There are so many lame youth group names. Lame event names. Lame ministry names in church. I've decided that I don't like acronyms. I can think of stacks of good names that are simply words that may or may not have a deeper meaning. Eg: Proxy, Youth, Crossfire, Change, Velocity, Worthy, Flipside, United, Ignite, Wildside, Massive, Impact, Elevate, Revolution, Phat etc… I also think that generally ones with numbers in them are lame too. Especially ones that refer to the year group that is being catered for… eg. 68 (6-8), 79 (7-9), eleven50 (10-12 – too cryptic). I know of groups with numbers from Bible verses – such as 10:31 (from 1 Cor 10:31) – this is okay. I cannot think of a good acronym. I can think of okay ones… but generally acronyms are a bit 90's… like clip-art!
What makes a good name?
What are good names you've heard of (or use)?
Can you think of any good acronyms?
I met a girl at KYLC whose youth was called L6 or B9 or something. The idea is that if you looked up where they meet on the gregory’s street directory the location corresponds with the grid reference L6 or whatever. Pretty cool I think.
i’ve thought of ones like that before… i think they’re okay.
i’d rather call a venue by that name… ie. come to G37 for our next gathering…
hsm – is ‘high school ministry’
technically it’s not an acronym per se…
but i think it’s not too bad… because it directly describes who the ministry is for… but i guess that’s only if you know what hsm stands for!
Hi david,
I agree that acronyms are lame, and that a lot of the other names that aren’t acronyms are pretty lame too.
One tip though is do research into the name you choose. We have the internet now so there is no excuse.
I knew of a Christian group called ‘Joy Division’, presumably after the band and the emphasis on joy. However if you know the band or if you do a bit of “nosing-around” on the “internet” you would find out that Joy Division the band took the name from a infamous part of Nazi concentration camps where women used as sex-slaves.
Probably not the best association for a Christian group.
Sometimes simple is best.
“Youth Group” so cool that a band stole it.
There is also a Christian group called “The Wild Frontier” in the US, pretty good name – although we are suing them :)
good advice on the check out how others are using the name… *mental note – not good to link to nazi’s*
did you guys have ‘the wild frontier’ first? or are they actually able to sue you?
I am not sure who had it first. I “googled-it” along time ago and nothing came up, but now there are a few different things. Either way we will never have enough money to make it worth while suing us, and as a Christian organisation that doesn’t seem to into the prosperity gospel they probably wouldn’t have enough to make it worth while suing them.
Having said all that I think the first people to use the name is a German thrash-metal hair band which look pretty hilarious, here is their website
nice prosperity gospel jab
i quickly clicked on the german link… funny germans… crazy kids! my last name is germanic.
I agree about acronyms, they don’t carry enough meaning.
“Come to to ABCD”?
Could mean anything.
I think words are better, even one’s with ambiguous meanings.
In defense of numbers, I tihnk eleven:50 is a great name! What about a reference to a bible verse like three:16
If that kind of thing was to work, seems to me the numbers have to be impressive. Three is not an impressive sounding word, and 16 is associated (at least for me) with L-platers!
eleven:50 works because 11 is odd and reasonably big, 50 is even and much bigger. The gap and the contrast, and that it looks balanced when written, make it appeal to me.
So anyone know any bible verses that come from high, odd numbered chapters with contrasting verse numbers? (I’m being facetious here)
One more thing, I found a site that I thought Dave might like:
http://tutorialblog.org/top-10-church-religious-websites/
hey matcham boy – you’re a cack!!
i had a quick look at that link… i’ve seen a number of them before…
i really like the mars hill one.
that soul purpose one is an NZ one… i think relevantmagazine.com is a bit better… the soul purpose one is good design – but they don’t update content enough
peaceout
I partially agree with you. It really depends on how catchy the acronymn is though. I used the acronymn T.H.U.G.S. for our youth group. Talk about an eye opener. Nothing like a bunch of christian teens walking around with the word THUGS written across their shirts. People were constantly asking what it meant…great way to invite people to church. What it stood for: Teens Honoring Unity in God’s Service.
Thanks for the heads up, on this one. Definitely a fan of no acronyms.
I don’t know many (if any) brands that use acronyms, why do Christian groups need them?
My favourite that I have seen at the end of an email is this
CATUOLAATEOE
(Christians against the use of long acronyms at the end of emails)
let’s keep fighting this disease together!!
Hey brutha, great post. I have been in youth ministry for quite a number of years. We have had some pretty dumb names ourselves, but most of them are pretty cool. I think that church stuff almost have an obligation to have dumb names at sometime in their ministry to be worth their salt. However, I think it’s more than just the name that the kids really care about. I know that our leaders never really cared with the name of our group was. We never really used an acronym, but we thought about it many times. We even had one name that was an acronym, but nobody knew that it was an acronym. I guess that kind of makes it null and void. Whatever. Keep up the good work, and do some good ministry for these kids. They need it.
MO
yo mo!
thanks for stopping by.
just check out your blog. keep preaching Jesus :)
peace