Would a title edit be considered repurposing? Local church that just changed name, nothing else

Nomination Support
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Related to this…

In the US there are several Protestant denominations having “struggles” over what they believe on various social issues. As a result congregations are leaving these denominations and either becoming independent, forming a new denomination, or joining another existing one.

In the minds of the congregations, they are the same community. They are the same church. Yes, their name and even denominations are changing but that is all.

I would not say that is “repurposing”. Unfortunately with title and description edits one does not get to provide evidence or back up for the proposed changes. We can also expect that reviewers may not be aware of what is happening in the various churches. Thoughts?

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This is from the website of a church where I got a name and description edit approved:

“Shiloh was formed in 1814 after an acre of land was donated for the purpose of establishing a meeting house for the Methodist Church. Through the years, and after several generations of loyal and committed servants of the Lord had planted and harvested fruits of the spirit, Shiloh separated from the United Methodist Church on April 23, 2021 and established Shiloh Community Church as a non-denominational entity in order to continue to worship in faith and fellowship as God has led us through His inerrant word…”

I would say this is not repurposing. They are still the same 200 year old congregation.

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69

Maybe this is unique to the US, but two things:

  1. The ones I’ve seen are hate groups that buy churches and run their organizations out of those churches, often with great objections by the community.
  2. These are not churches with a bad preacher, these are known hate groups, objectively categorized as such by human rights organizations.
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Not known by the submitter I assume, if its being submitted as a church :grimacing:

For the avoidance of doubt, to me, church means a Christian place of worship.

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I think that’s fair, and I think I mentioned before that I’m not sure I’ve ever seen an example in my reviews.

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I did request removal of one such POI, which is the only reason I know about them (it was a review of an edit trying to change the name of the church to the new church, BTW). This particular group is renowned for going into communities and buying old churches for their group. It often creates a big uproar and they are typically not welcomed. Their mission sounds deceptively benign until you start looking at their material more extensively.

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I think the case with mine was that they were not gaining as many members as they used to under a denomination name, so they changed their name to attract more members. Their website features a lot of photos of those under 40 years old, their youth services, even a coffee shop open before masses.

Yes, certain denominations have gotten bad views from society for certain things, be it social issues, hidden abuses and crimes, etc, but it may be hard to come to a consensus on which are good and which are bad.

There have been many studies done showing how more people are choosing to not be a part of any denomination, or even any type of religion/spirituality. There are various reasons, differing from person to person, but this group, know as Nones (as they choise None for their religion/spirituality on forms) has been growing, and not just in the US.