When we began to consider a LOCATION change for our Sunday morning worship gatherings, many other considerations came to the surface. One of those was the current identity of our local church. As we began to "shop" for potential locations and have conversations with other churches who had already taken the step that we are about to, we learned that having a singular location specifically identified in the church name becomes confusing if/when the church changes locations.
Historically, throughout our brief American tradition, churches were named because of the location in which the people who attended the church lived. In the 1800's, within an agricultural perspective, it would have been crazy for someone living in Cobleskill to attend church in Middleburgh or Sharon Springs because the travel time would negatively have impacted their personal farms & livelihood. But in our world today this kind of commuting happens every Sunday, everywhere across the country.
Our current name identifies the village of Cobleskill, which we know in our current culture defines the location of the church building, but the actual "CHURCH" is spread out all throughout Schoharie County and beyond. (remember that the church is the people, and the building is simply a tool for the CHURCH to utilize)
As we began to think about the dynamics of our Sunday morning worship gatherings, not knowing where they might take place 12 month from now or 3 years from now, we sensed that now was the perfect time also for a name change.
When we began to consider this change we knew immediately that a decision like this would not impact our identity as a Wesleyan church. A name change will not alter our affiliation and connection with the Wesleyan denomination. The Wesleyan church has a phenomenal legacy and lineage that we will continue to be a part of with great churches, pastors, and leaders through our district in eastern New York and across New England.
So, what does this name change really mean?
our God remains the same...
our Savior remains the same...
His Spirit remains the same...
our core remains the same...
our vision remains the same...
our identify remains the same...
our mission remains the same...
our denominational connection remains the same...
It simple means that our location will change...
therefore our name needs to change as well to accompany the location shift.
So far, we have asked you to assist us in brainstorming ideas for the church name and many great church names have been submitted and we are now in the process of wrapping up the search and moving forward towards the decision of a new identifying name for our church.
To echo something that I shared one month ago in our Sunday morning worship experience... I (Fetter) don't really care what the new name ends up to be. I am not personally invested with some awesome church name in mind. But, I do believe that what God is guiding us to discover will more effectively describe who we are, and be much easier for us to communicate to our communities what we are all about!
I don't really care what the name ends up being, but hatever it is, the name of a church that is printed on a banner or a building DOES NOT hold a candle to the GOD at the CENTER of its worship. Chances are, someday in the future, a couple of generations from now, the name we identify this church with in the next 60 days, will be changed again, and that is ok, because we believe that Jesus will still be the focal point of the worship then, no matter what the sign on the building reads.
If you have suggestions or ideas that you feel help to identify who we are and what our mission is, please submit them as soon as possible to the church office and we will add it to the list of names we are currently considering. And please, please, please, please... continue to pray over our church leaders as we try to humbly and wisely navigate every "next step" of the process as God's leads.
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