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August 28, 2009
Another Word for 'Church'?
(Filed under: Examples)
My wife and I traveled to Hawaii a few weeks ago for a co-worker's wedding. We stayed over an extra day and attended a church service in downtown Honolulu with a friend of many years who had just moved to Hawaii. The community she is a part of is called Bluewater Mission, a newer church plant by a Stanford and University of Chicago grad with roots in the Presbyterian Church and the Vineyard Church (what a combo!).
Aside from the refreshing collective of diverse people, gathered in a noisy community center to worship and learn from the Word, what struck me most was their name.
Bluewater Mission
Not Bluewater Church.
Bluewater Mission.
Mission.
I think I like it.
The word "mission" conjures up all sorts of things in my mind, including:
- Intentionality and focus
- A task or duty to be completed
- Sending out or being sent
- A haven and refuge
- A spiritual place
In other words, mission sounds a lot like church!
Bluewater Mission in Hawaii is not avoiding the word 'church'--their materials use the word often--but they certainly seem to be helping to define or redefine church a bit more.
I'm not suggesting that the word "church" be eliminated, but in some contexts, cities or communities, I think the use of the word "church" needs greater clarity.
Posted by Brad Abare at August 28, 2009 3:21 PM
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Comments
a friend of mine said that when they went through a transition that they went from being a stuffy church to a mission.
Posted by: Jim at August 29, 2009 1:17 AM
Or they could be borrowing from the old Spanish outposts..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_missions_in_California
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_missions_in_Texas
=] makes me think of Zorro.
Posted by: Mark at August 30, 2009 12:05 AM
I think thats not bad.
My church is named "Stadtmission Eickel" thats mean Citymission Eickel.
Posted by: Jonas at August 30, 2009 2:54 PM
I like it as well, but I know people who fret words like mission or crusade because of the militaristic overtones. Sometimes, however, a word just needs a break and then it's ripe for a comeback.
Posted by: Paul in Canada at August 31, 2009 8:12 PM
Funny, in urban areas anything ending in "mission" is probably a shelter for the homeless. But hey, whatever works...
Posted by: Steve"The Czar" Patton at September 3, 2009 11:28 AM
We just went through a global branding process. The journey was from Christian City Church to CCC to C3 and finally now to C3 Church. The branding firm (a secular firm in Australia) did a bunch of research and found out that people really didn't know C3 was a church and they wanted to be upfront about that to avoid the feeling of being tricked. We are now C3 Church.
Posted by: C3 Trev at September 11, 2009 1:12 PM
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