Churches pick funny names for themselves. I attend St. Johns United
Church of Christ. A lot of saints are the in the names of churches: John, Paul,
Stephen, James, Mary, and Luke, generally after the gospel writers or early
apostles or disciples of the church. Good enough names I guess but they all
seem a bit misleading in that we don’t worship those people at those churches.
My mother disliked the denomination “The Christian Church”, she
thought they were ostentatious as if they were the only Christian church. I
rather liked its simplicity. Lots of folk get confused when the Apostles Creed
is said and the part about believed in the holy Catholic Church. Catholic means
universal and they confuse this the Roman Catholic denomination.
Then you have a slew of “non-denominational churches.” They are
popular but you know nothing of their history, traditions, theology and the
like because they don’t identify with any of them. I tend to think of them as
“seat of my pants churches; (church pastor’s) leadership. They also tend to be
rather lax in the training of their clergy. Nevertheless they have their place.
A lot of old mainline church just designate themselves with a
number: 1st Presbyterian, 2nd Presbyterian, 3rd
Presbyterian based on when they were created in a particular community. Some
toss in God references in the name such as: Immanuel Lutherans, Trinity
Lutheran etc.
I got to thinking about what I might want to name a church and this
odd thought came to mind: The Imitation
Church. Now you could add modifiers to it referring to denomination or
number or a deity name – The 1st Imitation Church; The Methodist
Imitation Church; or The Imitation of Jesus Church (fill in the blank at this
point in parenthesis with a denomination.
Churches are comprised of individuals who believe in Jesus as
Savior, but also they are people called to imitate Jesus, his life and
teachings, to live, act and teach as he did. It is the like the Thomas a Kempis
book, The Imitation of Christ. There
is a certain amount of humility in the name that I like.
I also doubt that any church will be named that way.
Names of churches brought to mind a kid controversy when I was growing up. Midwest:kids were either Lutheran or Catholic (except me, an
ReplyDeleteEpiscopalian...sort of a kid leper in those days) The controversy was between 1st Lutheran
and Grace Lutheran. It was about the perennial
kid concern-Do dogs go to heaven? The 1st and Grace thirdgraders asked their pasters. 1st said
no, Grace said "of course", which led to migrations of tiny Lutherans and a number of fistfights in the schoolyard. I still chuckle,
just remembering it. We also had a 1st and 2nd
Congregational...who wisely avoided the topic.
"My mother disliked the denomination “The Christian Church”, she thought they were ostentatious as if they were the only Christian church"
ReplyDeleteI actually really agree with this. Like the churches that call themselves "Bible Church".... are they really the only one? Or the UCC. Just one sect that is a church of Christ. And of course we can get to the RCC. "Catholic" means something like universal or all-embracing. Well, come on. It is the biggest sect, but it isn't THAT big.