Don Wildmon

AFA/AFR founder

November-December 1996 – While I was on a visit to the west coast recently an article in the Los Angeles Times caught my eye. “Church of the Master Votes to Change Name” the headline read.

The article reported that the Church of the Master was not satisfied with the number of members it had and figured that one way to get new members was to change its name. People in the church came up with 64 possible new names. Included in the list were some serious, such as “Church of the Foothills” and the second place finisher “The Church of Hope and Joy.” Other new names proposed included “Please Come to Our Church” and “Sven’s Big Building,” an allusion to the Scandinavian background of the church’s members. The church field-tested the names by sending members to rummage sales and a Boy Scout carwash to gauge public response to the possible new names.

The pastor said he first became interested in the possibility of changing the church’s name from a speaker at a pastor’s institute at the Rev. Robert Schuller’s Crystal Cathedral. “If we want to do our job the best we can, we need to make people feel welcome. Our old name apparently did not make people from outside the church feel welcome,” he said.

So the Church of the Master now is the Church of the Foothills. Why the name change? To attract more people.

Something about this bothers me. It seems symbolic of the thinking in many in our churches. First, is the purpose of the Church to get more people to attend our worship services? If so, let us hire a good marketing person in each local church. Next, is there a symbolic message in changing the name of a church from “The Church of the Master” to “The Church of the Foothills”? Using the name “Foothills” instead of “Master” to entice individuals to attend our church says more about the church than it does about society.

Churches have put far too much emphasis on the number of individuals who attend their services. In our society the “successful” churches are the largest churches. Indeed, the main objective in all too many churches is to get more people to attend. Somehow that motivation just doesn’t ring true with the New Testament. In the New Testament the motivation is service, not size. I’m not against church growth. I would love to see every church packed to overflowing. It’s just that we must always keep the main thing the main thing.

And if the word “Master” is a hindrance to people coming into our fellowship, what about churches with the word “Cross” in their names?

Could it be that we are going so far to be acceptable that we are no longer effective?

It would take much more space and time than I have to fully express my thinking here. Some of you will comprehend my concern. Many will not.

And therein lies the problem.