Do names matter? What kinds of pictures come to mind when we hear the names of certain individuals or certain consumer products? Sometimes the perceptions attached to certain names are accurate, and sometimes those preconceived ideas don’t tell the whole story. The same is true when it comes to church names as well. In this class we begin the discussion on whether or not the name of a church means something significant, and we spend some time briefly walking through the history of the church as well.
6/4/23 – WHAT’S IN A NAME?
Do names matter? What kinds of pictures come to mind when we hear the names of certain individuals or certain consumer products? Sometimes the perceptions attached to certain names are accurate, and sometimes those preconceived ideas don’t tell the whole story. The same is true when it comes to church names as well. In this class we begin the discussion on whether or not the name of a church means something significant, and we spend some time briefly walking through the history of the church as well.
6/11/23 – WHAT’S IN A NAME? (PART 2)
We continue our discussion of the history of the church as a whole and more specifically some of the history of the group known as the Churches of Christ. By understanding some of our history, we can begin to have a clearer understanding of why we wear the name we do and what kind of impact that has on our influence in our community.
6/18/23 – NAMES USED IN SCRIPTURE
What was the first name of the church? What did the first Christians call the church 2,000 years ago? And what did those names mean not only to Christians themselves but also to the folks in their communities who weren’t Christians? In this study we explore together the many different names that were used to describe the church when it first started, and we try to determine how those names helped or hindered the growth of God’s kingdom.
6/25/23 – IMPACT NAMES HAVE ON THE MISSION
What do we think of when we hear the phrase “Church of Christ” attached to a church name? Do we have positive perceptions come to mind or negative ones? What do those who don’t have much of a church background think when they hear “Church of Christ”? In this very interactive class we return to our original question: do names matter? More specifically we dive deeper into the question of what kind of impact the name “Church of Christ” has on Flagstonen’s mission to reach out, connect, and serve.
7/2/23 – RECAP AND DISCUSSION
Our leadership leads a recap of the previous classes in this study, highlighting some of the insights we’ve discovered together. As we continue to determine whether there are things that are helping or hindering Flagstone’s mission to reach out, connect and serve, our leadership shares some of their insights into how they perceive our name may be impacting our mission, either positively or negatively, and what that might mean for our church family moving forward.