Naming A Church
Well, we’re in the middle of trying to figure out a name for the church we’re launching in KC. This has been unbelievably difficult, much more so than I ever would have thought. We’re going to head to KC to do some marketing research over some name ideas in the next couple of weeks. In doing so we want to have 5 or 6 names that we can introduce to real people to see what they think, whether they attend church or not. I’ve become increasingly convinced at how crucial branding is for us.
As we want to see a multi-site strategy in our DNA (more on that in our next post) we have the need to choose a name that will allow us connect throughout our city. For instance, we can’t really have something like North Kansas City Community of the Brethren Tabernacle Full Baptist Church because it would be extremely difficult to have a venue so tied to the Northland in Midtown. So I think it would be best for us to have a broad enough name that would allow us to locate throughout the city - one church many locations.
So here are a few name ideas.
MetroLife Church
The Pilgrim’s Way
CityLife Church
Cornerstone Church
City Church
84th Baptist Church 
With all these I anticipate the brand will be a shortened version. For instance, MetroLife or CityLife or Cornerstone, etc. Also, I didn’t include some of the ideas we’ve scrapped from our list due to name conflicts in the city, etc. Churches have actually found themselves in litigation over a name. And I wonder in our world of the Internet if we won’t see more of that due to search engine rankings.
Okay, so I’d love to have your feedback on these names and any other ideas you might have for us regarding names.
What’s your take on these? Do you have other ideas?
Read about our journey:
The DNA of a Missional Church (of the Mind)
January 16th, 2007 at 12:05 pm
How about Mars Hill?
ha. ok.
I like all except Pilgrim’s Way. I like Citylife.
January 16th, 2007 at 12:07 pm
How many people are in your “we”? This summer I was sitting on the same question of what the name should be. A planter friend said well if you are going to care what it is you need to pick it. If you don’t care have someone else pick it. Believe it or not that was very helpful for me because I did care.
MetroLife doesn’t role off as well as CityLife but I think Life is a key word that seems to resonate to many.
January 16th, 2007 at 12:23 pm
ahhh! so you’re starting one in midtown, too?! that’s holy freaking amazing. i love midtown. i’m sad warrensburg is so far from it. i have a few friends that are involved with the community there via kcbt midtown and the boiler room, and i’m way jealous.
well…how bout i don’t like city church or cornerstone church (there are like a billion churches with the word cornerstone in them), but the rest of the names are good.
January 16th, 2007 at 12:34 pm
Marty, as of right now we have 1 couple committed to coming with us. So we includes 4 adults, 3 (soon to be 4) kiddos, and 1 dog. So using ministry over-inflation I’ll go ahead and say we have 10 involved right now.
Alison, yeah, all things being equal I hope to see a ministry site in midtown within the next couple of years. You need to get on the accelerated degree program so you can join up with us in the church plant.
just a thought!
Chris, Mars Hill isn’t bad. It’s in the bible and there aren’t any significant churches by that name in the U.S. so we wouldn’t have to worry about be overshadowed by others….
January 16th, 2007 at 2:02 pm
I’ve said it once, I’ll say it again.
Sweet Action Church (but don’t ever appreviate, whoops).
January 16th, 2007 at 2:03 pm
apparently I can’t spell…abbreviate.
January 16th, 2007 at 3:17 pm
How about Joshua Tree?
Or for something a little outside the box - City.Life (pronounced city dot life) and as you grow into a multi site church your different sites can be @______ ? As in City.Life@Midtown and City.Life@TheNorthland.
Perhaps it makes more sense to reverse it… Midtown@City.Life and Northland@City.Life?
Any takers?
January 16th, 2007 at 5:09 pm
What about Holy Hypostatic Union Church?
January 16th, 2007 at 6:40 pm
It should be pretty clear at this point who’s a PhD student just by the name suggestion! Of course Kelly, your name suggestion also reminds me of old school batman and robin episodes…so maybe you’re just very culturally savvy!
Someone else suggested Big Daddy J’s House of Praise. Has a certain ring to it!
I like the ideas of City.Life or something of that sort. Creative. What do you guys think about adistantmemory’s ideas? what about Joshua Tree?
January 17th, 2007 at 12:18 am
Got this through a facebook comment on this post and wanted to add it here for our discussion. This is from Kelly Lewis at the Mizzou BSU:
This is just to add to your brainstorming.
KC is known for fountains and jazz.
Perhaps a name that refers to one?
Living Water Church
New Song Community
Selah Church
Jubilee Community
Fountain Gate
Good luck! God bless the adventure ahead!
January 17th, 2007 at 7:07 am
not really a suggestion, but might help brainstorming, the name of my fictional utopian church is Part of the Church because of the misunderstanding of what “a” church is and its (wrong) association with a building. different locations become Part of the Church in Warrensburg, Part of the Church in Brookside, etc. Yes, this name breaks many “rules” of marketing, but that should give you a hint about how much i appreciate traditional marketing and just highlight how much of a rebel i am!
January 17th, 2007 at 10:48 am
Selah had a nice ring to it. It’s very fresh.
January 17th, 2007 at 10:50 am
Actually, Selah incorporates the Jazz and the fountains. It’s a musical term, but isn’t it also like a rest in music (relaxing, right?)?
January 17th, 2007 at 11:53 am
Nice Mark. I think I’ll have to lean to the side of marketing on this one.
But, the principle under your idea is one that I’ve embraced. That is, we want a name that will be able to incorporate different locations (CityLife in The Northland; CityLife in Midtown; something of that sort).
Jessica nice thinking. Selah is a bit difficult to understand in the original and no one really agrees about what it means. But most lean to the idea you mention of a musical rest or something of that sort.
January 17th, 2007 at 12:31 pm
See! I have learned something since I got to UCM! hehe