Best of the week entry 4

This one is my favorite, one of the best ideas in a long time. Eric Carpenter wonders about the impact of sending an open letter to all of the churches in Savannah, Georgia. In his post, An Open Letter to the Church in Savannah, Eric considers sending a letter to all of the local churches calling on them to abandon the current name of their local church in favor of one name that all would share:

Jesus Christ, our Head, desires, expects, and commands that we be united. This unity is not some sort of theoretical unity (often referred to as 'united in Spirit'). This is real unity. This is allowing nothing to come between us because Christ has united us.

In light of this, let's do something tangible that will show our unity in Christ to our community. Let's change our name to The Church in Savannah. Every local body of believers would get rid of its current name (such as Providence Baptist, Grace Presbyterian, Zion Lutheran, The Church on the Hill, Tapestry Fellowship, The Community at the Coast, etc.) in favor of The Church in Savannah.

Think about that, a name that all Christians in this city would share that speaks to our common faith in Jesus Christ instead of declaring how we are different and separate from one another. Embracing our unity instead of our division. We share a common faith and worship the same Christ, why shouldn't we be unified in name and not just in theory? Eric hasn't sent this letter but I wish he would. I am afraid that his idea wouldn't be very well received. I think it is a great idea but I sometimes think we are more concerned about advertising for "our church" and less about our united witness to the lost in our community.