Church slogans
‘Welcoming, growing, sending.’ This is the slogan we use at 5.00 church at St Paul's Carlingford, inherited from somewhere or other and invented by I don't know who!
I have no idea whether it is the world's best slogan, and it's not something I spend a great deal of time thinking about. But, like all slogans that actually work, it's pretty good if you explain it the right way.
You are welcomed into the church by being welcomed into relationship with God through the once-for-all sufficient sacrifice of Jesus' blood shed on the cross.
The church grows numerically as people hear about Jesus, put their trust in him and join us. People grow in the knowledge and love of God as they hear his word and as we pray for each other.
We send people into the mission field and into other churches, so that they can keep praising God for his salvation from sin and seeing people welcomed into relationship with him.
The risk and temptation is to take a slogan like the one we have, and turn it into a description of friendly activities and a good vibe—at which point we are simply a community service organization or a group that has a common hobby. I think I'm tempted to describe the church in ways that don't even mention Jesus (and you'll notice that ‘welcoming, growing, sending’ doesn't!). Doing so makes it sound friendlier and less terrifying, and manages in one fell swoop to lose our reason for being.