The Way of Jesus

Preparing for Name Changes

September 13^th marks the official adoption of our new name: The Mills Church.  We will be having a special dedication service for this Kick Off Sunday.  Our name change is ceremonial in that we are marking God’s faithfulness to our congregation over the past 111 years.   We recognize that God is not finished with our church and we are responding to this new season by celebrating and naming it.  The Mills Church has a rich history and a deep future following Jesus.  This ceremony marks a historic future in the hands of a faithful and good God. 

Name Change Basics:

·      Expect the newness of a new name to take some getting used to.  We will have fun embracing the exciting as well as the awkward moments that come with calling ourselves by a new name.

·      Expect to have a sense of loss over our previous name.  Many of us have tremendously meaningful experiences that are associated with Minnetonka Community Church and MCC name.  I encourage you to pay attention to this.  Take the opportunity to capture these experiences and thank God for them.  Pray that people not yet a part of this community will have the opportunity to experience and grow as you have here.

·      We have been coordinating the launch of a new website with our name change.  Our new site can be found at www.millschurch.org.  Our old site will be discontinued, but the domain www.minnetonkacommunitychurch.org will be maintained and forwarded to the Mills Church web site.  Any one seeking Minnetonka Community Church will be directed to our new site and name.

.     We currently can do business as both Minnetonka Community Church and the Mills Church.  Checks are payable to either name.  If you receive offering envelopes sent to your house, they will remain the same Minnetonka Community Church ones for the remainder of this year.  These envelopes are still usable and you can make your checks payable to either the Mills Church or Minnetonka Community Church.   

 

FAQ's on Our Proposed Name Change from Minnetonka Community Church to The Mills Church

Why are we changing the name of our church?

Our proposed new name is in response to the new season of life and ministry that God has been doing among us the past several years.  We have been a community eager to respond to God’s fresh work in our church and we sense that this is both a new chapter and that a new name is an appropriate ceremonial symbol of our church’s history and future.  This will be the third name in our 111 year history as a church. 

Why is the name “The Mills Church” significant?

The main significance is its association with God’s profound work among us.  There is a rich story behind “the Mills Church” name that makes it special on a number of different levels.

   1)  The Mills Church name was first used as the unifying name of our 100 year history book (linking the first two chapters of our church—Minnetonka Union Church and Minnetonka Community Church).  Our future as a church is always connected to our past and I love how The Mills Church reminds us of our rich Christian Heritage.  It also communicates to our neighborhood that Minnetonka Community Church didn’t close down and is now occupied by some other congregation.  The Mills Church signifies a new chapter in the life of the church that is celebrating 111 years in the neighborhood.  (The above picture depicts the plans for a banner that will face baker road in front of the Annex.)

   2)  We are deeply committed to embody the transforming life of Jesus in our neighborhood, city and world…starting right here in the Minnetonka Mills neighborhood.  Our name reminds us not only of our particular church heritage but also our local ministry priority to start right here where we are.

   3)  The Mills Church is a name that encourages us to tell the story of our church and how this community has impacted each of us personally.  It invites each member to add the description of our church.  One of the reasons we are excited about this name change is that it causes us to think about our church afresh and it is an opportunity for us to talk about this transforming community we are a part of.  I hope you take the opportunities a simple name change can provide in having new conversations about Jesus, our community and our creator.  We believe that God’s preferred medium of communication is people, not buildings, logos or signs.  So when you are asked the question “What Kind of Church is The Mills Church?”  you now have a fresh opportunity to tell your story.  “I would love to tell and show you what our church is like”.   Remember, We are the Church. 

   4)  The name The mills church  reminds us that the God we serve is Personal (God works locally, uniquely, and personally;  Uncontainable (His name is just an introduction to the infinite uncontainable God;  and God has been at work Yesterday, Today, and Forever (We are joining a God who has been working and weaving his redeeming history for thousands of years and will continue his work into the future).  I enjoy the name the Mills Church because it is personal, local and unique;  it is not contained and invites curiosity;  and it is new and historic—the name is a part of our history but also signals our future as a Jesus community.

Why are we spending time changing our name?

Our name is an important part of symbolizing our identity as being a community that is responding to the present work of God in our lives.   We recognize that God is not finished with this church and has a great future for us.  Changing our name is a small way that we can demonstrate that as a community we recognize that God has been at work here in a unique way.  We believe that God has been preparing us and laying the foundation for an amazing future in front of us and I believe it is important to mark this ceremonially.

Doing any amount of change in a church is a workout.  And although this is a relatively small change initiative, it is a great opportunity for us to develop muscles.  We want to develop community muscles necessary to be even more responsive and ready when God asks us to take more significant steps together as a church.  Our aim is to be faithful and disciplined in these small matters so that we will be ready and responsive when God entrusts us with bigger kingdom matters.

Does the cross logo have special meaning?

Yes, it was really important when we designed a logo to have the cross be the central symbol for our church.   The form of the Christian cross in our logo incorporates different ways Christians have depicted the cross over many centuries. Our desire is to illustrate that we are a local expression of the universal body of Christ.  Jesus’ death and resurrection unites us with all Christians from every nation and it is our love for each other that best puts Christ on display (Jn 13:34-35).  We value being an interdenominational church that is one part of the entire international body of Jesus Christ. 

The circle around the cross is a traditional way of displaying eternal life found in Christ and the everlasting holiness of the triune God.  We also made a contemporary version of a more ancient expression of the cross to celebrate the rootedness of our church. We come from a long history of God's redemptive history going back to the very first disciples of Jesus all the way up to us today.  We are a part of something fresh that God has been doing for thousands of years.  Our logo aims to weave the ancient and the future together since we serve an everlasting and loving God.

The other layer of the logo is to express our belief that God works through real particular people, in real particular places, in real times.  So our cross is also a subtle water mill hinting at our location in the Minnetonka Mills neighborhood.  The swirl at the bottom of the cross represents water (both the living water which flows from Christ and the water that runs through a flour mill).  Most of the images and stories that Jesus tells are agricultural and most of the ways we actually grow spiritually adopt sound agricultural rather than industrial principles, so I enjoy the subtle interplay between the agricultural and how ministry and transformation actually happens. 

The cross is a theological symbol of the incarnation of God in the flesh of Jesus, and is a reminder of our calling to incarnate the life of Jesus here and now.  The water mill is a sign of our calling to display what the reality of the cross looks like here in Minnetonka Mills.  This is what the cross of Christ looks like here in this neighborhood.  Because God ministers incarnationally, we also will minister incarnationally.

When will the name change take effect?

Pending the congregational vote on Sunday August 16^th , the new name will take effect on Kick off Sunday, September 13^th. 

Will the name Minnetonka Community Church still be used in any capacity?

Yes, we will maintain Minnetonka Community Church as a DBA (Do Business As) name.  This way any business transactions will remain unaffected in the name transition.  (ie…you can write a check out to the Mills Church or Minnetonka Community Church.)  There is a $35 fee to register our new name with the sate.

Then What Shall I Tell Them?

Download "Then What Shall I Tell Them"  Since we make it a practice to teach through all of our change initiatives as a church, in this teaching I lay out some of the underlying reasons that influence how and why we are considering a name change as a congregation.  For me the name change is symbolic of being a community that remembers and responds.  We remember that God redemptive work is profoundly relational and particular, that God's name is uncontainable, and we remember the historic story that we are a part of as the people of God.  In remembering, our posture is made ready to respond to the ongoing call of God in our lives.  As we considered different name possibilities to represent this chapter in the life of our church, it was The Mills Church that captured the particular, uncontainable, and historic aspects of our unique 111 year old congregation. Grace and peace.

The Mills Church: On becoming smaller, particular, and local

The past several years we have deliberated on a name change that could symbolize our history as a church and recognize the renewal and definition that has taken place with our new constitution and by-laws.  The Mills Church is the name that has had the most resonance.  With different groups and people that I have had conversations with there tended to be four responses to this new name 1) “I love it!”  2) “You know I wasn’t sure at first, but it is really starting to grow on me.  I like it.”  3)  “I don’t really have a strong opinion either way.”  4)  How about the Mills (_______fill in the blank) Church.  (We have considered several descriptive words that could be inserted between mills and church.)

If you are hearing the idea of a name change for the first time, do you relate to one of these responses above?  Maybe your response is completely different.  How you feel is important and I’d love to hear your responses.  So far the new feedback from last Sunday has been really positive and those four responses have been representative.  So if your response fits in group #2, unsure of how you feel about the name or the idea of a name change, you shouldn’t feel odd.  It is very normal to take your time to digest a change like this and I encourage you to give it time.  Pay attention to what you are thinking and feeling.  Read these update letters.  We will continue to unpack the why’s, how’s and when’s of a name change over the next several weeks.  And please, don’t hesitate to talk to me.

Our congregation changed the name from Minnetonka Union Church to Minnetonka Community Church in September 1956.  The name was adopted at the beginning of a pastoral transition right before Pastor Ken Churchill’s tenure from 1957-1981.  The rationale for the change:  “It was felt that this name better described an interdenominational church in a rapidly growing community” The Mills Church, pg. 42.

In 1913 and even in 1956 when you said Minnetonka your focal point was Minnetonka Mills.  Now, when you say Minnetonka, you get dispersed from Ridgedale to Shorewood.  It is fascinating to me that the city of Minnetonka is recognizing its lack of a city center and is intentionally addressing this absence in the Upper Minnehaha Creek Corridor Project.  The city doesn’t have a mainstreet but it is seeking to develop a main “green space” with its central feature being the Minnetonka Mills Park across the street from our church.  You can view the plans by going to Minnetonka Mills Park Plans.

I love the pioneering thinking in both 1913 and 1956 around naming this church.  “It was felt that this name better described...”  Over the past three years there has been the same kind of conversations.  “It feels like” it is time again to name this new chapter in the life of our local church.  And one of our priorities in our name is to affirm the local nature of our local church.  We are in Minnetonka, but it is different now.  Minnetonka, as a name, has become generic in its locational specificity.  We recognize that this neighborhood has changed, from “a new and rapidly growing” community in 1956, to the now historic district that invites the sprawling community of Minnetonka together.  We have been doing ministry in the Mills neighborhood for 111 years.  We love that and we are renewing our commitment to be Jesus in this particular neighborhood.  

In a modernized society that has privileged mass production and centralization as the vehicle for maximum impact, we celebrate the small mustard seed reality of the Kingdom of God.  The Kingdom of God germinates in small groups and grows up organically.  It is germinated locally and spread relationally, rather than manufactured for standardized mass distribution.  It is always fresh never canned.  We believe that God desires to partner with local churches.  We believe the church is called to be a sign to the world--putting God’s saving intentions for his world on display.  God’s transformational strategy is local, personal, relational, organic and dynamic.  It starts small and spreads.  We desire to put God’s strategy on display.  And one small way we can symbolize this desire is to make our name smaller, less generic and more local.

shalom.

Introducing: The Mills Church

Abram to Abraham, Sarai to Sarah, Jacob to Israel, Simon to Peter, Saul to Paul.  Name changes are an important theme throughout scripture.  They correspond to God’s calling for service and ministry in the world.  Names call us.  

This year we are celebrating 111 years of ministry in the Minnetonka Mills Neighborhood.  Our church began as a Sunday School in 1898 that grew into a congregation.  The first official name chosen for our church was Minnetonka Union Church in 1913.  It was a pioneering interdenominational church.  Very few communities at this time had the vision to be a union across denominations.  As the church grew, and a new chapter began in the 1950’s, a new name emerged -- Minnetonka Community Church (a good 30 years before churches shed their denominationally distinctive names by adopting community church titles.)  When Anna Gardner oversaw the writing of our history book, which recounts our first hundred years, the unifying name chosen for these first two eras was “The Mills Church”.  

I really like that name, the Mills Church.  It locates us in this historic neighborhood, it recognizes the long history of this wonderful local church, and by adopting its name, it can symbolize our renewed desire to be continually called into what God is doing in this neighborhood, city and world.  God isn’t done leading us.

We have had several different teams bring up and discuss the idea of a name change over the last few years.  Finishing our work on our founding documents last year and the collective sense that this feels like “chapter three” in the history of our local church keeps bringing this up as an appropriate consideration.  And the name The Mills Church is what keeps bubbling to the surface.  It’s a name that signifies both continuity and renewal, our history and our future.  These conversations on a name change all affirmed a common sense that God is at work among us in a fresh way, that there is a renewed expectancy and desire to be fully used by God in ways beyond what we can ask or imagine.  This is the prayer that is and I believe will come to mark us out in this new chapter, “God we long for our neighbors, our friends, and those we have yet to meet to come into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ.  We long to partner with you, as you restore our relationships with each other, with you and this world.  Form us and lead us, our Savior and our King, Amen.”

A lot needs to take place before any official change is made to our name.  I introduce this to you today in light of our 50 days of Easter celebration.  We are an Easter people and Easter is the day everything changed.  We will take the summer to communicate as a congregation and formalize our process moving forward.  Our goal is to fully implement any changes made in time for our Fall Kick Off in September.  I am sure you have questions and more will be communicated in the coming weeks.  Please don’t hesitate to call, email, or drop in to talk.  I invite all of us to reflect on and pray the above prayer.  Let’s make it our own and may God take us where he wants us to go.  Shalom.