Posted on Jan 18, 2001 | by Staff

GRAPEVINE, Texas (BP)--A Dallas-area church is adopting a new name: fellowshipchurch.com.

The new name of Fellowship Church will take effect Feb. 15. The church, which attracts 12,000 attendees each week, is led by Ed Young (son of Houston's Second Baptist Church pastor Ed Young).

"Fellowship Church, from its beginning, has been on the edge of trying new approaches to reach people," Carol Childress of the Leadership Network told the Dallas Morning News, "and this is yet another step for them in seeking to take advantage of the opportunities that the Internet provides for ministry.

"They're crazy for God. What else can you say?" said Childress, a researcher for the Dallas-based network for innovative churches and church leaders.

Childress told the Dallas Morning News she knows of no other church that has refashioned its name with a dot.com.

Young recounted to the newspaper that Fellowship Church leaders were brainstorming about the church's Internet site when Preston Mitchell, pastor of spiritual development, pondered aloud, "We ought to just put dot.com everywhere -- on the letterhead, on the building."

"He was just kind of joking around," Young said, "and we go, 'Wow.'"

The dot.com part of the church's name, Young told the Dallas Morning News, will stand for "dot.community: community with God through Christ, community in local venues, community in worldwide venues. It's all about community."

Among the innovative strategies utilized by the church has been painting its name -- and, now, its new dot.com name -- on the rooftop in 25-foot bright-blue letters to catch the attention of travelers flying in to the Dallas metro area.

"Jesus said to his followers right before his ascension, 'Go,'" Young told the Dallas Morning News. "Maybe today he'd also say, 'Go online.'"
--30--