Naming a Church: Part 2

So as our Launch Team and I began thinking through the principles I discussed in part 1, we literally began coming up with a list of over 100 possible names. Many of them we eliminated because they did not fit the principles discussed in the last post. Others were just overused by other churches. Some we didn’t like, and still more names were already represented in cities within a close proximity to our target area. If you can’t tell, we spent a great deal of time and effort thinking through this…

Finally, we were left with a name list of about 25 names. With an upcoming trip to San Jose in which I was taking a handful of people that have been close to us in this process, we decided to cut the list down to six names and test-market them on the people that we would be reaching in exactly one year. In no particular order, our six names that we took out to test-market were:

Freedom Church
Catalyst Church
LifeCity Church
Awakening Church
Revive Church
NewDay Church

It is important that I clarify here, that we were not going to name the church based on popularity. The point of test-marketing is research. We were collecting data on how people reacted to each name and why. Just because several people “like” a name, doesn’t meant they like it for a good reason. That point will become evident as I share more of how the process went. So here’s how we conducted our research once we got into the middle of San Jose with our six names printed identically on 3×5 cards.

We split up into groups of two – a talker and a recorder: One would ask people for their opinion, and the other would carry a clipboard recording the responses.
We asked questions – The “talker” would ask three quick questions: a) “Do you currently attend a church?” The vast majority said no, but we wanted their opinion either way. But this gave us a basis for their perspective on our names. b) “If a friend had invited you to attend a church with them, based on the name alone, which one of these would you be most likely to go to, and why?” This was VERY enlightening! And finally, c) “Which one would you be least likely to go to, and why?” Again, the results were quite surprising.
Moved on – Then we thanked them for their time, and if asked why we were taking the survey, told them that there was a new church coming to the area in the near future. Some people expressed curiosity while some even expressed disdain. We maintained a non-defensive attitude either way – even validating some of their experiences that we could relate to.

The feedback was incredible:

Freedom Church: Easily the most liked name. There wasn’t a single person out of the 100+ responses we took that was negative. When we chose to add this name to our survey list, we thought of “free from sin,” “and freedom in Christ,” and so on. But the people we surveyed, thought freedom as in “do whatever you want”. In other words, they already had a religion: tolerance. And Freedom Church played nicely into that perspective. Not what we were hoping for, to say the least.
Catalyst Church: This name was the second pick by the survey. The few negative responses we received for this name were due largely to not knowing what “catalyst” meant. We liked the name because it spoke directly to the change we wanted to bring to the South Bay through the Gospel. Most of the people who did like this name, liked it for different reasons. Specifically, the Hispanic people we surveyed favored it because to them, it sounded like “Catholic Church”. Ironically, the majority of the Hispanics we surveyed did not even attend church, Catholic or otherwise. So the name association was confusing and counted-productive.
LifeCity Church: This name was mostly favored, but did receive 7 negative responses. The fascinating thing about the negative responses is that they were almost entirely from the people who said they do regularly attend church, and their reasons were based on a different vision than God had given us for this church. So while their feedback mattered to us, it mattered less than the non-church people we were trying to reach. Those who liked it, favored the connection between “Life” and “City”. It spoke of hope and community to them. One person who liked it was even a professing atheist. Still, the reviews were mixed.
Awakening Church: This was the first name that showed results that were near even, but slightly more negative than positive. We liked it’s association to previous ministry many of us had been involved in, and the connection we made with it to “life in Christ.” Many people we surveyed, however, thought it sounded “weird,” or even worse, “cult-ish.”
Revive Church: We added this name, in part, because of a great Christian band from Australia that we all liked. The band was not that well known, especially among an un-churched audience, and they eventually split-up. However, the idea resonated with our vision and we liked it’s connection. Something we did not even anticipate, was that the people we surveyed made a different connection. It made them think of an old-school outdoor “tent revival” church that, to them, represented a judgmental, even hostile, version of the faith we wanted to show them.
NewDay Church: There was almost no negative feedback on this name. To most, this represented a fresh-start, a new beginning, a “New Day.” We were pleased that this name seemed, at the least, to say what we wanted it to say. But while it received almost no negative feedback, it also seemed to get little recognition at all. Much to our surprise, it was like a wall-flower, only catching about 10 responses total.

Needless to say, we found this whole process very helpful to finding what would and would not connect with the people that we wanted to reach. Please refer to my previous post about Naming a Church if you don’t understand why we would ask non-churched people about what we were going to name our church. In my next post, I’ll share the decision we made about what to name this church, and why we came to that conclusion.

Blessings,

Pastor John