What's In a Name?

What’s In a Name?

First of all I think it’s important to point out that changing a label doesn’t change what’s inside.  I know a couple who, when they went on their honeymoon, their “friends” got into their place and removed and switched all of the labels on their canned goods.  This is a swell prank, but it does nothing for what’s in the cans.  In the case of the switched label, the label only serves to disappoint.  Of course, if the contents of the can have changed, a label change would be in order.  But in the case of a church, the contents wander the town Monday through Saturday revealing for all to see, just what the contents of that church are.  So why the need for a label change when it’s plain to all what’s inside?

If there has been a change and it’s a change for the better, I’m truly happy for you.  You may call me a pessimist for saying so, but true change is rare.  Perhaps it’s not a name change to tell us that you’ve changed, but a name change to hide the change.  If you call yourself “Baptist”, it brings with it a whole slew of expectations.  Perhaps you feel that you can no longer live up to such a “rigid” and “intolerant” set of standards as found in Scripture.  It is, after all, quite stylish, even intellectual, to set aside “archaic” guidelines and chart your own course.  That all sounds good when chatting up lost folk in the marketplace, but casting off the “stuffiness” of Scripture is folly.  Additionally, the new and vague label of non-denominational leaves  your church in a category all alone thereby depriving you of the help of neighboring churches who are confessionally the same, holding you accountable for doctrine and practice.  Dr. Albert Mohler rightly points out:  “…theological disaster usually comes by means of drift and evasion, shading and equivocation.”  Losing accountability by “avoiding the labels” can put you on a slippery slope.  If you have truly changed, changed so much that a label change is in order, perhaps a safety check is in order too.  After all, not all change is good.  If it’s your desire to become one of those casual Friday, rock concert, “don’t talk of commands, I’m under Grace” kind of churches, please let me spare you some trouble.  “Seeker friendly” has been tried and found to be a silly mistake.  John 2:15-17   If what people want would draw them to Jesus, churches and the Holy Spirit would be out of work.  John Piper said:  “The world doesn’t need more cool, hip, culturally savvy, irrelevant copies of itself.”  John 12:32   Perhaps the best way to draw people to Him would be to tell them of His sacrifice and how it can be their redemption.  In other words, maybe we should simply share the Gospel with them.  Yes, I’m sure I read that somewhere.  You see we are to be transformed so that we can prove (to the world) what God’s deal is.  Romans 12:2

 I have a feeling that there is another factor at work here.  The more blogs, books, and essays I read, the more I detect an undercurrent of misunderstanding.  Apparently, it’s a common mistake, but it seems many want to change everything that reminds them of church from their childhood.  I’m sure it seemed dreadful and boring to them, but their mistake is that they assume that the “fault” was the church.  What they fail to realize is that, to a child without understanding, even exciting churches will seem dull.  So all the stuff that they hated about church, all the stuff they’ve longed to fix, weren’t necessarily broken after all.  Their approach to rectifying these perceived errors makes about as much sense as attempting to salve the sting of getting dumped by a girlfriend by finding a girl who looks just like her, getting her to be your girlfriend, then dumping her.  I suppose that this could make you feel better, but it would actually accomplish nothing positive.  In order to refine gold, we must adhere to a certain process.  One cannot simply decide to “do something else” to refine gold.  Well, you can decide that, but it won’t work!  The same principle holds true with the refining of the church.  The formula for the process is simple:  much preaching, teaching, and reading of the Word, add much prayer, and then apply the fire of life and its hurts etc., and Voila! Refining takes place.  The gold will be refined and the dross will be consumed.

Finally, advertising geniuses will tell you that the name of a business or product is very important.  It can be a bad choice to try to say too much in the name, but worse to say too little.  The problem with new names is that they don’t really tell us anything because there is little to no history to add meaning.  In spite of some bad examples, the name Baptist informs of several doctrinal stands.  It speaks of fierce independence, the importance of Scripture, and of course, the importance of and proper application of baptism.  Our name is a chance to preach to our society.  Martin Luther said we should be a “mouth house”. Romans 1:16   If we truly are not ashamed of the Gospel, shall we not avail ourselves of the opportunity to preach that Gospel through our name?