“A rose by any other name …”
I am so tired of how the whole concept of “church” and “religious community” has been co-opted by the conservative among us. They’re entitled to use the terms, for sure, but so are those of us on the Christian Left. (Check them out at http://www.thechristianleft.org/ or on Facebook and Twitter) I remember in seminary feeling like “I want my Jesus back.”
Well, guess what! “Jesus” and “Christian” DO issue forth from my lips and I rather like it because J (as I call him … we’re on a first letter basis) was/is a kick-@## kind of guy and one I can really relate to. He IS a figure for the 21st century.
But what about those places where we gather to talk about him and his rockin’ ways? Do we have to call it “church?” What awful associations that word has with hypocrisy, and killing people (hello, Inquisition), with antisemitism, heterosexism and use of abusive power. I mean really … why WOULD anyone want to join a group with that kind of history and bad press.
If only we could use another word … “fellowship” is just to male for me … what are some more ideas?
See … until we can get people passed that whole association-thing, it will be nearly impossible t get them to envision what it MIGHT be like to have a group of like-minded people living a collective life working toward justice for ALL everywhere, with no strings (you have to believe or you don’t get the help) attached.
Sometimes I think small “house gatherings” are the way to go and have them all be “pods” connected to each other so that once a month everybody would come together for a larger group experience.That might be cool. And share the expenses, governance, etc.
Enough for this morning. My brain’s gonna fall out now.
Hope you have a good day wrestling with some of this stuff.
Deb
Transformational Whispers 
While I’m not personally bothered by the use of the words “church” and “Christian”, I do agree that they have developed some negative connotations that drive people away. I also think that a dialogue about new terminology could breathe new life into both churches and Christians by making us stop and think about what we mean when we say these words.
How about we call ourselves the “J-Tones” and get together for worship at the “hizzle”?
Okay, that might not work for everybody.
Being hopelessly analytical, first I had to check out the derivation of the word church. According to Merriam-Webster, it comes ultimately from the Greek, “neuter of kyriakos of the lord, from kyrios lord, master” and its first known use was before the 12th century. Makes sense, although I know people who are uncomfortable with the lordship aspect of God and Christ and prefer to focus on the loving, nurturing aspects. And I think that if we are going to reach people, those are the aspects we should focus on. Turning to Roget, I was surprised to see among the synonyms the word “fold”. That’s more the direction I was looking for. While exploring on a cool website I found (warning, it’s not free–see note at the end), I was led to “flock” which I think is even better…it intersects with “faithful” and “congregation” at a point described as “a group of people who adhere to a common faith and habitually attend a given church.” (A nearby synonym is “troop,” defined as “an orderly crowd,” but that doesn’t necessarily describe some of my favorite churches. )
Bottom line, I don’t have an immediate answer but I will keep thinking about it.
Do we know what the “early church” (folks in Acts, for example) called themselves?
Note: My surfing today took me to a very cool website, http://www.visualthesaurus.com. However, I must warn you that you can only look up one word at this site before you must subscribe (with a credit card number). When you subscribe they offer a 14-day trial period during which they say you can cancel your subscription and your card will not be charged.
Can’t WAIT to find out what your further work might surface. But you’re RIGHT … this is EXACTLY the kind of discussion that “churches” and “Christians” should be having because we ALL underestimate the power of language.
Funny, since John so clearly states that “in the beginning was the word …” 🙂