Our Church Restart: Name Change

In April of 2004 we came to Calvary Baptist Church of Woodstock, Illinois. It was a small church that had serious issues.  I told the Pastor Search Committee before the church called me here that it sounded like a dead church that needed to restart.  They called me here and it's been an uphill battle ever since. But we are finally in the place of working through the transitions we know we need.

A little more background.  Just under a year ago our church chose to start heading in a new direction: adopting a new name, constitution, and leadership structure, possibly selling our property and more.  The church then chose an Interim Leadership Team (ILT) to replace the "church council," which was the leadership group the church had for several years before I came.  The ILT has been put in place to work through the transitions above and lead the church until eldership can be adopted in our constitution and elders are installed.

The first of the changes the ILT is working through is adopting a new church name.  We chose "Doxa Fellowship" on Sunday.  Doxa is the Greek word for "glory" and is found in words like "orthodoxy" and "doxology."  "Doxa Fellowship" won't be officially/legally adopted until we adopt a new constitution and choose a restart date and do all the crap needed to make it legal, but we are going to start using it immediately.

The ILT came up with this name after working through the following criteria.  I said more about each point during our discussion, and some points overlap and fit in similar categories, but these are the points I made to explain why the leadership chose "Doxa Fellowship."

1. Identity, Calling, & Mission – We want our name to have meaning, to help identify us by our calling & mission. To mention our church is to mention our mission.

2. Unique in McHenry County – It’s best if people outside our church hear our name and have no other church in mind.

3. Not Location Focused – We are a church for McHenry County, not just Woodstock. A name describing us in Woodstock will be too narrow. A name describing us in McHenry County may make people think of the city of McHenry. So a non-location specific name will work best.

4. A Brief Identifier – For both church members and folks who live in McHenry County, it’s helpful to have a name they can say in 1 word, though our official name will be longer.

5. Web Domain Options – Most visitors first find us on the internet. A more unique church name leads to a better domain name and easier web discovery.

6. Creativity in Branding – Church branding is often based on name & mission and we want a name that gives some freedom for creatively branding our church.

7. A Name Worth Discussing – When people hear of our church we want the name to peak their interests, draw out questions about the name and/or church. A typical church name often leads to no response from people. A more unique name, based on identity, calling, & mission, opens doors for conversation.

Comments

[Rae Whitlock]

Exciting to read, Steve. Praying for you and your leaders as you follow Christ in forging Doxa's future.

[Ben]

Good leadership, Steve. I imagine this has been a hard road at times. Turning around a church like this always is.

[Joe Thorn]

Awesome name, and you know how excited we all are at Redeemer for you guys!

[Steve McCoy]

Thanks Ben.

[Steve McCoy]

Thanks for your prayers, Rae.

[Darryl Dash]

Love it. Excited to see how you've been working through this process. Church revitalization/transitioning takes an odd mix of skills. You have to know when to be patient and when to push ahead.

It was cool to have coffee with you last year, and to get a sense of your setting, and now to see how all of this continues to unfold.

[Steve McCoy]

Thanks Darryl. Let's have coffee again sometime. But I'm afraid it's going
to have to be down here. :)

[Brian Hedges]

Cool. I inherited a similar situation and have been at it for almost six years now. We haven't done the name change, but did rewrite the constitution and installed elders a year ago. So, I can sympathize with the mixture of excitement and frustration you probably feel. Will keep Doxa on my radar . . .

It's also good to see the positive update on Molly.

Grace & Peace,
Brian

[Darryl Dash]

Not a problem. I'll be back again this summer, and I'll likely be bugging you for some Starbucks again. :)

P.S. Why don't you want to come to Toronto??? ;)

[Geoff]

God bless you and the courageous leadership at Doxa! Praying that you would continue to be in tune with Christ's leading!

[Joe Thorn]

I think you should get that ShamWow guy to do promos for your church when officially restart. DOXA!

[Jeff]

Joe, I love the Shamwow guy I told my sound team that my new headset reminds me of being a ShamWow guy. :)

Steve, Praying for you, I must confess to a degree I envy what you have accomplished so far and pray that you will be able to do more in 09.

[Steve McCoy]

Thanks Jeff.

[Steve McCoy]

Thanks Brian.

[Steve McCoy]

Appreciate your prayers Geoff.

[Steve McCoy]

We can't afford him.

[Dan Barnett]

I was very excited for you guys when I talked to J.T. That is so significant that the vote was so in favor. We're praying that God brings fruit from these changes, and prospers DOXA for his glory. Praise God, Steve.

[Cody W]

I am a member of the Village Church here in Texas and it was a replant from a FBC several years ago. I have seen a lot of resources on church planting, but few on replanting. I have the audio that you posted on the replanting talk done at the Acts 29 bootcamp. Do you have any other resources you could suggest?

[Steve McCoy]

Hey Cody. I was at the 2005 A29 boot camp down there. A lot has happened
since then.

Acts 29 has other audio from Scott Thomas, as well as an article or two. I
don't know of many other resources.

[eric]

Though sadly a disconnected member of the church family, I have to say, I love the new name and fully agree with all 7 points above. We continue to pray for smooth transitions as the ILT make ground. Thanks for the book again. :)

[Steve McCoy]

Thanks E.

[Cody W]

I went to the 2005 boot camp but was not at the Village yet and I attended this last one but did not get to go to the replanting seminar.

I would say that the Village replant is atypical. They have gone through some of the same changes but it has been different because of the amount of people. Which creates a completely different set of problems.

My thought here in the bible belt is that we will probably see more replants/restarts in the future. Hopefully.

[Steve McCoy]

Cody, totally agree about the Village. And I agree about somewhat about
restarts in the Bible belt. The problem is that restarts have people and
people hate change. It's a very difficult way to go. But here's to hoping we
see it happen.

[David Cooke]

Like the new name a lot. Contemporary in an ancient Greek kind of way! As part of the Church of England we are often stuck with the names we are given but I confess I had never really explored the possibility of a name change. You have started me on a whole new train of thought. Change in our context is not often found to be our favorite word- :) Grace and courage for the next phase. Thanks too for putting me on to the Piper Hebrews 12 talk -it blessed and challenged me. Pax David

[Steve McCoy]

Thanks David. That's exactly what I told our church, that the name is both
very old/ancient and biblical, plus it feels new and different. And I need
to hear that Piper talk right about now too. Glad it was helpful.