ClarkeComments.com

Hello all:

The congregation that might wife and I are now attending is a small one that has gone through several splits in the last couple of years. It was a congregation that at its peak had about 450 people in attendance on a Sunday morning, and is now down to about 65 regulars. The main reason for the splits, a person, is long gone, and the church has been trying to recover for about the last 18 months.

My wife and I have been going there for about 3 or 4 months now, and we love it there. The people are wonderful, and the minister is excellent.

Before I go into my main theme on this post, though, I’d like to ask you all to pray for one of our elders who was placed in hospice yesterday. His name is Charlie, and he is a wonderful man that has been very kind to me and my family. He has cancer and is not doing well. I would assume most of you know what going into Hospice means, so I won’t elaborate. But please pray that the Lord will comfort him and ease his pain.

So….to names. Our congregation has gone through some painful times, and we seem to be starting to recover. We are starting to get people either coming back or visiting for the first time. When we placed membership, being a small, young family, it seemed to have a very positive effect on the congregation. We are planning some new ministries to do some outreach, and we have been praying for God to send workers to our congregation. Alot of things are changing, and I think it is all for the better.

So, one of the things we are thinking about changing is the name of the congregation. We are currently named after the street we are on. The name has a lot of baggage because of what has happened over the last few years, and when I think of the name itself it conjures up thoughts of an old, dying out congregation.

We are considering area names such as “Southeast Church of Christ,” and there have been thoughts about naming it after the city we are in. My wife came up with the idea of “Southside” as well. (The congregation is on the Southeast corner of Portland, barely outside the limits of Portland).

So, I thought I’d ask if any of you have any ideas for a name for the congregation. The only real rule I would think is that it has to have “Church of Christ” in it (I’m sure I’ll hear it about that!)

So, what do y’all think?

-Clarke

I am being bad and doing this in secret! (it’s the wife)

I Just wanted to say Happy Valentines Day to an Amazing Husband and Father! You are a wonderful man and you make my life wonderful. Thank you for everything you do for me! (including going to that job you hate) I promise one day life will be the way we want it to be, and you will go back to school and pursue your dream. LOVE YOU SWEETY! Have a wonderful day…

Love,

Sara

Hello all:

One thing that I find really interesting is that throughout the streams of the Restoration Movement, only two names are used.

In my fellowship, we call ourselves the “Church of Christ.”

In the ICC, they call themselves a “Christian Church” or “Church of Christ”

In the ICOC, they typically call themselves the “Church of Christ,” sometimes with the word “International” tacked on to the front, and more and more now, I am seeing congregations calling themselves a “Christian Church.”

The Disciples of Christ call themselves “The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).”

Furthermore, DOC and ICOC members both refer to themselves as “Disciples” pretty often.

I’m intrigued by this similar system of naming. Of course, because we all come from the same heritage, there is going to be some crossover. I like it. It reminds me that we are all family, and that is important.

I’m also intrigued by the recent use of the name “Christian Church” by ICOC congregations. I think its kinda neat and interesting to see the ICOC using the same names that the Independents use, even though the ICOC came of out a fellowship that had split from the Independents 80 or so years before. I’m sure some in the ICOC don’t like it because it masks the heritage of the congregation, but I think its interesting just the same.

I wish the a capella Churches of Christ had “Christian Church” counterparts like the Independent Christian Church congregations have “Church of Christ” counterparts, but that doesn’t seem too likely. The newer church plants that have removed “Church of Christ” or consciously de-emphesized the COC label seem to stay away from the “Christian Church” label….

One last aside, I’ve seen some websites, mainly Piney I think, bash the name “Christian Church” as unscriptural. I think that’s garbage. If I remember, the bible says that disciples were first called “Christian” at Antioch.

-Clarke

Hello all:

For the last couple of months I’ve been playing with different themes trying to find one that I really like….well, I think I’ve finally found it. I’ve spent several hours today customizing this theme, adding buttons, and tweaking features. I think this one will probably stay up for a while….. What do you all think about it?

If I can get my lovely wife off her message boards and onto paintshop pro, I might even have a cool (at least to me) header graphic up soon.

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Also, its come to my attention that the comments are bugging out a little bit. This was happening before I switched templates so I think its a WP2.0+ bug…. I’ve had that problem on a couple other people’s wordpress blogs as well…. anyone else having that problem?

Looks like its fixed now.

If you submitted a comment before you saw this, try submitting it again, there is nothing in the moderation Que and I see some people stopped by without commenting which is uncharacteristic of them…

-Clarke