Since Sunday, we have had quite a few people comment on the name change issue that we talked about briefly on Sunday. The comments have been very good and I appreciate the way people have communicated their thoughts. A few minutes ago, I added the comments to the blog post that came to us by email. I wanted you to be able to see them. Click here to read all the comments that have been submitted so far.
One thing I wanted to mention in response to the comments of several regarding the expense of new signage, stationary, etc. These are good concerns and ones that we have been discussing ourselves. In fact, it is one of the reasons we are dealing with the issue now. Our signage at Otterbein is in need of updates and hasn't been done for some time. We were planning to move forward with it, but wanted to make sure we didn't start doing something that would require us to make additional changes in the next few months if we decided to change our name. Likewise, envelopes, stationary, etc. would need to be changed as our need arises for them and we want to make sure that we have stategically thought this all out to make sure we didn't waste our money. As I already said, these concerns about the cost are things we too have been thinking about and I assure you we would be sensitive about this issue if we decide to move forward with any name change.
Feel free to add additional comments. They will help our leadership team with any decision we decide to make about this.
I agree that we should have a name change. Being in the "younger" class of adults that attend, Otterbein does not send the message to the young adults that it is the church that we are. There are many reasons to change the name, just like Pastor Mike pointed out, and I know for a fact of some people my age that need a church home but will not come due to the way "Otterbein" is viewed. I believe it could be a great change for the church. I love this church and have been coming for almost 13 years, I would love if others would love it for what we are and not what they think we are.
Posted by: Amber Beltz | March 29, 2009 at 05:38 PM