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As we have announced the name for the Pittsburgh Church Plant, The Bridge, reactions have been interesting to gauge. Most people a generation before mine are thrilled with the name. Most people in my own generation seem to like it, but don’t have a particularly deep affinity for it. People in the generation after mine could care less about the name and what to see something done before they develop any connection at all. That really doesn’t have much to do with anything, but I thought I’d throw it out there as food for thought.
Regardless, in my last post, told you I would share the highly scientific, market research-intensive, professional process we used for landing on a name. I’m not sure how ‘real’ church planters do it, but this was our process:
- Talking.
- Praying.
- Talking.
- Killing bad ideas.
- Praying.
- Discussing names with people.
- Killing bad ideas that we thought were good ideas.
- Starting over.
- Praying.
- Talking.
- Dealing with pressure about the need for a name from different sources.
- Praying and talking.
- Sensing ‘this is it’ from the Holy Spirit, other people, and launch team members.
- Announcing a name.
- Getting an EIN and checking account.
- Continuously sharing the name and why it’s significant.
