A New Name

“It points back to our history, reminding us where we have come from and at the same time it gives us hope for the future, reminding us of the new partnership we have and all we are working for.”
- A deacon on his decision for the renaming of Northridge Baptist Church.

The Bible gives us numerous examples of name changes - Abram to Abraham, Sarai to Sarah, Saul to Paul just to name a few. Name changes are meant to signify a change in identity. A person is not who they once were; they are someone new, identifying themselves differently and being identified differently as well. A new name is a significant marker of a major change.

“ “We are starting over. We are regrouping with a new zeal for God and a new passion for His mission.””

The same idea is true when it comes to renaming a church with a replant.
It is a hard thing to do - replanting, renaming, changing. But like the name changes in Scripture, a church renaming is a significant marker of major change, needed change.

When a church is replanting and making changes it is, most often, because somewhere along the way, the church has lost its direction and purpose. Sometimes the church has developed a poor reputation in the community. The renaming of the church tells the members of the church, “We are starting over. We are regrouping with a new zeal for God and a new passion for His mission.” A name change tells the community that what was, is no more and something new is happening. It offers a fresh start and a new direction.

When Northridge Baptist Church voted on July 12, 2020 to merge with New City Church and start a new work together, a name change would have to follow. It would be important to the members as well as to the community - a new work was underway.

We began the renaming process several weeks ago, introducing the coming change and asking for suggestions from those attending Northridge.

• After several opportunities to suggest names, a list of all of the suggestions was compiled.

• The list was given to the staff, elders and deacons of New City and Northridge and everyone was asked to pick their top 3 choices.

• The top 3 choices from the main list of names was then presented to the elders of New City and Deacons of Northridge. The elders approved all 3 of the top choices and the deacons discussed the options in a meeting August 5.

• After some discussion the deacons voted for the new church name from the list of 3.

In the end, the name that was agreed on was accepted with this explanation: “It (the new name) points back to our history, reminding us where we have come from and at the same time it gives us hope for the future, reminding us of the new partnership we have and all we are working for.”
The history? Northridge Baptist Church was a church plant from East Side Baptist Church, a church that had much influence in East Macon and at one time had a membership of over 1,000. East Side Baptist Church was a church plant of First Baptist Church in Macon in the late 1800s. The church plant in East Macon’s Mill Village was a missionary outreach to those who lived across the river. The church plant of a church plant.
The Hope? The hope of this partnership is that a church with a long rich history who had lost its way in God’s mission, with a little help, finds its way again. The hope is to see a healthy, thriving church impacting its community, planting and replanting churches in Middle Georgia and around the world. The hope is that this new church would be active in seeing others come to love and follow Jesus for generations to come and that because of the steps taken to replant, together we will celebrate when Jesus comes back and we enter into His new city. “And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” Revelation 21:2-4

What name did the deacons choose?
Welcome to the family, New City Church East Side