for the sources we use to present the Gospel. I began by looking
through the church directory published in the newspaper and I found the names
of churches to be very telling. Denominational churches often use identifiers
such as Catholic, Lutheran, and Baptist in their title; about a quarter of
those listed in the directory included a derivative of the godhead – Assembly
of God, Church of Christ, and Christian Church. Along with the common names I also came across: Waves
of Mercy Pentecostal Church of God, Roca De Refugio, Cross and Spurs Cowboy
Fellowship, Baha’i Faith = Divine Unity, Catch the Fire Soaking Prayer Center,
Church 180, Iglesia Horeb Church, Journey, and Quaker Silent Worship Group. No
doubt a great deal of thought went into selecting these names, but I’m wondering
if people actually live up to the implied church name, or if the name is a
vision of what they want to become.
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Gail;
-----I would hope people do not want to live up to implied church names. I suppose there are as many different meanings in a church name as there are people who dreamt it up as well as people who later hear it. But one name cannot hold all meaning. At least not one name for a church. Regardless of what the name is, or what is its intended meaning, that meaning will be as narrow as the concept of its metaphor. Other people may wish to emanate narrowness, but I am looking for something as broad as the new life we live, as warm as the love it means, and as extensive as the truth which makes it. I know I am too small to live up to all that in this life, but at least what I’m trying to live up to does not have walls.
-----Now “Jesus” is a good name. Of course, we’re not going to call a church “Jesus”. But in Him we have our being. By the power of His word all things are upheld. He is the epitome of attention to God’s will. Every expression He made reflected what is as it is, being why He is the truth. In that, He is the overcoming. And He resides in us who have turned to Him. I might not be understood if I named a church “Jesus”, but really, since in the mind of the Truth we all are one in Him and His Father seeking the truth to abide in it, would not “Jesus” define the container which keeps us?
-----But a church name has to be more tangibly descriptive. We can touch and see and hear and (unfortunately) smell the people who are the church. It is they who are being named (or we - I want to be a part of it, too.) I’m sure you are now thinking “Body of Christ”. I know. I kind of slipped from “Jesus” to “Christ“. But they are one in the same. And since, as the man He is, He has His own body in Heaven right now. We don’t want a name confusing anything with that. But as the God He is, He is in His body on earth. Maybe I’m washed up on this point, but “Jesus” always connoted to me a view of His humanity, while “Christ” connoted the view of His Godhood. Even if I am washed up on this, at least I am washed up, which is the point of being in Him. We can‘t loose!
-----I suppose “The Body of Christ” is much too audacious. “A Body of Christ” is better, but indistinct. But there is something catchy about indistinct. It tends to allow for better identification when clearer distinction has emerged, kind of like NASA’s procedure for naming asteroids. An asteroid gets only a number when it’s first spotted. Then, when its finder has demonstrated a definite calculation of its orbital path around the sun, he is given the opportunity to register a name for his asteroid. Similarly, when A Body of Christ has distinguished its character and works and faith and theological pinning more distinctly, it might be more clearly called “A Body of Christ Washed Up a Lot”, or “A Body of Christ Washed Up a Little”, or maybe more par for our earthly course, “A Body of Christ Stinky Lite” or “A Body of Christ Heavy Duty Stinky”. That might keep everyone trying to live up to a relationship with the Truth, the Life, and the Way rather than a church name.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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