My Worship Gatherings Need A Cool, Hip, Emerging Name
May 6, 2008 by iMonk
It’s time for audience participation.
At the school where I work, we have two weekend worship gatherings. These used to be led by a local church, and so we called them “church.” We have daily “chapel” in the same worship space.
These two worship gatherings need a cool, hip, emerging name. Like “Element.” 
Gathering #1 is 9:15 a.m. Traditional worship with very light liturgy. Structured, and the kids are usually pretty quiet. 2-3 familiar songs alternating piano and guitar every other week. Will have some creative ministries stuff next year. Have a preaching team of 4 men, followed by small groups. We do basic topical/catechetical teaching. Cover Ten Commandments, Apostle’s Creed, Lord’s Prayer, various short Biblical series.
Gathering #2 is 7:00 p.m. Contemporary band that really kicks. Two of us preaching evangelisitically and in rotation. Very informal and active service. Kids love it.
We are a boarding school for grades 6-12. The gatherings are for the students, but some adults and visitors do attend.
OK. I need some name suggestions. Help me out. I’m thinking logos and t-shirts here.
By the way…”Law” and “Gospel” won’t be considered.
Morning – Ekklesia (kinda touches on the whole traditional connection)
Evening – i.Worship (something that connects with the contemporary interactive side of things)
Our Sunday evening became L.I.F.E. Service a few years back. It’s about half and hour of contemporary worship followed by half and hour of preaching. L.I.F.E. stands for the Lord’s Invitation For Everyone. (It’s very emerging, BTW)
I’m somewhat familiar with the school you work at, and personally I have no problem calling the Sunday services church. But I know you like giving meetings names the way most Baptists enjoy naming buildings (The Bridge). So, you know…whatever.
Jacob’s Well
Encounter
Those are both really lame, sorry
oh Noel says “SONday Service”
Clark: I was thinking about what we can do with graphics, shirts and logos. So “church” would really suck
I actually thought about “X Church” with the X being a big Chi (Greek symbol for Christ.)
Ryan: Anglicans obviously have no talent in this area.
When all else fails steal a book title.
Submerge: Living Deep in a Shallow World
most excellent book. I think you would enjoy it.
submerge would be the name.
the rest would be the slogan
i feel like i’m being set up here…
One of my former colleagues sat me down and asked me the Greek word for about a dozen words. He settled on “logos”. I tried to get him to go with “skubala”.
The ministry I was involved with in college gave all their churches names like “The Rock,” “H2O,” and “The Revolution.” However, I think I’d avoid that. I think that’s pre-Emergent “Seeker Sensitive” stuff, and I think most kids these days see through the attempt to be “hip.”
Hmm… that was all negative. I guess I don’t have any positive ideas.
Sure, take Element. What do I care?
All the cool kids are doing it.
Another local gathering (for singles only) is now calling themselves Element. I was a little torqued at first, but it’s not like we invented the word.
Seriously, though, if you want to see Element Nashville’s rejected name list, I can send it to you. But it had stuff in there like Elevation, Catalyst, Meta, and Arboretum.
Yeah. I know.
We started a worship gathering for college students a couple of years ago and we named it The Real Zoo, zoo coming from zoe, for life. Real Life.
Matt wins. i.Worship is really funny.
But I also agree with Dave. I always thought the names were a really cheesy attempt at “cool-ness”.
Well I have a room full of pagans, and calling it “church” is misleading, because we’re not one. Some kind of name will allow us to do, as I said, some promo and graphic things that the kids enjoy.
A local place here uses “Analog.”
Other local names include “Parallax” (yes, Parallax) and “oneeighty” was something I did (leaving the decision for the name up to vote gave us that name).
Runners-up included “Manna” and “r12″ (Romans 12)
Man we Christians can be lame sometimes.
Emmaus Road is overdone, but if you make it M.A.S.rode, or “rod” with a little thingy over the ‘o’, that would be coolhip.
Axiom.
Zenith.
Panasonic.
No, no, cool is out, ironic is in. Don’t be short and cool, be long and wordy and ironic, like, “The Place Wherein Many Shall Come – a House of Worship consisting of Many People, who desire to Worship God in a manner which suits their generation.” No? “Wittenburg House of Worship from All Nations,”
How about “Gathering of people who shall worship the Lord Jesus” You would need long sleeve shirts for that.
Or maybe nonsense – “Bill Grasshopper’s Ninja Dancing Church”
Classic – The Pewter Lamp. Kind of like the Boar’s Head Inn, but, you know, real. And with people.
Brad, I second that motion.
As a Calvinistic Presbyterian, I am not allowed to have fun. But if I were to try a name for this entirely misguided event, I’d go with something real cheesey, like: Rock This Age, Kingdom Come, or something real missional like GO!
We just started one we called “Kainos”–Greek for “new.” Our theme verses are Colossians 3:9-11, in which the related word anakainao is used, translated “renew.” We are the “new humanity” Colossians 3 style.
Eschaton. No, no, wait. wrong.
7th Bowl. Okay, really, I’ll behave now.
Grace 2.0. Argh, what is wrong with me?
Ember. Prism. Facet. Epith. Hmm, I think I may have just named a new hatchback coupe.
I do wonder how many youth groups should really have been called “Thunderdome”.
Since you have so many international students, how about Xenos? It means stranger or foreigner, and it could even be an acrostic: X(Christ) – Every Nation, One Savior.
(I’m Anglican like Ryan, so if this sucks you’ll know why.)
iChurch, iWorship, iKingdom would work.
The Worship Garden.
Its late and I’m out of ideas.
Brian W: I LIKE IT. Esp as long as Xenos in Columbus doesn’t sue us
Seriously, that has possibilities.
I don’t have a jazzy counterpart idea for the traditional service, but I kinda like Panorama for the second one. A comprehensive view of something. Could be used creatively for merchandise, I think.
choorch
Ch*rch
worship God dot now
Phat Gospel
Faith Worx
Mmmkay God
BOC (say “bock”, Body Of Christ)
WTL (say “wattle”, Worship The Lord)
Living Watrz
Heart Jesus
I know my youth think anything involving a number is lame and mis-spelled words is to…they say thats so 2002.
Hmmm.
Undistract
The vine
rewired
I would go for a serious cultural analogy…I don’t know the level that your students are allowed internet access, but I think anything involving contemporary youth communication would be fair game (just don’t try to play of myspace and say hisspace or something like that). To what I know of current youth culture they are pretty lactose intolerant, meaning that if it is cheesy they will sniff it out and turn themselves off real quick. I know the trend right now is to get out of the rhythm of things, and that act in and of itself has become the rhythm, so maybe you should try something really obvious (did that make sense?).
I was going to suggest “Auto De Fe” because someone once told me that was Latin for “active faith.”
But then I looked it up. Uh…don’t think this is what yer lookin’ for.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auto_de_fe
Maybe I should become an Anglican since they’re no good at these things.
How about Via Magdala (”a high place, lifted up, exalted”)?
One of the things I always appreciated about Mary Magdalene’s story is the way that Jesus lifted her up out of her crazy existence. And one of the things I appreciate about attending a weekly worship is that it lifts me up out of my own crazy existence. It’s accessible and apropos.
But possibly also lame.
Just take whatever you’ve got now, and add umlauts over the vowels.
“Gospel and Law” is different…
Don’t know if these two images would help, but here goes. (At least they make spark someone else)
Light
Dance (or some sort of movement)
Anna: It’s a pretty fundamentalist Baptist school, and dancing is illegal in the rule book (though we have it a lot under other names.) “The Dance” does have a Garth Brooks tie in….
To modify on a previous poster a bit, we had a young adult group that used BOX for a while (for Body of Christ, with the X taken from Xpistos).
Our new group is actually looking for a name, but we seem to be doing rather well without one. Hard to call nothing a logo on a t-shirt, though.
Xenos is cool, but my mind went immediately to Xenu, and I know y’all ain’t about to join the cult of Tom Cruise. There has to be something, though, that works as a play on traveller, alien, foreigner, etc.
I heard of a Christian group called “These Are They”.
(The KJV uses this phrase several times to refer to the followers of our Lord.)
Over at http://www.youthpastor.com/names/ you’ll find an alphabetical index of names & slogans for youth groups / youth oriented services. The acronyms, puns and entendres never stop, and if it’s not exactly inspiring, it’s good for a laugh. My favorite bible study name/slogan:
“Vigilantes!! Youth taking God’s law into their own hands.”
How ’bout Fuel?
How about The Bread Line?
Or ICHTHUS…I’m Captured Here Through His Unwavering Song?
Sorry, another lame Anglican.
Of course, our Episcopal youth ministry is called The Happening.
With dancing being out, (and my alma mater lost money from some churches when we allowed dancing on campus,) here are two more.
For the morning one: Candle light
For the evening one: Firelight
Yikes, I’m frightened for my adolescent son.
I can’t even remember the current name of our youth and children’s miistries. But thanks for the light hearted posts on this one.
Fusion: Where life and learning come together.
Tried to go with things that communicate what you are actually doing at the services.
Morning… Transformation, or Roots, or Rooted
Evening… Come as you are, Chill
Our Baptist College Ministry group’s meeting name is Impact. My church’s weekly young adult service was called Encounter. In college the Wednesday night college group was called Cross Training (albeit a slightly less exciting name, that one)
My kids, now young adults, weren’t in middle/high school that long ago. I can tell you they found hip-type names for worship and “way cool” worship services extremely lame. So how about you call it “Worship”?
Because I am not trying to be trendy or cool. My students have to come. Attendance will be the same if I call it Jesus Rox or The Macarthur Hour. I like names as conceptual tools, and I want to do some shirts, logos, etc.
Please don’t use a clever name. I like that you call it “church”.
My vote: Church
Friends of many years ago began their Christian lives in the Boulder, Colorado of the early 1970’s, among lots of other recently converted hippies, led by sort-of elders who were referred to as “Heavy Brothers.” The church/gathering/fellowship was called, quite simply, “God’s Thing.”
Not hip, but definitely hippie.
I understand why Michael doesn’t want to use “church.” My argument is that you can have a church service and not be a church, but the end result is the same: It’s not going to be called “church.”
Our BCM meeting name I stole from BSU at college, Celebration. Our school also had a dramatic performance group called Impact. I think Impact might work for one meeting or the other. I think Fusion and Encounter were both good suggestions.
Sunday a.m. Encounter
Sunday p.m. Impact
There was a BBC news show called “Man-Alive” back in the sixties.
You can even use Tony Hatch’s groovy and bouncy theme song.
Our youth use Amplified for high school, “the vox” for Junior high and my favorite “the well” for a monthly worship experience.
Selah.