What's in a name?

Rev. Richard Chrisman
2/16/2020

What’s in a name?
 
Bread of Life Missionary Baptist Church
Burning Bush M.B.C.
Calvary Temple Baptist Church
Cathedral of Love M.B.C.
Christ Open Door
Divine Solid Rock
Garden of Gethsemane House of Prayer
Greater King David M.B.C.
Mt. Zion Holy Miracle B.C.
River Jordan Temple
Rose of Sharon Baptist Church
St. Peter’s Temple of Love
 
In a Boston that knows its history, our church’s name makes sense to anyone. John Eliot was the colonial missionary to the Wampanoags here. The church he founded in Roxbury bears his name—the Eliot Church in Roxbury. And then there’s the congregation that arose in Natick that housed the “Praying Indians” that Eliot converted called the Eliot Church in Natick. We came along in 1857 and named our congregation in honor of Eliot because the site of his first sermon to the Wampanoags was one mile away. So this church, and we here this morning, stand on indigenous ground.
 
If you know your history, those names make sense. IF you know your history.
 
Same thing, though, with the other Christian churches in America. Just take a look at the old yellow pages. Look up “churches.” They are listed by denomination, that is, by their national identity. They make sense when you know your history, which people used to, and so when it says “Grace Episcopal Church” (our neighbor), or Newton Presbyterian Church (another neighbor), the identifiers were references to their mode of governance or organization—Episcopal means ruled by a bishop (episcopus), Presbyterian means ruled by elders (presbyters, from Gk old man).
 
Other names refer to their theology—Faith Lutheran Church belongs to the tradition whose roots go back to Martin Luther; Calvary Methodist Church tells you it belongs to the pietistic theology of the Anglican Church; the Friendship Mennonite Church is named for Menno Simons, a 16th century Anabaptist (they practice adult baptism only).
 
How about us in the United Church of Christ? We are the product of a merger in 1957 of 4 denominations--the Evangelical, the Reformed, and the Congregational. Let’s just take “congregational” which means what it sounds like—we are self-governed, the congregation governs itself without bishops or elders. Our roots go back to the Pilgrims, dissenters from the Anglican Church in England, who came here in 1620. Let’s look at those yellow pages again under Congregational—we’ll see First Cong, First, Cong. . . etc. I guess when the First Congregational Church in Lee (MA) was founded in 1779 they thought there would be another and another and another!  It didn’t happen, but the name stuck.
 
What’s in a name?
 
Let’s look around us in the city, or any American city. You will find churches like the one pictured on the front of the bulletin. It’s a storefront church, usually in commercial districts
in the poorest parts of a city where the rents are lowest.
And why should they be here? They are descendants of the enslaved. They fled the post-Reconstruction lynchings in the South. They gathered in northern cities where they could afford to. They served in two world wars. The non-discriminatory Federal GI Bill provided veterans with education and housing, except the program was administered by racially biased local departments. That’s why American suburbs look like they do and why these storefronts dot the inner-urban landscape.
 
It’s another universe, where the storefront churches are located. Economically speaking, that would be obvious. Necessity dictates finding the cheapest location. The rent in places vacated when businesses die can’t be beat. Move in, fix it up, sing, pray, preach.
 
Spiritually speaking, it is another universe, too. A very beautiful one, starting with signs on the front of the churches. For everyone to see, they announce, and by announcing they create, the universe which we are invited to approach. These markers define not only the world within their doors—they define the street, the whole neighborhood.
 
For one thing, the church signs claim our attention, and they get it. Whether hand-painted or professionally done, these signs stand totally apart from the commercial ones around them. They don’t advertise; they communicate. The signs speak to us, almost personally, both about the congregation inside and also the promised life they represent. On those commercial streets, its message is anti-materialistic; surrounded by desolation and deprivation, the message is of spiritual abundance.
 
Most importantly, these churches conform to the original biblical model of a tabernacle. In Israelite history, Yahweh’s home was in a tent—mobile, temporary—dating from the beginning of the 40-year sojourn in the wilderness. When David revealed his vision of creating a temple for Yahweh, the Israelite tribes remonstrated and resisted. The concern was whether the divine truth would be compromised by enshrining God in luxury.
 
So, exactly what’s going on inside these storefronts? 
 
For the most part, these are Pentecostal churches in practice and belief, which means they are moved by the Holy Spirit. They are “holiness” sects, whose members make commitments to the straight and narrow life. They refer to each other as the saints. As a rule, these are independent congregations founded by a charismatic independent minister, but many have national affiliations like the Church of God and the Church of God in Christ, or the Missionary Baptist churches.
 
With more time, I would take you inside one of these congregations which James Baldwin described in his semi-autobiographical novel about growing up in a Harlem church of which his step-father was the pastor and where Baldwin himself experienced the conversion which made him a preacher at the age of 14.
 
Let’s consider some examples of storefront church names—what do you notice?  . . . .And how do these names compare with our own name—the sound, the meaning . . . What do we learn from these names?
 
For one thing, they fulfill Christ’s injunction not to hide our light under a bushel. . .
 
If you were starting a church, what would you name it—?
 
What’s in a name?
 
Heaven’s Door
Table of Plenty Church
Holy Ground Tabernacle
Words Into Deeds Church
United Christian Cathedral
Church of Love and Justice
Friends In the Holy Spirit Church
Divine Song Congregational Church
Water of the Trinity Church Good News! Temple
Embracing Life Congregational Church
Open Door Living Life Missionary Congregational Church