What's In A Name? Largest Protestant Denomination in America Talking Considering A New Name

By Vince and Lori Williams

The Southern Baptist Convention is going through a time of transition it appears with the proposal of a name addition, it being Great Commission Baptists. What are we to do with this idea of name changes?

Just changing a name doesn't fix an image-this can apply across the board to many names that have a stigma attached to them. Take for example, The Walt Disney name…..when Walt was alive, there was a family oriented sense to it and the theme parks were geared around that concept. Now Disney is synonymous with putting out films, even cartoon ones, questionable material at best. The Little Mermaid, Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules…is all examples of risqué dress of the characters, and promoting mythological figures for our kids to look towards. If Walt Disney saw that his theme parks were turned into a money marketing plethora of these types of characters, we dare say he would not agree. They now support gay pride day at the parks in which his original innocent characters such as Chip and Dale are now paired up in a jaw dropping event.

Name changes have been both successful and non-successful. The only ones we can think of that were a positive name change were when they were given by God. It was to give that person a new identity. For example, Saul to Paul. Simon to Peter. Jacob to Israel. Abram to Abraham. Sarai to Sarah. God changed their names most often for a new purpose for that person, for their converted state, and if you notice when they are being disciplined, He refers to their old name, Peter being the most obvious example of this transaction.

As far as unsuccessful name changes, the following is a very good example. Some people change their name so they become more relevant. Campus Crusade for Christ changed their name to Cru. This is from their own words, "Our surveys show that, in the U.S., twenty percent of the people willing to consider the gospel are less interested in talking with us after they hear the name. We are changing the name for the sake of more effective ministry."

If we keep changing our name to become more relevant to the world (whether they want to admit it or not), we are just appealing to the seeker generation and trying not to be offensive to them. But the Gospel is offensive. Jesus said it Himself; I did not come to bring peace but to bring a sword Matthew 10:34.

So if we are catering to the felt needs of a generation so we don't offend them or turn them off truth, we are not obeying the Scriptures.

The name change does not change an impaired image of a grouping. Especially as a ministry, you have to hold true to the Word, and as long as you are doing that, there should not be an issue. There are no denominations in the Bible. People identified their names to where they came from, not the denomination they belong to. Jesus of Nazareth was not a member of the Nazarene church, he just happened to come from Nazareth. So we believe denominations are not of God, but rather they are in place to create division quite honestly.

Too many have gotten away from preaching Christ crucified as Paul said we are to do in 1 Corinthians 1:23.

If all of the Christians were holding under this umbrella, there would be no problem, but unfortunately we have gotten away from that principle and added man made doctrines and then filtered them under a denominational heading.

Fortunately for the Southern Baptists, they have held onto the conservative values throughout the years to some degree, but there will be hypocrisy in any sect or denomination within a denomination. By this statement we refer to the Protestant umbrella….we are not lumping in Catholics, Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Hindus, etc…that preach another Jesus therefore preach another Gospel. Do the best we can to following the commands the Lord has given us and live those out. Denominations in the Protestant world are not going to evaporate, so until the Lord comes and creates His Kingdom, I think we do the best we can within the local biblical church and share the Gospel with any who would show interest and be careful not to cast pearls before swine.

Thankfully we have some very good pastors within the Southern Baptist denomination that are holding true to the Word and are well known like Al Mohler Jr. and Steve Lawson that we can trust and see that just because they are under a denominational umbrella does not mean the preaching and teaching is bad.