Jude 2

I was curious if anyone in this oranization could explain something to me. I grew up in The church of God of Prophecy and I now notice most of them in this area are not under the official name anyonger. The Ones I see are called
"family worship center"
"Community worship center"

Things of that nature. Ocassionally you will see real small at the bottom of the sign " a ministry of the COGOP" but I hardly even see that anymore.
Not that this is a bad thing but I am curious why the change?

There are probably as many reasons as there are name changes.

I can give you a few reasons.

1. "Church of God of Prophecy" is a mouthful.

2. "Church of God of Prophecy" is not understood by most. I've had people stop at the parsonage from the highway and ask me to prophesy over them.

3. "Church of God of Prophecy" has a bad reputation and has left a bad taste in a lot of peoples memories and experiences.

4. People don't care WHO you are...People care WHAT you are. Why not make your name something that will catch their eye.

Shellie wrote:There are probably as many reasons as there are name changes.

I can give you a few reasons.

1. "Church of God of Prophecy" is a mouthful.

2. "Church of God of Prophecy" is not understood by most. I've had people stop at the parsonage from the highway and ask me to prophecy over them.

3. "Church of God of Prophecy" has a bad reputation and has left a bad taste in a lot of peoples memories and experiences.

4. People don't care WHO you are...People care WHAT you are. Why not make your name something that will catch their eye.

When I was a kid my classmates would go around the table asking what religion everyone was... most kids would say Baptist or Methodist. I NEVER knew what to say. I made up "Prophecysts." (Pronounced: Prah-fuh-cysts) A few times I tried "The Church... you know the one Jesus started." That didn't go over well...

My pastor tells me now that we are semi-costal. I am just glad to have an official title I can tell people.

Our local church name is City Life Worship Center. the organization and denomination we belong is Church of God of Prophecy. Our Church sign presents a true understanding of our local church:
City Life Worship Center, a ministry of Church of God of Prophecy.
http://www.citylifeworshipcenter.org/



our church sign has the letters large enough to read from at least a couple blocks away.
http://www.citylifeworshipcenter.org/images/040818desktop.jpg
the above is a desktop background that is a picture of our building and sign. - kinda large, so I linked, instead of embedding it in the post.

the Hispanic church that was recently organized (was a "mission work") is Luz del Mundo. the sign has their local church name in larger letters with the denomination organization affiliation in smaller letters as well:

th picture does not do it justice, as you can read the (Spanish) Church of God of Prophecy from at least a block away as well.

neither pictures of the signs seem to be clear, but in person, you know to what organization we belong.

My opinion is that it's about the local church trying to be more relational and relevant to the local community. COGOP isn't a local, relational, relevant, understandable, recognizable name that people will visit, necessarily.

we want a harvest of spirits, and to bring folks to Christ for His Kingdom. that is a difficult task if peoples perceptions of us are misconceptions.

I will give a short version of my testimony as an example.

I have been married before. While doing undergraduate work, I had several comparative religion studies. I knew what the "splinter group" COGOP was. my first wife was still alive, and so I knew that the COGOP considered that a continuation in sin and that I wasn't saved.

I completely disagreed with that paradigm, because I know that ALL my sins had been taken care of at the cross. and as I was putting on the new man (sanctification), my sin nature was being done away with as well.

In any case, the local independant church I attended adn ministered in, had made some changes and the bottom line was that they were going to merge with the local COGOP. To me, this was anathema, and I was going to leave. I didn't need a bunch of self-righteous people tellnig me I wasn't saved.

FORTUNATELY, I obeyed God and stayed and had some conversations with teh local pastor who loved me, and had no judgmental attitude at all toward me or my wife (who was also married before). In fact, the entire congregation was very loving and kind-hearted, just like I was used to at our independent church!

Had I not been obedient to God, and gone with what I "knew", I would not be a member of the COGOP, a licensed teacher and seeking ordination in this denomination. will it be an easy task for me to be ordained? nope, but it is much closer that when I first joined and wasn't even allowed to be a member!

The sign and name change came a bit after I joined. would it have made a difference to me if it was like it is now, before I joined? yes, absolutely.

hope that helps.

Shellie wrote:There are probably as many reasons as there are name changes.

2. "Church of God of Prophecy" is not understood by most. I've had people stop at the parsonage from the highway and ask me to prophesy over them.

4. People don't care WHO you are...People care WHAT you are. Why not make your name something that will catch their eye.

The main reasons why we are now Kirkland Family Church.

This is not just a CoGoP thing though. I have seen other denominations doing the same thing for a while now.

Paully_44 wrote:...
This is not just a CoGoP thing though. I have seen other denominations doing the same thing for a while now.

for as long as I can remember. I don't recall, as example ever seeing a "The Roman Catholic Church", but there are many with "St. so and so" names and other locally recognizable names.

our new name is central community church (a ministry of church of god of prophecy) in smaller letters at the bottom. the point is so the town we are in connects to the local level because that is what most will know. i have grown up in cogop so thinking of the church as world wide and we are a cell group of the world wide church is normal to me but this does not make much since to most new people. changing the name did not go over good with everyone but it had to be done as we are moving into a new location and buildings soon and we want this community to know that we are church to the community first and a church to the rest of the world as well.

Shellie wrote:
2. "Church of God of Prophecy" is not understood by most. I've had people stop at the parsonage from the highway and ask me to prophesy over them.

Did you do it in King James or NIV style or Jack Bauer style? (Couldn't resist)

I am with Shellie it is a mouthful -

One former GO stated "Any institution that does not adapt to its times will be obsolete within 5 years"

Change has to happen even if we do not want it. Changing the name can do wonders for some churches.

KB

There's been some thought on changing the name of ours.

I think most of our people are for it.

We got a new pastor about 6 months ago. He has gotten at least 3 phone calls that I know of from people wanting him to prophecy over them. I can't wait til we have a name change!

Ilovebigcats wrote:When I was a kid my classmates would go around the table asking what religion everyone was... most kids would say Baptist or Methodist.

A few times I said I was Pentecostal. I didn't realize at the time what I was affirming.

pa

We are officially changing the name of our church tomorrow

From Harvest Chapel Fellowship to Cedar Ridge Church!

Reasons: Too many churches in the area with Harvest in their name....and a big wof church was Harvest International....went broke after building a huge building cause it was prophecied that it should be

We are too large to be called a "chapel"

Fellowship is a 90's paradigm and people have moved away from that.

The best names are those that designate a location!

Anyway...no matter what is over the door....people will judge it by it's history.....a bad impression in the community will not be wiped away by a name change.

If I pastored a church I would name it something like Our Lady of the Hills Holy Fellowship Of Our Lord And Savior Who Died On The Cross, or something like that.

In all seriousness, I think a lot of the individual church name changes are indicative of what I call the "de-centralization" of COGOP. Our churches are being filled more and more with people who have no clue of what COGOP is, and they are more focused on the church at a local level, not some large organization. Which is a good thing, IMHO.

As for my local church, it's COGOP but we don't print it on anything, advocate COGOP (except for some regional events like Camps, Conventions, etc.). We deal strictly on a local level, while maintaining a very loose tie with the formality that is called the Church of God of Prophecy.

EagerBeaver wrote:If I pastored a church I would name it something like Our Lady of the Hills Holy Fellowship Of Our Lord And Savior Who Died On The Cross, or something like that.

man, that is just hilarious!! thanks for the laugh chris!

wendy k