Love MCC: It’s all part of the mission

What’s in a name? It may possibly be one of the most important ways we self identify. It is sometimes so important that if one doesn’t care for their given name they can change their name to one they feel more suited to them. We sometimes even prefer our nicknames over our full names. It is such a personal experience when defining how we want to be called. Our names are part of our identity.

This idea of a name being a representation of our identity applies to businesses and in our case, places of worship as well. A business name, like our names, is personal and powerful. Often times the name of a business will allow people to have an idea of what kind of services are offered there. Since 1979 we have always been called Metropolitan Community Church of Las Vegas, or similar to a nickname, we have also gone by MCCLV or MCC of Las Vegas. Metropolitan Community Church of Las Vegas is our local church, which is part of the larger denomination of Metropolitan Community Churches. Metropolitan Community Churches were founded in 1968 by the Rev. Troy Perry and have since grown globally. All of the churches in the denomination identify however they choose. Some examples of how other MCCs identify include: Joy MCC, Our Hope MCC, King of Peace MCC and Open Arms MCC.

We knew it was time. Our name no longer satisfied the entirety of our identity. We wanted to come up with something that would align with our mission statement and shed some light on who we are.  So we set off to redefine ourselves and come up with a new name.

In the beginning it was like other types of creative processes where nothing felt original. Even to the point where as we checked to see if some names were already taken there were quite a few that were already being used by other MCC churches. It didn’t feel like we were on the right path, and so at one point through this process Rev. Robert, our Senior Pastor, was having a conversation with a former congregant and she mentioned love. She thought maybe we could play off of the L and V in love seeing as we are in Las Vegas.

Rev. Robert had already considered the word love, and it was still fresh in his mind. He agreed that there could be an interesting play there with the lettering, but more importantly he realized that the word itself was what we were looking for! It was so simple that I was sure the name would already be in use by another MCC. To our surprise it wasn’t!

Love MCC is church’s new name

Now to get into a discussion about what the word love means will take more than the allowed space we have here in this article. However, at its most common definition love is exactly what we hope to embody as members of our church.  Our expectation is that when people visit with us they come to know what unconditional love looks and feels like.

Metropolitan Community Churches across the globe pride themselves on being accepting of all people. It is this core value of come as you are that is ingrained in our history, and we know that this is exactly what the world needs, more love. Period.

No one has ever been somewhere and said I didn’t have a good experience there or with them because they loved me too much! So starting here with our community we strive to be an expression of Christ’s gift to the world, his perfect love. You are welcome at Love MCC where love has been our greatest moral value since 1979!