© 2013 T.Kiya, Flickr | CC-BY-SA | via Wylio
I want to admit that the reason I am doing this post is because I know that people spend more time researching online for ministry names than researching how to ensure that it will be healthy. Buried within the church is a false belief that image is more important that behavior. We have forgotten that, “A rose by any other name is still a rose.” This desire is driven by hope that a fancy name and graphic will cause people to show up.
So to feed your misguided need, I have included over forty possible names for your ministry; however, I will warn you that some of them should NEVER be used. After getting a few ideas, I hope that you will look deeper at the other resources provided, and join in the discussion as we try to empower the church to help emerging adults.
Web 2.0 Logo Collage from Flickr via Wylio
Six Steps to Naming Your Ministry.
1. Pick a normal household item and put “the” in front of it.
Examples include: the livingroom, the porch, the green room, the couch, the table, the upper room.
2. Pick any ordinary item and put “the” in front of it.
Examples include: the element, the branch, the well, the gathering, the flock, the bridge, the oasis, the river, the journey, the pathway. Double points are scored if the word is used in the Bible.
3. Revive the 90’s, and make up an Acronym.
Examples include: YAM – Young Adult Ministry or YAF – Young Adult Fellowship, or C&C – College and Career. I am just kidding. Please do not. If you are tempted, please remember those churches who used the acrostic for Adult Sunday School.
4. Mix a portion of your church name with words like: explosion, collision, point, power, life, limit, beyond, limitless, path.
5. Search the Web for what other churches already are using.
A quick search for me brought me to: Mosaic, Tapestry, Epic, Lifeline, Anchor, Catalyst, Lead, Ignite, T&T (Twenties and Thirties), Ethos, Rooted, Overflow, Driven, Resonate, Savy, Reach, Reality, Renew, Core, and Illuminate.
6. If these don’t work, try something random like…
- Your favorite trendy word + A color you are wearing + An item you ate for breakfast
My results were… awkward blue bagels. No, I am serious. Give it a chance – the marketing possibilities are endless.
Alright, so the last one didn’t work.
Maybe we should be focusing not as much on what it is called, but what we do.
Maybe we should rely on grabbing attention because of lives that have been changed.
Maybe a strong name is not the source of our power.
Maybe a trendy name is not a replacement for being relevant.
Thanks for coming to our site –
Please check out our other FREE Resources for churches.
D
r. G. David Boyd is the Founder and Managing Director of EA Resources. He has a passion to help churches build healthy ministries to young adults. If you want to see change at your church, contact him at gdavid@earesources.org.
I know you are trying to refocus the upcoming generation on things that matter but the style of dismissing the importance of nameing a ministry isn’t super helpful. Assuming that I’m theologically bankrupt because I’m trying to do research on names that would be attractive to young adults isn’t convicting me in the ways you might have hoped. I’m bummed that the Church has resorted to shaming one another instead of pruducing articles that help.
I am sorry that the tone came across wrong to you. I am not assuming that you are theologically bankrupt, and there was no intended shame. There were well over 40 actual names that are listed in the article – I hoped that these names would be a spring board for the work you are doing. You are correct – we need to product more helpful content because reaching emerging adults is challenging. Keep up the good work.
“please remember those churches who used the acrostic for Adult Sunday School” this made me laugh so hard 🙂