Most people don’t like change. But change happens. Take our church’s building for example. For years people have been saying that we need to update the outside of our “dated” church building. While we were updating the color of our building, our safety lighting, and the dated landscaping, it was also decided that the sign on the southern side of our building should be removed and replaced. The sign originally read “Family Life Center” and to many it came up short in communicating our commitment and love for our Savior Jesus Christ. People who lived in the Rosemont apartments and many who have only ever driven up and down McKinney Street assumed that this building was nothing more than a non-profit center for helping families and that no church meets here. So what should the sign say? What do we want it to communicate?
The word church or Christian means very different things to very different people. To some, those words bring hope and joy to their hearts, but to others they can conjure up memories of pain and hurt. I usually hesitate when someone asks me what I do for a living because I am painfully aware that, as both a therapist and a minister, my titles can be an instant road block to further conversation or relationship to those who have been hurt by others with those same titles. I have also discovered that in Texas, and more specifically the Denton Area, the phrase “church of Christ” also has its own meaning.
To some the title “church of Christ” means Christians meet here and they love Jesus. To others that title has come to mean more than our forefathers meant it to mean. It means that they will take communion on Sundays, preach the word of God, believe in baptism for the forgiveness of sins, sing a cappella, have great Bible classes, have evangelists and not pastors, or even that they are the only denomination in protestant Christianity that is going to heaven. In Denton, the title “church of Christ,” reminds some people of debates and lectures proving that the way we do worship services is the only right way. To thousands that title reminds them of the church they grew up going to, but no longer attend. It’s no wonder that many “churches of Christ” have dropped that title.
For those of you who read this blog and are contemplating who this group of people here meeting at this location calling themselves a gathering of Christian using the language “church of Christ,” are, let me be the first to tell you what that means to us. Simply, “We love Jesus.” When you drive down McKinney Street in Denton and you see our new sign “Singing Oaks Church of Christ” we hope you think about Jesus and His love. Our prayer is that whatever you have heard, good or bad, whatever you have experienced whether in the past here or at another building with the title “church of Christ” that you will open your hearts, check your assumptions at the door, and join us as we journey down the road of life learning how to love Jesus, loving Jesus, and growing in our love for Him and others.
