A Church By Any Other Name

What is the name of your church?

Churches have a variety of names, don’t they?  I found myself chuckling in the middle of a terrible story recently because of the name of a church.  Here’s what it was.

( Fill In the Blank) Original Church of God.

Wow!  The original church of God???

I have to admit that this was a new one on me.  I had never heard of a church that labeled itself as an Original.

All of us have heard of or may attend this or that First Baptist, Methodist or Presbyterian.

You don’t hear about too many Seconds, though Second Baptist in Houston does stand out.  Never mind Third Baptists.  Folks can deal with being second.  Few can deal with being Third.  There is a 5th 3rd Bank around, but if a church had a similar name wouldn’t it be just as easy to call itself 15th?

There is a Ninth and O Baptist in Louisville, Kentucky.  Can you imagine being the Ninth Baptist in a town?  You might cry O! (Not really.  I’ve been there and it was named after its original location at the intersection of Ninth and O.)

Now days, churches are getting creative in the names of their churches.

Elevation.

Epic.

Sojourn.

When I see some of the names of those churches, though, I’m not sure what they are.  Sometimes it takes me a little bit of time to figure out that they are a church.

The church that I am attending and getting plugged into is Calvary Baptist.  That’s nice, traditional and churchy, isn’t it?  Don’t let that fool you, though.  What worship!  What love among the people.!

I think that, no matter what, to paraphrase Shakespeare, a church by any other name will smell the same.  It isn’t the name that matters.  It’s what’s going on and Who it’s all about that really matters.

I will say that there is probably one name that none of us ever want to see on any church, much less our own.

Ichabod.

Do you know of any unusually named churches?  What is the most unusually named church you have heard of?  Does the name matter to you at all?