Etumos - True, Genuine

What is in a name? Nothing...and...everything. Naming the new church has been an interesting, unique process. It is not like I have never named anything before. I mean I named all three of my kids with the help of my wife. I named this Blog. I have even named a few dogs. But naming a church...That is something I have never done before. To be honest it was difficult.

When you name your kids there are really only two people that you have to take into consideration yourself and your spouse. There is the child to take into consideration as well, but what it realliy comes down to is what you and your spouse feel would be the best (or if you're a woman, the cutest) name for your child. Naming a church is very different. There are many more people's perspective to take into account. There are the people on your leadership team. Thre are those who will hear the name in the community. There are those you are trying to reach. There's God. It is really a big responsibility.

We have had a number of suggested names. At one point I even considered the name NEO. It came out of an email from a friend who said he liked the whole "neo-Christian vibe thing we [had] going on." I will not give you the full list but let's say that everyone had an oppinion about the name.

The will of God is a mysterious thing. I sometimes wonder if we really have a grasp on the will of God. What I mean is; is what we have been taught about the will of God really in line with what God himself would tell us? For many we look at the will of God as this one dimentional, narrow path that is difficult to find and even more difficult to follow for any period of time. I am sure that there are some things in life which are this way but what if most of the issues in which we are asking God to show us his ways are issues that he has left up to us?

I have been praying for the past two months about what God's will is for the name of our church. Want to know what I have concluded? He doesn't really care. I have come to the conclusion that God is more concerned with the people that will be attending this church than what we call it. I came to this as I was talking to a good friend (Some of you will know him as "Patrick the Protestor") He said to me as we were discussion the name for the church, "My wife and I really don't care as much about the name of the church as we care about what the church will be like." This was a revelation to me. Dan Johnson and Rick Enloe of Next Leadership Association said to me recently, "A name will either hurt you or do nothing for you," and I think they are right. I have gone to some amazing churches with really lame names. I will not list them for you but we have all heard names of churches that we think of as corny but people are growing in God there and coming to know Christ.

All of that said I have decided that we are going to call our church Etumos Community. It is pronounced "ee" "two" "mose." "ee" as in tree. "Two" like the number and "mose" as in rhymes with "close but no cigar!" It is a greek word for true or genuine. That is what we seek to establish: genuine community.

I will post our logo as soon as I get it back from the graphic designer.