If you were given the great honor and responsibility to re-name your current church or to start a new congregation and name it, what would you name it and why? (This poll is open to all denominations, however, any comment without the reason why you gave it that name will be deleted)
I'll start: Holy Archangels Evangelical Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod
Why? The Holy Archangels are God's sacred messengers sent to give the good news of the coming of His Messiah, Jesus Christ. St. Gabriel appeared to Zechariah, giving him the news of the coming Forerunner and the coming Christ (Luke1:5-24) and again proclaimed the birth of the Christ to the blessed Virgin Mary (Luke 1:26-38)
The Archangel, St. Michael, is also a holy messenger of God whose name means "who is like God". Not only does Michael proclaim God's Word faithfully, as when contending with the devil over the body of Moses (Jude 1:9), he also is given the charge over the angel legions to wage war against Satan and cast him into the pit (Daniel 12, Revelation 12:7-17) Because of this power over Satan and his name, some theologians think Michael the archangel is at least a type of Christ if not Christ Himself (sermon on the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels preached by Rev'd President Matthew Harrison from Issues, etc.)
Since the Holy Archangels deliver God's message of Law and Gospel faithfully and perfectly, as well as proclaiming the Incarnate Lord, I think it is a wonderful confession to name a church Holy Archangels because this is what we must always be doing in Christ's Church.
3 comments:
God Dead on a Cross Evangelical Orthodox Catholic Church of the Seven Ecumenical Councils and the 1580 Book of Concord. It just sums things up and would eliminate any space on the sign that could be used in the future for stupid sayings like "Jesus is my BFF." It might also confuse some Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic folks enough to get them to walk in. Also, "God Dead on a Cross" has some shock value. In fact, just "God Dead on a Cross" might be a better choice.
Transfiguration Lutheran Church
- never heard of one
Christ Crucified Lutheran Church
Divine Service Lutheran Church
(even more outside the box, eh?)
Means of Grace Lutheran Church
Christ Alone Lutheran Church
hmmmm... I think I like "Christ Crucified" the best.
Holy Theotokos Evangelical Catholic Lutheran Church of the Unaltered Augsburg Confession.
Why? Because Lutherans need to reclaim all the words that belong to us, and it's a good thing to confess that Mary was a forgiven sinner (Holy), is the mother of God (Theotokos), that we are centered around the Gospel (Evangelical), that we confess the universal Christian faith of all times and all places (Catholic), that we are in the tradition of Martin Luther (Lutheran), and that we confess the faith as it was confessed in 1530 in the Augsburg Confession.
Also, it's just fun.
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