Some Blog Site

It was around this time a few years ago that I sent my first guest post submission to Jon Acuff. I titled it “Classifying Church Names”. Jon was positive in his email reply, but it never was published. After about 40 months of waiting for it appear on Stuff Christians Like, I am giving up on it and am publishing it here for you, dear reader. Enjoy!

When looking for a church, they key element to get right is the name. After all, a good name is to be more desired than great riches. But what makes a name good? As with many issues within Christianity, there are two camps on church names: descriptive or aesthetic.

The descriptive names include either the denomination or part of the doctrinal statement (or both). Some people say that the descriptive church names are bland and restrictive, but at least you know what you are getting when you go there.

And you know it’s a church. You don’t see businesses with traditional church names, like “Calvin Reformed Flower Shop” (specials on tulips!) or “Freewill Baptist Golf Course” (so that’s why the ball never goes where I want it to go…)

The aesthetic names include either a geologic feature or a direction (or both). But sometimes you need to do a little research before visiting the aesthetically-named church, in order to find out what kind of church it is and, more importantly, if it is a church. To help SCL readers hone their church-detecting skills, I present:

The Church Name Quiz

I took a sampling of names in my local area. For each name given below: what type of establishment is it?

1. Oak Pointe
A. Church
B. Subdivision
C. Restaurant
D. Mall

2. NorthRidge
A. Church
B. Subdivision
C. Restaurant
D. Mall

3. North Point
A. Church
B. Subdivision
C. Restaurant
D. Mall

4. The Father’s House
A. Church
B. Rehab center
C. Restaurant
D. Bookstore

5. Stillwater
A. Church
B. Subdivision
C. Restaurant
D. Mall

6. Woodside
A. Church
B. Subdivision
C. Restaurant
D. Mall

7. Brookside
A. Church
B. Subdivision
C. Restaurant
D. Mall

(more…)