Leadership, Ministry Reports, Uncategorized

Help Us Name A Church

In January 2017 we settled on the name “Market Common Community Church” for the new work we trust God to do here.  In March we found out that we cannot use the trademarked name in our church name.  SO — would you take time to read the message below and pray and send me any ideas for a name by May 31?  Thanks

Aristides was a Greek philosopher who died around 134 AD.  The Roman Emperor, Hadrian, asked Aristides to study the Christians and report on whether they were a threat to the Empire.   Read these selections from his research below.

“But the Christians… show kindness to those near them; and whenever they are judges, they judge uprightly…

They do good to their enemies…

If one of them have bondsmen and bonds women or children, through love towards them they persuade them to become Christians, and when they have done so, they call them brethren without distinction.  They do not worship strange gods, and they go their way in all modesty and cheerfulness.  

Falsehood is not found among them; and they love one another….And he, who has, gives to him who has not, without boasting.  And when they see a stranger, they take him into their own homes and rejoice over him as a very brother…

And if they hear that one of their number is imprisoned or afflicted on account of the name of their Messiah, all of them anxiously minister to his necessity…

And if there is any among them that is poor and needy, and they have no spare food, they fast two or three days in order to supply to the needy their lack of food…

Such, O King… is their manner of life… And verily, this is a new people, and there is something divine in the midst of them.”

This describes the kind of church I long to be a part of.  As we ask God to establish a church based in the Market Common District of Myrtle Beach, SC this is what I am asking God to raise up.

We found out that we cannot use the name “Market Common” in the name of the church.  So help me out.  Send me ideas for what you would name a church we are seeking to start?  Send your submissions by May 31 to roymking@gmail.com  Thanks

Aristides, “The Apology of Aristides the Philosopher,” in the The Ante-Nicene Fathers, first series, original supplement to the American edition, vol. 10, ed. Allan Menzies (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1965)., 276-78.

 

Standard
Questions Coaches Hear

Why plant more church’s here in Columbia, SC or even the US, when there are so many church’s here already?

This question is from a student at Columbia International University www.ciu.edu.

1) Our world is changing and that includes how people respond and become disciples of Jesus.  Once churches are over 20 years old many begin to lose their flexibility to make necessary changes.  They have diminished desire to be risk takers — often a necessary ingredient to be able to reach people.

2) Leadership tends to be expressed in a generation.  As a new generation emerges the leadership for that generation needs ways to carry out the leadership mantle.

3) There is a false assumption in the question.  Resources to reach the least reached and unreached on the planet is not exhausted by planting new churches where the church is already established.  The problem is a lack of focus, commitment and generosity by the established church to reach those outside their circles of influence.

4) Often new churches are more invested in local, regional and global witness than older churches.

Standard