What’s in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet… –William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
With all due literary respect to Mr. Shakespeare, names are actually quite significant. This is especially true in Scripture. From the initial naming of creation in Genesis to the new name the faithful receive in Revelation, the word of God emphasizes the importance a name. Hence, many of the names we see in Scripture communicate something about the identity and attributes of those called such.
- Abraham was the “father of a multitude.”
- The divine name expressed in the letters YHWH reveal something of the eternality, liberty and holiness of the one who is called “I AM.”
- Elijah means “YHWH is my God” and his life bore witness to that reality.
- Jesus means “savior” and Hebrews describes Him as of the order of Melchizedek – the true and better “king of righteousness.”
So what should we call ourselves as we embark on this new season of ministry? As we wade into the waters of a church plant, we need a name which signifies our identity, something which marks who we are and who are long to be.
We are Reformation Church.
Why Reformation Church?
There are lots of possible names that we could have chosen. We could have chosen a name that indicates something of our geography (McKinney Church or The Church that Meets for now at Scott Johnson Middle School – it really rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it?). We could have chosen a name that stressed some sort of denominational relationship (Third Baptist Church, Independent Reformed Church of McKinney, etc.). We could have chosen a name that sounds cool, but is actually confusing (The Hub, The Collective, Fields of Grace, etc.). We could have chosen a name from another language (Logos, Ekklesia, Maranatha). We could have opened up a Bible dictionary and just chosen a bunch of words to put together to form a name (Community Fellowship, Trinity Redemption).
So why Reformation Church?
We think the name is fitting for a few reasons:
- We are a re-formation of a people called out of another church.
Our initial launch team were all previously part of another church in the area, but have been called out of that church to re-form into a new church (interestingly, the Greek word for church – ekklesia – literally originally referred to those who are “called out.”
- Our reasons for leaving that previous church overlap with some of the same reasons for the Reformation.
Many of the reasons that led to re-forming into a new church have to do with a difference of conviction regarding the implications of the sufficiency of Scripture and the nature of authority.
- Much of our passion and angst is to reform the modern evangelical church with its dilution of theology and commitment to unbiblical philosophical presuppositions.
The modern American evangelical church tends to be a mess. Theological conviction is diluted by the constant assault of cultural postmodernism, pragmatism and even pietism. Our hope is to stand against those currents by remaining anchored to the inspired, inerrant, authoritative, and sufficient Word of God.
There are other good churches in our area who are equally committed to glorifying God by making disciples, but in a city of 200,000, there is certainly room for another. We want to be another such church that exults in the glorious truths of the Reformation – sola gratia (by grace alone), sola fide (through faith alone), solus Christus (in Christ alone), sola Scriptura (according to Scripture alone), soli deo gloria (for the glory of God alone).
Semper Reformanda (may the church be ever reforming).