Naming your ministry
Posted on 26. Oct, 2009 by Kenny in Fresh Ideas
I’ve been thinking a lot about ministry names lately.
Currently the name of Gateway’s Children’s Ministry is Kid’s Quest. Kid’s Quest was well branded here, but I feel a new name and new look is just around the corner for us, maybe launching a new look near the end of 2010.
Here’s what I’ve been thinking about. It seems like 5-10 years ago, it was a lot more common to find ministries with unique names. Now it seems it’s a lot more common for the Children’s Ministry to have some iteration of the church’s name. This makes total sense to me as you’re furthering the brand of the church through your ministry.
I’ve been a part of a few churches where we’ve renamed the ministry to sync up with the church’s name such as CT Kids (Cross Timbers), Anchor Kids (Anchor Church) and GBC Kids (Graceland Baptist Church). Even when I look around, I see other leading churches that do this as well: LifeKids (Life Church), KidSpring (NewSpring), Kids on the Move (Church on the Move) and so many others (Although there are still plenty of big and influential churches that don’t follow this thought).
So, what are you thoughts on this?
11 Responses to “Naming your ministry”
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jonathan
26. Oct, 2009
I’ve stuck myself with an inherited name, because it was so identified by families within the church. I think if I changed it, people would still call it the old name.
The only comment I have is to “respect the Z.”
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Spencer Click
26. Oct, 2009
If you can change the name of your Children’s ministry to be a reflection of your church’s name I think it’s great. You save yourself from having to put a tag line on everything. “The children’s ministry of…”
It’s where we’re heading…right now the CM is called KidsWorld – in the spring we’ll be changing to Bethel Kids. We will become instantly identified with our church…
Rebekah
26. Oct, 2009
We have done the same thing at Oak Leaf Church. We were KidVenture for nearly 3 years. This August we launched a new curriculum and a new name, Oak Leaf Kids. What spurred the re-branding was when we chose to change the name of our student ministry from Fuel to Oak Leaf Students. Through many conversations about students and why so many teens are committed to their youth group and not the church, we have been emphasizing that they are a part of Oak Leaf Church. Since then, we have had students rise up as leaders and serve with Oak Leaf Kids with such passion.
it’s just a name, but changing our focus with the name has made great strides for us as a church.
Sarah
26. Oct, 2009
We changed our name when our whole church re branded last year.
I think it’s really good to have a name that ties in with the church name – partly for the un-churched community so that they can make connection.
It’s also good for the kids and parents – a name that’s connected to the church shows that the kids ministry is connected. We’re building the house of God, not the house next door.
David Wakerley
27. Oct, 2009
So we went with the simple Church inspired – Hillsong Kids kinda naming idea.
My thinking is that with five age groups (Cubbyhouse, Ark, Fun House, All Stars and Voltage) parents don’t really care or don’t need to care about more names within a ministry. If there was a way to get rid of age group names I would.
Keep it strong and simple is my thoughts.
Dave
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collin
27. Oct, 2009
I inherited ‘Kids on the Rock’ and my wife hated it. So finally we’re changing/rebranding to C4 Kids. Our church’s strategy is C4 (Connecting to God, Connecting to Others, Ministry, and the World) so we’re jumping on board with that. Plus, we can get creative with C4, huh? Can you say Explosive Children’s Ministry?!
Kendra Golden
27. Oct, 2009
I think Rebekah struck on something that is key. Renaming the same old thing is tough to create momentum around and can lead to confusion. Tying the change to a real difference (like curriculum or age groups or a remodel or church branding) is way better.
We recently had to rename our 5th and 6th experience from FUSE (which I loved) to THE LOOP (which I think is silly) after only a year because another church wouldn’t grant us permission to use the name (Since we give away curriculum with the branding. Weird, huh?). People are struggling to get what happened, especially since the Fuse name was only a year old itself. It occurred with a real difference though, a change from a 4th-5th room to a 5th-6th room.
To David, I think room names for age groups are important. If I’m in the kdg room and move to the first grade room, that’s pretty boring. But the names create mystique and anticipation. Especially ones like David’s which are each cooler and more exciting as you move up. If I were in any one of his rooms as a kid, I would be totally stoked to move up to the next.
This Week in Children’s Ministry for 10/28/2009
28. Oct, 2009
[...] Maybe it’s time to think about naming Your Children’s Ministry. [...]
Cheryl
18. Nov, 2009
I have just been thinking about this! So glad I ran across your article. Our church is Liberty Hill General Baptist Church. (quite a mouthful) And to date, our children’s ministry has simply been Liberty Hill General Baptist Church Children’s Ministry. (an even bigger mouthful!) Our Youth is not necessarily called “The Hub”, but that is their location or where they meet within our church. It is called this because we are a growing rural church in the middle of several area communties, which is frankly, pretty awesome and I love the name and the idea that we are “the hub”. I think the youth simply choose to be Liberty Hill Youth.
We use several different “named” curriculum within our children’s ministry and I don’t want to name our ministry to follow this, I would like a unique name. I like the idea of syncing with the church name and have even thought of “Freedom Kids” to go along with “Liberty Hill”, but am not necessarily fond of using all that one would think should accompany a name like this, ie…stars, stripes, red, white and blue…. Anyone else have a cool thought?
Kenny
18. Nov, 2009
I love Liberty Hill Kids! It’s got a great fell. Freedom Kids is cool too, but then you’ve got that separate name from the rest of the church you have to wrestle with it being ok or not. Just my opinion, but I’d run from “Liberty Hill General Baptist Church Children’s Ministry” as fast as you can.That’s just painful.
Kenny
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12. Jan, 2010
We started a new church “New Beginnings Worship Center” do you have any comments to youth and children’s ministry names? Of course, ultimately it will be birthed through prayer.