Jump directly to the Content

A Church by Any Other Name ...

How Url Scaramanga thinks about cool new church names.

Have you noticed that church names are getting increasingly strange? Our friend Dennis Baker has. He's been keeping a list of church names in order to document how far we've come from the days of "First Presbyterian" and "Springfield Baptist." He sent us the following list of 129 church names. I've added my reactions in parentheses.

1. Resonate

2. Revolution (Where only senior pastors get beheaded.)

3. Radiance (Where the female vocalists all glitter like Mariah Carey.)

4. Elevation (U2 songs every bloody Sunday.)

5. Restoration

6. Renovation (You can do it! God can help.)

7. Mosaic

8. enCompass (Wii th-|-nk [outside] the box. We R crAtiVe.)

9. Epiphany Station (Next stop, Conjunction Junction!)

10. Soma (Our pastor knows Greek.)

11. Sanctuary

12. Rock Harbor (If your life hasn't run aground yet, we can help.)

13. Journey ("Don't Stop Believing" is our theme song.)

14. The Rock (If film producer Michael Bay ever created a church…the pyrotechnics are amazing.)

15. The River (The pastor ends every ...

May/June
Support Our Work

Subscribe to CT for less than $4.25/month

Homepage Subscription Panel

Read These Next

Related
Your First 100 Days at a New Church
Your First 100 Days at a New Church
When you start with a new congregation, prioritize these four things.
From the Magazine
Charisma and Its Companions
Charisma and Its Companions
Church movements need magnetic leaders. But the best leaders need more than charm.
Editor's Pick
What Christians Miss When They Dismiss Imagination
What Christians Miss When They Dismiss Imagination
Understanding God and our world needs more than bare reason and experience.
close