Church naming conventions

When looking at our Rusk County history through the lens of Baptist history, one interesting feature is the church names – that is, the names by which one local Baptist congregation identifies itself as distinct from other local Baptist congregations. By far the most common are names based on Bible places and names based on the location of the church building (by town, street, etc.). Some names may incorporate more than one feature. For now I have categorized the church names into 9 divisions.

1. Auxiliary names.

Names that are auxiliary, that is they help distinguish with a simple identification often in reference to chronology, such as being the “first” church, “new” church, or “original” church.

First, Second, Greater, New, Old, Original. 

2. Bible names.

These names can be found in the Bible one way or another – most often from a place mentioned in the Bible. 

(Bible places) Antioch, Bethel, Calvary, Corinth, Ebenezer, Emmanuel, Enon, Macedonia, Mount Hebron, Mount Zion, Sardis, Smyrna, Zion; (Bible concepts) Grace, Middle Cross, Providence, Trinity; (Bible people) St. John, St. Paul.

3. Geographical feature names.

Features such as creeks, flats, hills, and valleys. There are quite a few “mount” names, but generally they are from Bible names (and may or may not relate to a “mountainous” land feature). Sometimes the geographical features become location/place names.

Beech Creek, Cool Springs, Gum Springs, Hickory Flat, Hickory Grove, Pine Grove, Valley Grove; (geographical feature + Bible name) Zion Hill.

4. Location or place names.

Just as described, the name is based on the where the church meets.

(communities and towns) Arlam, Glenfawn, London, Millville, Minden, New Salem, Stewart, Turnertown; (streets and roads) Longview Drive, Tyler Road, West Main; (neighborhoods) Highland Park, Shawnee Village (general direction/location) Eastside, Southside, Midway, County Line.

5. Personal/family names.

These are names that is based on the name of a person or family. There seem to have been only a few of these. St. Clark in Henderson may be one of these, but I do not yet know the origin of their church name.

Jameson Memorial (former name of First Free Will Baptist, named in honor of E. S. Jameson), Isabel Chapel (variant spelling of the Isbell family name), Mount Homer (former name of Henderson Primitive Baptist), perhaps after Homer Phillips or Homer Pool).

6. “Pleasant” names.

This is a term I am using for names often based on a biblical concept – such as “unity.” Some names combine the “pleasant” concept with another feature, such as geographical: Forest Home, Good Hope, Pleasant Grove, Pleasant Hill, Union Grove, and Union Spring.

Fairview, Fellowship, Friendship, Greater Love, Harmony, Heritage, Liberty, Maple Grove, Open Door, Unity, Victory. 

7. “Chapel” names. 

Chapel is a very common designation for Baptist meeting places in the United Kingdom, but it does not seem to be used as much in the U.S. 

Chapel Hill, Christian Chapel, Crims Chapel, Isabel Chapel, Jacobs Chapel, Owen’s Chapel, Smith Chapel.

8. Miscellaneous/uncategorized names.

(Texas history) Fredonia, Lone Star; (denominational/theological) Bible Baptist, Landmark; (patriotic?) Mount Vernon.

9. Spanish names.

The Spanish church names currently are “auxiliary” (Primera/First), “Bible” (El Cordero de Dios/The Lamb of God; El Camino/The Way) and “pleasant” (Nueva Esperanza/New Hope).

Another aspect of church names is the “sub-denominational” name (a name that tells what kind of Baptist). Many Baptist churches in their church names identify and denominate themselves within a certain type or affiliations of Baptist – Bible Baptist, Free Will Baptist, Missionary Baptist, Primitive Baptist. Southern Baptists usually give a clue on their signage as to their being Southern Baptist (SBC initials, the SBC logo) and churches in the ABA and BMAA sometimes do that as well. The group name “Primitive” was first a designation after an 1830s division of Baptists in the United States, “we are the original or primitive Baptists.” It came to be used as a sub-denominational identifier. Some earlier group identifiers are no longer used in Rusk County, such as Colored, Free, Predestinarian, Separate, and United.

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Note: A sub-denomination is a “subordinate denomination or class,” that is, Baptist being the denominational name of churches holding a common denominator of beliefs, and the sub-denominations being those who diverge from one another because of other distinct doctrinal differences.