Church rebranding
I don't know if this is a thing where you are but....
One of the local churches has just announced a new name for itself, it's 3rd name in roughly 30 years. Apparently they have a new vision to match which as far as I can see involves very much what you'd expect - worshipping god, telling people about jesus etc etc.
Several other churches in this neck of the woods are on their second name at least.
Given that most non churchgoers are pretty indifferent to such things I'm left wondering what these rebranding exercises are meant to achieve and what they actually achieve (apart from hassle updating the charity commission and bank accounts)?
One of the local churches has just announced a new name for itself, it's 3rd name in roughly 30 years. Apparently they have a new vision to match which as far as I can see involves very much what you'd expect - worshipping god, telling people about jesus etc etc.
Several other churches in this neck of the woods are on their second name at least.
Given that most non churchgoers are pretty indifferent to such things I'm left wondering what these rebranding exercises are meant to achieve and what they actually achieve (apart from hassle updating the charity commission and bank accounts)?
Comments
It's more common on one side of the pond than the other, though has increasing purchase in some of the newer networks, and within established churches is usually associated with mergers and/or replantings.
As for the brand itself, I assume the idea is that people are more like to go to 'Glow!' than 'St Drogos'.
Sometimes churches simply rebrand themselves through popular usage: for decades St Philip's & St Jacob's in Bristol has been known as "Pip and Jay".
What I find interesting (and somewhat clone-like) is how many of the so-called Resource Churches are rebranding their services as "The Eleven" or "The Six". I appreciate that terms such as "Matins", "Eucharist" and "Compline" are unintelligible to non-church people, but it somehow seems a bit like restaurants which give the price of dishes as "9.5" rather than "£9.50".
Mind you it's better than a Methodist Church I knew which had a "Tuesday Fellowship" which met on Wednesdays!!!
Yuck
Often associated with serving you a toastie on a builder's flat cap or expecting you to drink out of a sodding jam jar. Hell hath no fires hot enough.
Have I ever bored I mean told you about my Primary School's Orange Pink Folders?
I have a vague idea that this comes from Hillsong via HTB (and of course, 'The Eleven" is where they have 'The preach").
When do they have "The bread and The wine"?
Does this clone-y franchise-y shenanigans make any difference to outsiders or just make the insiders feel cooler?
I think it sometimes demystifies church in a way that is helpful for newcomers, but this effect is also a lot smaller than the proponents of such things would admit (for instance, the targets set by the Archbishops Council are nowhere near fulfilment)
I wouldn't go near a church that called itself "The Plague" ...
Family = older children present, possibly a concurrent Sunday School
All Age = nothing to challenge the under 8s
Play & Praise = Toddler group with action songs
Messy Church = craft sesion with action songs
Pop-Up X = we haven't rehearsed the nativity/passion
Civic service = hymn sandwich with local councillors
Village harvest = hymn sandwich with vegetables
Songs of Praise = Vicar's hymn taste laid bare
Crafty Communion = hybrid of Messy Church & Pop-Up with sourdough
As someone who went to a plant of a plant from HTB (we were never really connected with them) I can say they are less franchisey than your average traditional Church of England church which uses the same service as the others of their kind. Not only that but by doing what you are doing you are missing out. They even do a traditional for those who want it because they are parish members as well.
I've heard of one ultra-High and Trad Anglo-Catholic priest who was both relieved and delighted that the HTB-ers who moved into his parish allowed him to do his own thing pretty much as before - whilst they got on and did what they do.
I don’t think all HTB 'plants' work as smoothly as that, but give praise where it's due.
In answer to @Twangist's question about churches rebounding themselves with hipster coffee bar type names - 'The Zone', 'Space', 'Inspire' and so on ...
Does it make much difference to anyone other than those who attend. No. But then not many people are that interested in what my church does or doesn't do.
I agree with @chrisstiles that these things can offer marginal benefits for those unused to churchy language, but I tend to think that, irrespective of 'style' or theology what draws people into churches is a palpable sense of community or an impression that it's going to make a difference to their lives.
And that can happen anywhere. Or otherwise.
If your business is delivering parcels, or preaching the word of God, or operating a train service, do that. Calling yourself "Package!" or "<-Ship" as a distraction from the fact that you're not very good at delivering parcels efficiently is offensive.
Sorry what am I doing? And what am I missing out on?
As to whether the names are any more/less bad than 'St RandomSt at RandomPlace' seems more down to taste than anything else.
Guitars instead of organs?
A kind of studied informality instead of po-faced piety?
And @Hugal, yeah, what's @Twangist missing out on by not attending an HTB-plant? I suspect he'd pretty much know what he'd find there.
It'd be like a Quaker telling the rest of us we're 'missing out' because we don't do what Quakers do or me telling you that you're 'missing out' because you don't have the Liturgy of St John Chrysostom.
Or have we misunderstood?
I'm fully prepared to accept that HTB-plants are more varied than is popularly supposed and that they cater for people who don't all want the particular HTB vibe, but it seems a bit of a stretch to say that other people are 'missing out' if they're not part of it.
Or have I got the wrong end of the stick?
Or simply attempting to reach out to their community rather than being stuck in a holy huddle? As a theme this has managed to cross-over to the point where it became a broadcastable joke: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRujuE-GIY4
Instead, they went for a simple name - *The one-word hidden to protect their identity Benefice*.
I don't know if anyone yet uses the new title, apart from on official documents, and their website!
It's not surprising that it comes up, given the large (some would say oversized) role of HtB in the CofE's growth plans (c.f Church Times), but yes a lot of Baptist Churches (in the UK) seem to have gone down this road too - often coincidental to a building project, and I just wonder if if part of that is because a distinct 'Baptist' identity feels somewhat dated to many people.
If you'd read my posts properly you'd have seen that I was cutting HTB more slack than you anticipated.
What I said was that their church plants don't always conform to the stereotype. Try not to get so defensive.
But yes, as to the wider point about rebranding ... I don't know about anywhere else but around here the Pentecostals have stopped using the term 'Pentecostal' because they feel it carries negative connotations for some people.
That happened to us. We went from English Martyrs to Holy Apostles and Martyrs. The church notice board has Holy Apostles and Martyrs Parish, English Martyrs Church.
Everyone calls us HAM. (Or English Martyrs.)
No beef with htb - I am a charismatic myself.
Ham and English mustard?
I still think of our friends in the op by the original name!
What I find odd is that it's the same people (current pastor is the son of the founding pastor who is still arpund), same denomination, same building, decent reputation in the town....
However that's not quite the sort of rebranding we're really thinking of, is it?
I meant that the "Baptist" is seen as increasingly meaningless in a more secularised community which might be why these churches pivot away from using it (either settling on a noun or something like 'Such and Such Community Church'.).
They changed their name (which they took from a Bible verse) fairly late on in their history:
https://www.uec-churches.net/history/
Yes. A fair few were conscientious objectors during WW1 - not sure about their stance in WW2.
As to their rebranding in 1956, this seems to have been a response to decline, and also to the church's growing closer in practice to other evangelical bodies. Perhaps rebranding in order to appeal to a wider *market* is nothing especially new!
There may be one or two, of course, which I don't know about, but a change of name sometimes occurs when a denomination takes over a church formerly owned by another group. The new congregation very often is of a completely different character to the original - a C of E church in Our Town, which had an Anglo-Catholic ethos, closed many years ago, but has in recent years been taken over by an African Pentecostal congregation.
Which just goes to show that many of these groups are becoming virtually indistinguishable to anyone other than the cognoscenti. They all tend to sing the same songs and have a largely charismatic-lite style.
I'm not saying that's good, bad or indifferent. Just making the observation.
FWIW I do have some beefs with HTB but will happily acknowledge that they don't always act according to the stereotypical view that their detractors hold of them. I was never a fan of Nicky Gumbel but an RC priest friend who heard him speak a few years back was pleasantly surprised and found him not at all what he'd expected.
We have to judge everything on its own merits. That applies to rebranding to. If it's done for good reasons, such as those @chrisstiles outlined upthread, then fine.
If it's done to sound cool and trendy then, no ...
I suspect it's one of those things that very much comes down to individual cases and contexts.
Perhaps no-one found it?
I'm reading her "Enlightenment" at the moment. Her "Aldleigh" sounds very like Chelmsford. Ebenezer is still there, as New London Road Baptist Church.
That's been mentioned in a few promotional interviews. I'll be interested to read it.
Was place-name Christian fellowship also one or was that more independent?
http://www.ship-of-fools.com/mystery/2017/3216.html
A schoolfriend went with her family once (and once only) in the late 80s/early 90s and reported king James only and hats for the ladies.
I should have made myself clearer.
Assuming an otherwise neutral presentation(eg. standard 1970s suburban church architecture), and assuming the slogan does, in fact, have an impact, that's one that could attract anyone who feels alienated from their standing faith, regardless of where they are on the theological-political spectrum. Two rough categories:
"Praise the Lord! Finally, a bible-believing congregation not under the sway of humanistic liberals!"
"Word. A tolerant and affirming community not run by a bunch of bible-thumping bigots."
Only one of whom would likely stick around for more than one service. And I'm guessing there were other things about the outward appearance of the place that would indicate what to expect. (My guess would be it's appealing to the person in my first example.)
I think 'Community' is one of those buzz-words with more aspiration than substance behind it
For instance, when you see a road sign which says, 'Community Speed Watch Area' you could be forgiven for thinking that a committee of concerned locals were running this initiative. Instead, it's a local authority initiative - nothing wrong in that - with the word 'community' inserted to make it sound more cuddly and grass-roots. Sure, there might be volunteers out with speed-guns every so often but it's not a community initiative in the same way as the local Rotary, WI or U3A might be.
On the use of the word 'Community' in the names of churches I think it's become embedded now in the sense that - if it means anything to non-churchy people at all - it carries connotations of, 'it must be happy-clappy' and 'they must run Foodbanks' - at one and the same time. Even if the church with 'Community' in the title isn't particularly charismatic evangelical or a hub for that many community initiatives.
Our local Pentecostal church is a 'Community Church' and has eschewed the term 'Pentecostal' whilst remaining pretty charismatic in style.
It has justifiably won awards for community initiatives and genuinely does valuable work in the community.
In an instance like that, I'd say Name of Town Community Church is entirely appropriate.
Nothing against bog-standard non-conformist churches, but if a bog-standard non-conformist church were to label itself 'Name of town Community bog-standard nonconformist Church' in order to make itself sound more attractive, then no - unless it really was proving a community service of some kind - mums and tots, debt counselling, foodbanks etc etc.
I think you are reading too much into this - it may be picked purely because it has a neutral sound and avoids a label that is increasingly seen - by outsiders - as a purely sectarian one (I'm sure many of us have had conversations along the lines of 'Why are there all these different churches that disagree with each other?').
I don't think this is necessarily a justifiable conclusion, I don't think that the name itself is indicative of that kind of convergence (apart from existing in the same society). In practical terms the actual convergence is to a position where some doctrinal positions are rather loosely held and not seen as a distinctive (although I suspect you'd be similarly resistant to a party line being enforced).