A Message from the Church Renaming Committee

Embracing Our Past. Establishing Our Future.

Please join us in a new and exciting chapter in our church’s future. Following the congregation's 2024 vote to remove “Baptist” from our name, the Board of Deacons established a Church Renaming Committee in February 2026 which includes Dean Bowen, Suzette Buchan, Cindy Clemens, Ryan LaPrade, and Ray Owens. They will spend the next six weeks listening, soliciting, discussing, and then recommend potential new names for consideration and approval by the Board of Deacons and, ultimately, the congregation. Nothing will change in our governance—all authority will remain vested in the congregation, the priesthood of all believers, a free pulpit, open to all and closed to none, and our legal status will remain untouched.

As outlined in the history of events below, this long-discussed and needed step reflects our commitment to carrying forward the dream our Church and its members have always possessed—to remain interdenominational, progressive, and grounded in our Covenant.

Listening sessions will be held at 9:00 a.m. in the Church Parlor on the following dates. Everyone is welcome and encouraged to attend:

Sunday, March 29
Sunday, April 12
Sunday, April 19
Sunday, April 26

Feel free to contact any member of the Renaming Committee with any ideas, names, or comments you may have.

For decades, our church has been discussing the wisdom of changing its name to one that does not include the word “Baptist.” The motivation has been the continuing divergence between our beliefs and those of the Southern Baptist Convention. As a Baptist church, the average person unfamiliar with us assumes we are Southern Baptist in our beliefs and tenets. Many in our Congregation felt this was hurting membership growth, yet our pride and devotion to true Baptist tenets and polity kept us from taking action until recently. We wanted to keep “Baptist” in our name and counter any negative associations by educating prospective new members on our welcoming and affirming beliefs and practices.

In 1998, our church split with the Southern Baptist Convention over the issue of women ministers. In 2007, the NC Baptist Convention broke ties with us because of our affirmation of LGBTQ+ persons. As these changes unfolded, internal conversation and support for a name change grew.

A turning point was reached in 2019 when we hired an outside consultant to lead a Church Identity Audit Project. As part of the project, a group of Charlotte community leaders were interviewed one-on-one including leaders from religious organizations, non-profits, educational institutions, and government. Over two-thirds of this group recommended that our church remove the word “Baptist” from our name. This finding was further reinforced by a group of young, church-curious “mystery shoppers” who attended our church for the first time as part of the Identity Project. While the majority reported being favorably impressed by our church, they said they would not have visited us on their own because of our Baptist name.

After the disruption of the COVID pandemic, our church organized a Name Change Task Force that conducted extensive listening sessions over a one-year period, ensuring that every voice in the congregation had opportunity to be heard. Based on this extensive congregational input, the Task Force recommended at the end of 2024 that we change our name. The Deacons approved the recommendation, and a congregational vote was held, with more than 60% of members voting in favor of a adopting a new church name that did not include the word "Baptist." It is important to note that only a name change was approved. Our Baptist polity and principles such as soul freedom, the free pulpit, and congregational authority, etc. will remain intact, and we will continue to teach these commitments in our new member orientation classes.