Or, as Shakespeare said, “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”
I usually write meditations on the Bible or on the Disciplines and try to avoid Protestant denominational politics. However, in today’s newspaper I saw a story about a proposal before the Southern Baptist Church that it change its name to the Great Commission Churches (or something like that). It seems that many people remember that the “southern” part of the name came from the pre-Civil War split in the Baptist movement between those who were opposed to slavery (the Northern Baptists who long ago were renamed the American Baptists) and those who supported slavery (the Southern Baptists). Thus the name could be a stumbling block to growth.
The SBC, like every organization in America, is concerned with growth. Darwinism at its finest–if you’re not growing, you’re dying. The article even quoted proponents as discussing “branding” as if they were at a marketing professionals’ conference.
Perhaps it would behoove these leaders to re-read the early chapters of Acts. The early church attracted people in great numbers. It didn’t have a brand, or probably even a name. They were evidently known as followers of the Way. They didn’t need branding. They had passion. And they lived differently from their neighbors. And the way the lived was attractive to their neighbors. It’s like the line from the movie Harry Met Sally, “I want what she’s having.”
So they can re-brand themselves all they want. What matters is the experience when someone walks in the door. Or when someone meets a member on the street and says, “I want what she has.”
We keep worrying about grandiose programs and slogans when all that matters is that we live like we talk–and that life is attractive to our neighbors. And that life we live leads to life with God.
Faith Venture 
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