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About

"DAVID MIERS is reported to be in the top 10 cage fighters in Gosford. He has some serious dish washing skills and thinks that Elizabeth Bennet is hot. Although he thinks that his wife Rowena is hotter. David works in youth ministry for a great church. Likes to: speak in third person, watch and play soccer, eat food and surf the web. He has never watched Star Wars."

Youth Ministry: Acronyms are lame

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?

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  • Blogger Aaron Plunkett says so:
    Monday, April 02, 2007 9:18:00 am  

    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. top

  • Blogger Dave Miers says so:
    Monday, April 02, 2007 9:22:00 am  

    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... top

  • Blogger Dave Miers says so:
    Tuesday, April 03, 2007 10:40:00 am  

    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! top

  • Blogger Christopher says so:
    Tuesday, April 03, 2007 2:58:00 pm  

    This comment has been removed by the author. top

  • Blogger Christopher says so:
    Tuesday, April 03, 2007 3:00:00 pm  

    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 :) top

  • Blogger Dave Miers says so:
    Tuesday, April 03, 2007 3:09:00 pm  

    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? top

  • Blogger Christopher says so:
    Wednesday, April 04, 2007 9:50:00 am  

    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 top

  • Blogger Dave Miers says so:
    Wednesday, April 04, 2007 4:41:00 pm  

    nice prosperity gospel jab

    i quickly clicked on the german link... funny germans... crazy kids! my last name is germanic. top

  • Anonymous Anonymous says so:
    Friday, April 06, 2007 8:28:00 am  

    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/ top

  • Blogger Dave Miers says so:
    Friday, April 06, 2007 2:38:00 pm  

    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 top

  • Blogger Eaglepreacher7 says so:
    Thursday, November 15, 2007 3:54:00 am  

    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. top

  • Blogger Amy G says so:
    Friday, June 05, 2009 2:01:00 am  

    We have one for a city-wide youth ministries group. It is HEY which stands for Hutchinson Ecumenical Youth. And it gets others attention. top

  • Anonymous Discipleman says so:
    Monday, March 22, 2010 6:23:00 pm  

    L.I.T. is the name of our youth group. Has many meanings and attracts many people from different walks of life.

    It stands for leaders in training, but originally wasn't an acronym. I was asked about it and they were tying it with being "lit" with a little green plant with hairs and 5 leaves. So i kinda just made up the leaders in training and it stuck.

    Originally it was tied more to "hearts on fire" or being "lit" by the holy spirit. "Acts" top