Guns with No Bullets

Any true believer knows that this church is doomed. The once thriving congregation of 900 members has now reduced to a struggling 30. They are contemplating changing their name in order to attract more visitors. But we know that garbage by any other name does not smell any sweeter.

The pastor revealed how blind he was when he said, "We're probably the most progressive church in the city, but 'Baptist Temple' sounds weird, like it's charismatic and conservative." The article continued, "He worried that the word 'Baptist' had become indelibly tied to the political religious right and that when combined with 'Temple' it sounded like a fundamentalist 'bring out the snakes' kind of place."

You might change the label on a bottle of poison, but that won't mean that you'll be able to effect a different outcome. Once the gospel is perverted, a church might as well begin to dig its grave. The gospel is central to the survival of a thriving community of faith.

An elder in a mainline church once said, "You can't fire a gun with no bullets." He was talking about how the church had lost the gospel and had become ineffective in reaching people. He saw the writing on the wall quite clearly. Now that church, which was once 500 members strong, is not far from its demise.

A lot of churches that might be called evangelical are on the name change bandwagon too. Their aim is to be hip and hid their true identity. No one wants to reveal who they are or what they believe right up front. That's part of our day where doctrine is downplayed or thought insignificant.

I am not knocking having a good title for your church. My wife once stated that Covenant Reformed Fellowship sounds like a place where nuns go when they have been bad. I know that people around town have a hard time remembering it too. When I picked it, we were not a church yet. We were just a bunch of Reformed people meeting for a Bible study. I didn't mean for it to stick. But it did and the group seemed to like it at the time.

I chose it because it summed up who we are: Reformed in doctrine, covenantal in our views of Scripture, baptism and salvation, and a group of people who love the Lord and meet together regularly for mutual encouragement (a fellowship).

But I'm not hanging the success of our church on our name. I know that Christ builds his church through the true preaching of the gospel and the administration of the sacraments. All other ground is sinking sand.