An International Fellowship of Spirit-Empowered Believers

Name change???

Folks,
We chose Koinonia Network, because it is a Greek word which stands for
fellowship, which is what we want this website to be. We want it to be a
place where people can share their lives in the Lord, and tell of the
wonderful things the Holy Spirit is doing in their lives, and thus
inspire one another and be a witness to the living Lord among us.

However, Koinonia is a hard word for people to spell and pronounce, so
we are wondering if it would be wiser if we went with KNFellowship.org.

It would stand for Koinonia Network Fellowship, but we could call it KN,
and explain it to others as KN Fellowship.

Thank you all for your feedback. You can see the results here. I have now closed this discussion thread.

Replies are closed for this discussion.

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Lady-Mary on April 26, 2010 at 11:58am

Yes! I like it.

Permalink Reply by Anna Sevdianisnivili on April 26, 2010 at 5:45pm

I believe that it should stay as us, It is beautiful and meaningfull. And besides I am the first would eraise the emael that the title has no clue or meaning sach as KN, or so. Thank you.

Permalink Reply by Simone Aichner on April 27, 2010 at 8:13am

Hi Mark

It truly is a hard word to spell.....The first time when I heard the name of the webpage, I didn't understand, what it means and why you choose such a complicate name....
....but there is something special in it!

Wouldn't it be possible to keep the name, but add another address for the webpage and for example redirect it? So to keep koinonianetwork.org but also have maybe knf.org or (or some other short and easy to remember name).....all for the same page?

knfellowship.org .....is not easy to read except you write KNFellowship....but now it seems again complicate to me. I like knf.org or something similar to that....it is like the name of your hompage. cwg....since english is not my mother tongue, spelling is always a theme....but not if I only have to type the initial lettes. Thats simple. :-)
Blessings to you from Austria/Europe
Simone Aichner

Permalink Reply by Mary Ellen Anderson on April 27, 2010 at 5:42pm

I have been thinking about how the KNFellowship.org would literally play out. Since Koinonia means fellowship then adding fellowship on the end is redundant since Koinonia means fellowship. It is saying Fellowship Network Fellowship. Just a thought.

Permalink Reply by Dee A. Ogden, Ph.D. on April 27, 2010 at 6:06pm

Hello, I am definitely in favor of a name change. I'm still not sure I'm pronouncing Koinonia correctly. I like the idea of KNfellowship. Just calling it KN is so much easier and probably will draw more activity. Thanks for letting us be a part of this change.
Blessings,
DeeDee Ogden

Permalink Reply by Ronald A. Howe on April 27, 2010 at 9:07pm

I think KNFellowship.org is just fine. Ron Howe

Permalink Reply by Arif Noel Khan on April 28, 2010 at 3:32am

In writing the Bible the purpose of the authors was to convey exactly what God wanted them to convey and therefore the words they chose to use were very precise as to the meaning. So is the word ‘Koinonia’ wherever it is used. Intimate participation—communion in Christ Jesus is what the word is used to convey. And, as Paul so passionately repeats himself in impressing upon his readers that ‘Koinonia’ is what is to be ardently desired and diligently sought by those who have become partakers of God’s grace, that the Church of Christ might be built up.

I found this at Wikipedia:

“Koinonia is the anglicisation of a Greek word (κοινωνία) that means communion by intimate participation. The word is used frequently in the New Testament of the Bible to describe the relationship within the early Christian church as well as the act of breaking bread in the manner which Christ prescribed during the Passover meal [John 6:48-69, Matthew 26:26-28, 1 Corinthians 10:16, 1 Corinthians 11:24]. As a result the word is used within the Christian Church to participate, as Paul says, in the Communion of - in this manner it identifies the idealised state of fellowship and community that should exist - Communion.

“The essential meaning of the koinonia embraces concepts conveyed in the English terms community, communion, joint participation, sharing and intimacy.

“In the New Testament, the basis of communion begins with a mystical joining of Jesus with the community of the faithful. This union is also experienced in practical daily life. The same bonds that link the individual to Jesus also link him or her with other faithful. The New Testament letters describe those bonds as so vital and genuine that a deep level of intimacy can be experienced among the members of a local church (emphasis mine).

“The first usage of koinonia in the Greek New Testament is found in Acts 2:42-47, where we read a striking description of the common life shared by the early Christian believers in Jerusalem:

“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the communion, to the breaking of bread and to prayer...All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need…They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people.”

This, in essence, is what the Church was meant to be. Somewhere down the centuries we lost sight of that, and today we ask, Koinonia or KNF?

The following I quote from biblestudytools.com:

Koinonia is the “fellowship which they had, in faith, and hope, and holy love, with all good Christians—a fellowship in gospel promises, ordinances, privileges, and hopes.”

I am new to your network, so please forgive me if I have got it all wrong, but if you stand for 'communion in Christ Jesus' then please keep Koinonia, otherwise you my change it to whatever you wish.

God bless.

PS. To help overcome the problem with the pronunciation of the word you might add some thing like this on your home page: “k oy - n oh - n ee – ah”, and you might wish to add a sound file like the on found at http://www.pronouncenames.com/pronounce/koinonia to help people learn the pronunciation. The Bible says we are to be like little children. Children love learning new sounds, new words, and understanding new meanings. Let's be children, for of such is the Kingdom of God.

Permalink Reply by Deborah Patton on April 28, 2010 at 5:33am

I just had a bit of an idea. I don't know much about linking on the internet but I am sure it is possible with tiny.url or something like that. As we see from all the responses, some are for, others are not.
Suggestion...For those who like it short, is there a way to make one link to the other? Such as, when someone would type in KN Fellowship it would forward them on to Koinonia Network anyways. Like I said, I don't know alot about developing websites but I am sure that one can forward the other in some way. I still believe that it should stay as is but this may be a solutin for those who have trouble with the way it is now.
One thing I have come to know with God. There are treasures for those who seek. For me, searching out the meaning of a word and its usage is part of that. I have gained much revelation from searching the meanings of words and that has proved to be the one most important thing I have found in my studies and meditations with God. One word has changed my life. Koinonia has been one of those words.
Blessings,
Deborah

Permalink Reply by Mark Virkler on April 28, 2010 at 5:40pm

we have been considering that idea. we have researched a bunch of names on GoDaddy.com to see what might be available that is short and which we could point to KoinoniaNetwork.org.

anything we have searched for that would be simple, and clear is already taken, and not available to us.

Permalink Reply by Martin Aichner on April 28, 2010 at 6:24pm

what about fellowship for you kn4u which would point to www.koinonianetwork.org
kn4u.org
or .info
or .us

Permalink Reply by Mark Virkler on April 29, 2010 at 11:59am

Martin,
you are right. kn4u.org was not taken, so we ordered it this morning, and within a couple of days will have it up and running and pointing to KoinoniaNetwork.org. This will give people a choice to type it in either way. We preserve our existing name, and add a shortened version to point to it.

thanks for doing this research. We had not found this. Ya for Austria!

Permalink Reply by Martin Aichner on April 29, 2010 at 2:31pm

Mark,
I searched for a short name,
after a couple of ideas I "kind of" heart (you will like that) go for kn4u
I saw it's available and I had a big smile on my face :-)

So know,
I got a second smile.
...
and remember
Aus T ria is the only nation with the cross in the middle of the name!!!!
..

Well, only in english ;-(
We call the country Österreich in german language,
but the fact in english with the cross in the middle...
an other big smile ....

Blessing
Martin