A New Name

What’s in a name?

Names. We all have one, and someone chose it. Mine is Dave (or David), and my parents chose it. That might be true for you as well, or you might have taken someone else’s name, or you might have chosen one for yourself. But I am yet to meet anybody who hasn’t put some thought into those decisions! It feels weighty and important, and rightly so.

In the Bible, God names and renames things over and over again. In the story of Creation, we see God giving things in the universe names (‘sun’, ‘moon’, ‘sky’, ‘land’). And then once people are made they are given the responsibility of naming yet more things. Names matter to God!

But God also gives new names at important points in people’s lives. A man called Abram became Abraham, and his wife Sarai became Sarah. Saul became Paul. Simon became Peter. At key moments in these people’s lives, God bestowed them with a new name, and it was a marker of a new identity. Names matter, so much so that sometimes a new one is needed.

From ‘Beauchief Baptist Church’ to ‘Pathway Church’

As a church, we have changed our name, because we think this is an important moment of change for us. But why? Why now? And why this name?

Names of things can tell a story, and we didn’t think that ‘Beauchief Baptist Church’ was telling the full story. We aren’t just for the area of Beauchief (many of the church aren’t from Beauchief!), and we aren’t just for those who think of themselves as ‘Baptist’. We want to be much more than those two things.

But ‘Pathway Church’ will, we hope, tell a different story over time. We hope the story will be one of being on a journey and others joining on that journey. I believe that for every single person there is a pathway from where they are right now to a full, fulfilled and eternal life. I believe that pathway involves a relationship with Jesus, and as a church we want to help others find that too.

The earliest Christians did something similar. Before the word ‘Christian’ was invented, they were known as ‘followers of the way’. That is because Jesus once said that he was ‘the way, the truth and the life’, and they had decided to follow him as their ‘way’. So ‘Pathway Church’ is our modern version of that!

But why now?

I said earlier that it was at key moments of change that God renamed people in the Bible. And that’s the same for us, too. We are setting out into an experimental phase of our life together and changing a lot of things about what we do as a church. All of it because while we believe Jesus is someone everyone can get to know, we know that not everyone will come to church to do that!

So instead of meeting on Sundays for a more traditional kind of church service, we are going to meet in smaller groups in a variety of places (including homes, our church building, and places like cafés and pubs). We hope that as we do life and faith together in these places, they will be a more inviting place for others who might be interested to explore things of faith too.

Things are changing, so it felt right to mark that with a new identity. So that’s us: Pathway Church. On a journey together with God. Would you like to join us?