What's in a name?

When I was 16 my entire immediate family changed our surname...We went from being called 'Pratt' to 'Edson' - I can't believe I'm telling you this! I also decided to use my middle name rather than my first name so I went from John Pratt to Ben Edson; life has improved from then! The reason that we changed our name was quite simply about first impressions, it gave a bad first impressions and for a teenager this was not what was wanted. So when we moved to Devon the whole family changed to Edson.

On the blah tour I was chatting with Jonny and Karen about how we introduce ourselves to people outside the Church without alienating the person that we're talking to? i(e calling yourself a missionary can alienate a lot of people). Jonny said that at MBS London he called himself a 'spiritual creative', Karen refers to herself as an 'abbess'. My job title is city centre missioner, my title in the church is 'Captain' - both are hideous - but it would have been worse if we'd not changed our surname...Captain Pratt!

I think that often the titles that the anglican church uses have overtones of power associated with them - Venerable, Reverend, Right Reverend etc. This is problematic as i think that ministry within the church should primarily be about serving the community that you are part of and none of these titles suggest a serving ministry.

So what should I call myself? A spiritual creative is ambiguous and this is one of the beauties of it! I usually say something like I'm a minister in Anglican church - but it's a bit non-descript and tends to close down a conversation rather than open one up...any thoughts?

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Comments

[Fat Roland]

"Primate" is the silliest Anglican job description.

[Mark Berry]

I usually say Missionary... more often than not rather than alienating people its actually a good opening, which give me the chance to explain what the role of a Missionary really is... 'Minister' normally ends the conversation! With people a bit more 'in the know' I say Pioneer Missionary... then go on to explain why 'Pioneer'

[LauraHD]

How about trying to describe yourself with a verb instead of a noun? Less of "I am an X" and more of "I X something"...

[steve]

what about pratt-ler for jesus?

sorry, it's been a hard day :)

[Mike R]

"Abbess" sounds like "abscess".

[Tom Allen]

Remembering the familial name change happening with some of my northern contemporaries slightly baffled (Pratt is a quite normal Lancashire name with none of the associations)- but it good to hear it has worked out so positively for you - and "Captain Pratt" would have been more than a giggle when taking school assemblies.

I come from a maternal family where my great grandfather dropped the O' from O'Logan cos it was virtually impossible for anyone Irish to get jobs in Manchester of the time.

[Matt Stone]

I mostly just call myself a disciple or follower of Jesus and leave it at that. I am wary of even descibing myself as a missionary as it just gets people wondering about your agenda.

[Rob Ryan]

I have been trying a little experiment in the sauna of my local gym when chatting with the other guys there.

When the inevitable 'what do you do?' question comes, things like missionary, missioner, trainee vicar, pioneer minister etc etc all seem to bring the conversation to a rapid close.

When I have introduced myself as spirtual guide, spiritual traveller in the christian tradition, or other such title the conversaion has opened up massively. Most of thm have gone on to in a few seconds to say 'ohhh, so you mean you are a christian...' but the conversation has continued and not stumbled as above.

[Ian]

I would have kept that quiet - Ben Edson is a great name.....