CALVARY. Isnt' that where they killed him? Preacher, you might oughta think about changing the name of your church. Cause nobody wants to go to a "Place of the Skull" and talk about suffering and death and such as that.
And, besides, CALVARY is just an OLD name. If you really want new people to come, y'all need a new name. Say... House of Hope, or SonRise Chapel. Or try something more contemporary sounding like ... Oasis, or it could be something seductive... Pathway to Grace, maybe.
But make it fresh. Let it be about LIFE, for heaven's sake!
That was the suggestion a decade ago. But instead of changing the name, we changed the church!
The Place of the Skull became The House of the Hardheaded Ones -- tenacious saints who wouldn't give up on their church. The hill far away became the lighted crossroads of the neighborhood. The old church got lost and nearly died, but then it found itself born again as the first reconciling church of the Carolinas!
Now celebrating 90 years here, Calvary still stands as a beacon of hope at the corner of Trinity and Elizabeth in Old North Durham, NC. And it's still, in many respects, "outside the walls." But outside is where we find folks who aren't limited to stodgy old norms of properness. At the fringe of Christ's garment we find people from the fringe of society who didn't used to think they belonged. But Jesus goes there, and that's where all of us find our healing.
Calvary ~ where there's hope at the fringes, a deep connection to the center, and plenty of room to wonder and wander around in between.
Progressive Christianity: an oxymoron?
Come to Calvary UMC and see!
