What's in a name?

This has been the hardest idea to develop so far. CORE VALUES have been a piece of cake compared to this. Location has been a piece of cake compared to this. Preaching should be a piece of cake compared to this: picking a name for the church.

Let me explain by way of analogy. See, I would like to get a tatoo. I think tatoos are cool, missional, and can really add to one's persona. My buddy Kenny has a ton of tatoo's, and it makes him look like an even bigger bad ass. My buddy Wojo has tatoos that tell the story of his life. I have another friend who was saved by a parachurch organization and got the organization's logo right on his shoulder. This was great, until he decided he wasn't going on staff with them anymore. That, due to the fact that I would never get a logo for a tatoo, isn't my reason for not getting a tatoo. My reason lies with my wife's scrapbooks and photo albums. When looking back at photos of myself from 1, 3, even 5 years ago I keep asking myself questions like, "Why was I wearing that?", or "What in the world is wrong with my hair?" So quite frankly, the reason I cannot bring myself to get a tatoo is simple: I don't trust that I have good enough taste to last the test of time.

AND NOW I HAVE TO NAME A CHURCH THAT I PLAN ON BEING AT FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE.

Many churches have wished they thought more seriously after naming themselves after a particular street, and then moving to a different street. I know of Churches named after things that you would never find in that particaular area. I have seen churches here in Vegas whose logo has streams of water in it. "Where is that in this town?" I often wonder. This has all weighed very heavily on myself, and a few close friends as I have asked them to lend as many suggestions as possible. Before getting into my reasoning for picking a name (and the name for that matter) I would like to share some of the proposed names that
didn't make the cut:

- Jesus Church: while simple and to the point. It was decided that this would be confusing in a town with a high Mormon population.
- Christ Church: see above.
- Imago Dei: if only that one guy didn't write that one book, then we could totally steal this well fitting name.
- Penthouse Church: I personal favorite. This sprouted out of the "Upper Room" being mentioned. I tried to contexualize it by translating it to Vegas, but then it came out sounding like a brothel.
- Rock of Ages: this was my brothers selection. Don't get too weirded out, this will eventually be the name of his rock climbing gym.
- Pure Church: those of you familiar with this blog will understand where this came from. Those of you that aren't, CLICK HERE to read why.
- Light Church: At this point we were just taking club names and adding church to the end (how's that for missional). But at the end, I just kept thinking of Light Beer everytime I said Light Church. That is a connection I hope is never made with our church.
- Aduro Church: my wife said it was Latin for something spiritual, and she loved it. But everytime she said it I kept thinking she was saying "a burro church". Which, when translated from spanish to english means: ass church.

In the end there were two main factors that helped us choose a church name. MISSIOLOGY and THEOLOGY. We wanted the name to be catchy, culturally relevant, and easy to say.

MISSIOLOGY
Vegas loves the short one word names for things: PURE, LIGHT, TRYST, WYNN, BELAGGIO, PARIS, LOVE, "O", the STRIP, etc. So from the beginning we wanted our church to have a short, simple name that could easily roll off the tounge. So names like Emmanuel Baptist Church on 5th Street were out of the question. We were so particular about this that in the end, we would throw out any two word phrases to put before church.

THEOLOGY
Really, you want your church to have deep theological meaning. And since you are deciding on a name from nothing, this process requires a ton of praying and seeking scripture. Granted, this process made me realize why I am against topical sermons (decide what you want to preach on, and then find the verses to back it up), but in the end it proved very fruitfull.

THE NAME
"In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." 2 Corinthians 4:4-6

When we examine the city of Las Vegas, we see many people of whom Satan has blinded their eyes from seeing "the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ". In a city full of lights, most people are blind to the real light: God's glory shining in the face of Christ. This is why Jesus said he must be lifted up as Moses lifted the snake, so that his glory may shine, and that people would thusly be saved. Since this what we will be doing, our name should fit.

                                                               

DOXA

DOXA means "glory" in greek. By using the greek word for glory we are able to meet our missional qualifications for the name. It is short, sleek, easy to say, and very similar to the one word names already in use all over the valley. In this way we are also able to contain the bleeding heart of our mission in one word. We are very pleased to call ourselves DOXA Church. Well, unless there already is a DOXA Church, at which time we will just be DOXA, or DOXA Baptist Church of 5th Street.

Comming over the weekend: the CORE VALUES of DOXA

Comments

[tom schmidt]

I wasn't sure about that name at first, but it's growing on me now and your reasoning makes a lot of sense.

We also came up with a new band name if you were wondering how that worked out:
"A Paradigm Restored"

I'll tell you the story sometime.

I'm keeping you guys in my prayers matt.

[Tripp Hudgins]

I like the name.

And find it strange that two Hudginses are church planters. Hmm...does your family hail from Virginia? Matthews Co?

Peace and all good things to you and your work. May God bless your ministry.

[Ken Fleck]

Tom, I love your heart and excited that you are planting in vegas. Please stay in touch about what God does through you there. Check out my blog on living missionally when you have a chance. I am a Tim Keller and Mark Driscoll fan too!

http://www.missionaryroad.com

Ken