After a two-month hiatus, I returned to blogging and social media. Seemed simple enough. I figured that taking some time off would uncomplicated things a little…
Not so fast.
On Thursday I received a flurry of unexpected emails, messages, texts and blog comments, all asking the same question:
“What are you going to do?”
I had no idea what they were talking about, but quickly found out: President Nelson issued a statement that very well could have called me our by name:
The Lord has impressed upon my mind the importance of the name He has revealed for His Church, even The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We have work before us to bring ourselves in harmony with His will. In recent weeks, various Church leaders and departments have initiated the necessary steps to do so. Additional information about this important matter will be made available in the coming months.(link)
It was further detailed in a style guide published on (ironically titled) MormonNewsroom.com. The gist of it is that the Prophet asked everyone to stop calling people Mormons, stop calling the Church the “Mormon” Church, and to stop calling it the LDS Church. He asked us to stick with the full name of the Church, or shorten it to “The Church,” or “The Restored Church of Jesus Christ.” Even more so, he asked us to quit calling ourselves Mormons.
Now, to a lot of people, this might not even merit a raised eyebrow. To me, it has a significant ripple effect. I have been parading around as MIddleaged MORMON Man for almost 8 years. I have published two books with that name on the cover, run a blog with “Mormon” in the title for over 1200 posts, done interviews and guest posts, etc. There are thousands of links from all over the internet pointing at my blog. The intricacies and interweavings are amazing. (I can’t even get my head around what www.LDS.org web designers have ahead of them.)
Branding is a LOT of work. Rebranding is even more. For me, it is a matter of reconciling the past 8 years, but for the Church, it will be gargantuan task of rebranding an organization that has been around for close to 200 years. (My task suddenly looks easier!)
Yes, we went through this before a few years back, and it didn’t stick. Then we doubled down using the term “Mormon” everywhere you looked. Now it is time to try again.
Why? Simple: Because the Prophet asked us to.
I was so impressed to see some already transition away from using the terms Mormon or LDS. Others, like me, are taking a slower approach, while some are busy arguing that it “just won’t work, so why even bother.”
I don’t know if it is going to work or not. Does that matter? Nope.
Either we are going to try and follow President Nelson’s counsel…or we are not.
THE NEXT STEP FOR ME
I dunno! I need to figure out what to do, and how to go about doing it. I willingly admit that I am not thrilled about it. Does it matter? Nope.
So, I throw open the doors for your suggestions. What do you think I should do? I am sure that some of you will just goof on the fact that I am getting old, but some of you will actually offer substantive ideas for the transition. I would love to hear from the latter.
If I like your idea, and end up using it, I will send you a signed copy of my latest book.
In the meantime, I am going to acknowledge the need for change, begin making the transition, and watch. Either way, I hear the death rattle of MMM as we know it.
I plan on looking to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, LDS.org, the LDS Business College and other institutions to glean ideas on how to go about it.
Forgive me for not having made the transition yet. It is coming. I am trying to figure out how to best be obedient right now.
The times they are a changing…
Let me now what you think!
Brad
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Another thought, and then I’m done: How about “MMMcBride!” (bold, italics racer font, little flames ripping off the left side…) as an all-encompassing blog title, and then you could come up with quippy subtitles that you change seasonally, or as posts suggest.
Bradley: Obedient, Obstinate Man, or BOOM for short. Followers could be BOOMers, which also goes along with the middle-aged theme, if you wanna stretch it that far! 😉
I love it!
Ok, this might fail the nice test…..but I have been thinking on the “truth to power” thing of late. So here it goes. As you mention, it is not trivial to change a name (although to the uninitiated it may seem so). So……if you are working on a name, you might want to be a little forward thinking. If I am guessing right, you might be just past the middle of “middle aged”. You might want to to a twofer now, rather than CHANGE, and then CHANGE again. Alternatively, consider that the Prophetic cycle has kinda gone back and forth on this thing, so you might just wait it out. Look, I just gave you a twofer recommendation !!!!!
Middle aged Brad McBride- MBM. Almost like MMM.
My family had a MMM moment last night. We are living in an apartment for a few months. last night at 1:00 am the fire alarm went off. As we got our kids up and dressed to go outside i thought about the chapter in your book where you talked about your family’s experience at the hotel. I really just wanted to stay in the apartment. Great lesson in obedience. It’s a great book with many great lesson.
Thanks for telling me! I love comments like this.
How about « Middle-Aged Ministering Man »?!
I really appreciate your desire to follow the prophet. It will be interesting to see what the Mormon Tabernacle Choir will do. I’m sure you’ll be guided.
I LIKE that idea! Keeps the MMM, the word ministering is appropriate for what Brad does. Great suggestion!
Living Latter-days or Living Latter-daily ? Then you can have guest posters like your EC .
MMM, I’m glad you came back so I could cry on your shoulder! :'(
You’ve gotten so many awesome responses! Meanwhile, I’m still over here wallowing in self pity and rebellion.
I am literally clueless about the logistics of how to change my name and url without destroying a decade of work… sigh… “It is a hard thing, Lord! A VERY HARD THING!”
I’m with you. It is hard!
Good to have you back, MMM. Have you considered “3,000 Romans” ?
BradleyMcBrideFace you have a golden opportunity with your awesome name, maybe in a tag line somewhere?
Discussing this a lot yesterday… what will the Mormon Tabernacle Choir do? I like adding the “formerly”, I always said that when Prince changed his name to something uppronounceable…the guy formerly known as Prince… or formerly known as Homemaking meeting vs home family and personal enrichment night.. now just enrichment night…formerly known as your visiting teacher… I like the adding of Ministering vs Mormon… Having been in the church a long time… you see changes… this was emphasized once before that i remember…I’d have your “former” domain name attached to the new one so you can use both…or the new one attached to the old one… whatever just link it all together…don’t lose your branding just change it up!
My guess is that they will go one of two ways: Either keep the current title for the choir, under the “heritage” exemption, or go to simply “The Tabernacle Choir”.
I think they will go with the Tabernacle Choir of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And fwiw, I really like your keeping the MMM and going with Middle-aged Ministering Man. That totally fits, and you can keep the MMM, which I think is what really draws people in. 😉
Restored Gospel Man – you could wear a cape with the angel Moroni on it.
Middle Aged had an element of humorous crotchety to it… So maybe you could go with Grumpy Gospel Man.
Middle Aged Latter-day Saint is probably the best option. You don’t need to genderize the title or url.
Hehehe! LOVE Restored Gospel Man, cape and all! “Restored Gospel Man! Following the Prophet in a single bound faster than a speeding bullet!!!”
You know, Brad, you really missed your chance. If you hadn’t done your big “reveal” a few years ago and told us who you were, you could have been Middle-aged Mysterious Man. Since that isn’t really an option, here’s a few more ideas:
Middle-aged ‘Mazing Man
Middle-aged Mischevious Man
Middle-aged Magnimous Man
Middle-aged Maverick Man…
And my personal favorite: Middle-aged Manly Man!!
Enjoying the fun in these,,,probably not the answer, but I enjoyed reading them.
How about “Middle-Aged Obedient Man (formerly known as Middle-Aged Mormon Man).” Or, “Middle-Aged Man Following the Prophet.” I think you should keep Middle-Aged Man, because that’s how people in the blog world know you. By removing “Mormon” and adding either “Obedient” or “Following the Prophet” to your name, you would underscore the importance of heeding President Nelson’s latest counsel, and show people (especially those who may feel overwhelmed or unsure of how to proceed), that they can do it too!
Another idea: “Middle-Aged High Priest.”
Alright here’s my two cents since you asked…As long as you’re re-branding yourself you ought to leave the middle-aged part out for two reasons. 1) It really doesn’t add anything to tell people what you’re about. I mean your blog isn’t about middle-aged life or the problems or lifestyle associated with it. The middle-aged part always felt like a filler to go with the “Mormon Man” part. 2) Let’s face it, you won’t be middle-aged forever. Eventually you are going to mature past the middle-aged stage of life and then what? A new re-branding or just a confused audience?
So my vote is if you’re going to re-brand then do a re-brand that will last. I noticed in many of your blogs you refer to your time as a bishop and the wisdom and experience you gained under that mantle. So maybe something like “Wisdom of a Former Bishop” or if you prefer something more whimsical, “Bishops, Bacon, & The Book of Mormon”. If you prefer to leave the bishop title out you could try “Latter-day Saint Sage”
At any rate it’s a good matter to take to the Lord in prayer. It is His prophet you’re trying to follow after all. Good luck!
The brainstorming I see going on is cool. People are chipping in their 2¢. Bottom line you want to be in alignment with the prophet. Thanks to technology and forwarding links and other cool techy stuff the jump forwarded will be helpful but still challenging. May I suggest you ask your readers to fast with you one Sunday and ask the Lord’s suggestion. I noticed when I started my blog on PTSD I wanted something unique but clear as to what I was sharing. The Lord blessed me with inspiration far better than anything I do alone. I’m relieved to know that you took a break and I didn’t lose track of you in bloggerville. Welcome back. You will make the change and blessings will come from it that you might not expect. Keeping you in my prayers.
Ha. I was just going to write this exact comment! “The author formerly known as MMM” Or just a symbol, like bacon or something. ?
Middle -aged Ministering Man!
That would ring with those of us, formerly known as Mormons, who have been through the change to “ministering,” but to a non-member, it might mean something more protestant than Latter-day Saint.
As an ordinary, anonymous, non-blogging member, this doesn’t really affect me, but I have sympathy for your rebranding concerns. I kind of like the idea of a Book of Mormon style subtitle — Middleaged Mormon Man – Another Blog from a Member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.” Too facetious? Maybe.
What I find interesting about this announcement is that it’s basically pure revelation. They didn’t wait to get the message thought out and the plan in place, they announced what Pres. Nelson feels, with the details of what that all means still TBD.
This is tricky. Based on the approved names list, I feel the focus is to incorporate the name of Christ into references to us and our Church. Considering how I silently bristle when people call us the “Church of the Latter-Day Saints,” omitting the most important part of our name, I think this is progress if we can make it work. Definitely worth all the effort we can throw at it since it’s now a prophetic priority.
So what to do about your brand? Well, I guess you could follow the spirit of the change and incorporate the name of Christ into it. After all, that is the name we took upon ourselves at baptism, and it is His Church that you blog about. But in the other hand, invoking the name of the Savior for a blog title seems definitely in the “too frequent repetition” category and a very solemn, reverent name to apply to a blog that has often been (and I hope will always be) light and a little silly at times (gassy bear, anyone?) 🙂
I like your tagline “Seriously a Mormon, not always serious.” Maybe something like “Serious Christian (Man),” or “Silly and Christian” or “Middle Aged Disciple.” Or something lighter like “the lively high priest” or “ye olde Gospel bloge” or something.
I’m just glad my own blog doesn’t need a name change 🙂
Two thoughts. The Blogger formerly known as Middle Aged Mormon Man. Or make the change that Kentucky Fried Chicken made to KFC. Just change to MMM.
How about Chronically Challenged Church Chap?
Thank you for your diligence to follow the prophet. Blessings to you and your family.
I’m just so glad you’re back!! Life hasn’t been the same without you. Like others, I appreciate your willingness to follow the prophet no matter what! I’m going to pray for the Lord to lead you to the decision you need to make. He’ll let you know! 🙂
Middle-aged McBride Man
Middleaged McBride Man with a subtitle about being a follower of Christ
I think you can probably give it some thought and transition into something else when you’ve figured it out. I think there will be a lot of people, and as you mentioned, the Church itself, that will be in a transition period for a while. My friend Jan Tolman who writes the blog LDS Women of God mentioned to me that she’s going to wait and see how the Church makes some of the name changes before she goes ahead. I am the editor at The Millennial Star, and while we do not have to change our name, we have to change how we market ourselves for sure. As for your blog: you could just use your name with a sub-title — whatever you think would be good or funny (please go with funny). Or you could put a thing that says, New blog name: used to be MMM” or something like that, that ties your work into your new stuff going forward. Perhaps we should all be researching other brand name changes that have happened in the past and how those were implemented. I just had a funny tought though about chanign names of things. I loved it when Chase Field was called The Bank One Ball Park, BOB. When I left the valley it was called The BOB. I still think of it that way.
Thanks for the ideas! Good luck with your transition as well.
Middle-aged McBride Man.
We are not being asked to change our name, but rather to stand by our official church name and not the nicknames the world has given us. We are being asked to stand by this decision to firmly proclaim that, yes, we are Christians and, as such, follow the teachings given not only in the Book of Mormon, but in the Bible as well. I think a nice nod to both would be to keep a name similar to what you’ve already established. Instead of MMM, change to MCM: Middle-Aged Christian Man. Or you could go with the alternate MCMC: Middle-Aged Christian Man of the Church. Whatever you choose to go with, I am happy that there are others out there who refuse to stick their heads in the sand and hope that things will go back to what it once was. Our Prophet’s declaration to take a stand on how we identify ourselves to the world around us filled me with such exhilaration, and it’s wonderful to see others responding to his call.
Thanks for your thoughts. I would add that it is a nickname that the world gave us, but we have embraced over the last decade with widespread social media and marketing campaigns.
Couple of thoughts. I don’t see anything wrong with using your name. I think that’s an excellent path since it’s already branded as associated with MMM. You could add a byline of your choosing. Bradley’s Blog: Examinations of the Latter Day Saint life, or something with Jesus in it like Viki suggested. That would be fine.
Next thought. Book 1: There’s a Message IN There. Book 2: There’s a Message OUT There. New blog: There’s a Message Around Here: Ideas and Inspirations of Bradley McBride Or There’s a Message Around Here: Doctrinal Discussions with Bradley McBride. (That sounds like something I’d recommend for insomnia.)
There’s a Message Around Here: Distilling Truth From the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Or Bradley McBride: Distilling Truth From the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Good grief, I can do this all day. I’m going to quit now. Anyway, there’s some things to chew on.
Either way, the URL and SEO thing will come with time. Your gift for writing and making the complex understandable is what brought you to where you are. It will continue to bring you to success in whatever new venture you choose to undertake. I have confidence in you that you will be able to not only make the appropriate changes that bring you in line with the prophets teachings, but that you will be even more successful with it.
Dang, woman. Great comment.
Haven’t read the other responses so not sure if this is a repeat: “Meaningful Musings from a Latter-Day Saint”
This blog is one of the things that came to mind when I read the official statement. I was happy to read your take on it and appreciate the added bit of humor in the header image.
How about, “MMM: essays from a Middle-Aged Male Member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints”.
Middleaged Ministering Man
I’m so thankful you had already decided to follow the prophet, so your question is not “if” but “how” you are going to do so.
Elder Bednar spoke at our Stake Conference in February, and he warned us to “Buckle up! ” under Pres. Nelson’s leadership. He wasn’t kidding!
How about BMcBfnaMMM? No?
Chronically Challenged Church Chap
Whether or not we like it, non-members will probably always call us Mormons so I think we’d be foolish to discard that word altogether or those who are curious or genuinely interested wouldn’t be able to find out info about us. Maybe you could keep the name of your blog Middle Aged Mormon Man so as to make it easy to be found by those who know you/us by “Mormon,” but add a subtitle that works in the real name–something like, thoughts of a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. You could do that easily in a graphic at the top of your blog. Just a thought. Either way, welcome back. I have missed your posts.
I like Middleaged Disciple of Christ.
Perhaps just your name with a sub-title along the lines of “Musings of a Latter-day Saint” or “Blogging about my life as a Latter-day Saint”….you get the idea.
This would be a good idea to do now, while you’re figuring out what to do moving forward.
I just love the tone of your response. You have a great attitude of obedience to the prophet even though you’re overwhelmed. Thank you. You come through, like always, with eternal perspective but also very relatable.
Definitely BradleyMcBride.com, unless your family has a nickname for you that you have been keeping from us!
Middle aged Christian Man. Opens you up to a broader audience. If they learn a little about becoming a Latter-day Saint – fabulous!
well, I think of you lot as the saints, and you in particular as the saint with a blog. I don’t suppose “swab” is really the acronym you were aiming for, but if it inspires any better ideas…
Do whatever the choir does. Similarly well branded name.
I think you should definitely include the name of Jesus Christ in your title. You are His disciple and that is the purpose of your blog – to help bring others to Him. There is power in His name. “Musings of a Middle-aged Member” could still fill the main title (no need to change the triple M logo) – but please add a subtitle of… “Of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints”.
I love this.
I love this!
Chronically Challenged Church Chum
Middleaged Member (of the Church of Jesus Christ) Man…it is hard to show what I’m thinking with just this one font but I would make the “(of the Church of Jesus Christ)” in different font and/or size and it could be any of the appropriate terms: “of the Church”, “of the Restored Church”, “of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints”. You keep MMM but ad the proper name.
I like this idea. ( I kind of liked middle aged swab, too…?)
Two more.
The field is white, lessons gleaned from life.
Therefore what? Borrowing a phrase from Elder Packer, to get us to think about how to apply the teachings of the Savior in our everyday lives.
Welcome back. They say we become ike the five people we spend the most time with. I am looking forward to having you back in my circle through your writing.
Take the lead from the subtitle added to The Book of Mormon back in the day.
Middle-aged Musing Man? Because you are calm, and deeply serious and thoughtful! And, because you’re aMusing. (Sorry, I’ll leave the puns to Mike Taylor.)
Middle Aged Musings of a Latter-Day Saint Man?
Love your blog. You’ve been missed!
LATTER DAY SAINT- Middle age man
Middle Aged Millennial Man 😉
I am SO not a Millennial!
How about Middle-aged ‘Millennium’ Man instead, then… since we’re all hoping to make it that far? 😉
I don’t have a great idea for you. I’m struggling with this announcement. I’m one of the folks that spent the past couple days saying “it won’t work”, all the while grating on my own nerves for saying that about something the prophet told us to do. I truly don’t like the fact that that was my first response, and especially don’t like that I’m still saying it in my head days later. All that being said… Keep in mind that he said the folks at the church have “initiated necessary steps” to do this over “recent weeks”. Basically, this is a huge deal that won’t happen overnight. They didn’t change the name of the MoTab overnight, we didn’t wake up to find mormon.org had been rebranded and renamed. They are working on it and trying to find solutions just like you are. So it’s ok if it takes you some time to make things happen. Your heart is in the right place and you are willing and making an effort to follow the prophet’s request.
Now, as for fooling around with jokes about aging… it’ll need something to do with ELDERly. It goes for both an old person joke AND the new changes for Elders Quorum! 😛
How about,
Gospel
Oriented
Lessons and
Discussions
Your nuggets of gold panned out from the grit and s tone of energy living have been invaluable to me!
Sorry, the grit and stone of everyday living. I should take time to be my own editor.
How about “Middleaged Melchizedek Man”? ?
This is a tough one.
I believe you should just put on your name, Bradley McBride, which is the second most known “brand” of your excellent work. It’s simple, it’s powerful. The Church is Jesus Christ’s Church. Your work is yours. Simple as that.
P.S.: I have your latest book, and it’s a wonderful font of inspiration for my family. Thank you!
Thank you!
I agree with this. Your rebranding started years ago when you reluctantly gave up your anonymity. No need to hide behind a nickname any more.
*Latter Day Saint Man’s Latter Days
*Learnings of a Latter Day Saint man
*Logical Latter Day Saint Man
I wonder if using a tag, “formerly MMM” either in the acronym or written out, for a time while rebranding, might be acceptable? Yes, rebranding does take time. And, it will be instructive to watch how The Church makes the transition.
Like you, my first response was not “why”, but “Yes I will”, now how, recognizing that you have a bigger challenge than I face in my relative anonymity. Bless you for being an example of being etermined to follow the prophet.
Nephi 3:7
I come to you for your thoughts on being a disciple of Christ and what that looks like in today’s world. I think BradleyMcbride.com would be a great place to find you, with ‘Following Christ and his prophets’ nice and bold as your header and a ‘Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints’ button or focus somewhere too? It’s what you do, it’s why we’re here to read, it’s why we’re so grateful for you.
Thank you for your example of humble and happy obedience? Good luck with whatever you decide!!
I like this
MIDDLE AGED MEMBER
of The Restored Church
I don’t have any ideas for you, but simply have to say that I appreciate your great example of humble obedience, even when it’s going to be a a challenge… you didn’t try to rationalize or figure out why it didn’t apply to you… just humbly said, “I will”. I think the Lord understands that some of these things will take time… but you started by simply recognizing you have a new problem to solve and are working to figure it out…yay you!! ?
I think you could simply go by “Middle-aged Latter-day Saint Man”. It doesn’t have the same ring to it, but it adheres to the new policy: “When referring to Church members, the terms “members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints” or “Latter-day Saints” are preferred.”
I can see two solutions. Either Middleaged Latter-day Saint, or Middleaged Bradley McBride since you aren’t anonymous anymore. The problem with the second is it totally removes the church from the brand, which isn’t a good fit.
“The Author formerly known as MMM”….this worked for Prince. Or you could make up a symbol like he did and not have a name at all…
Aww, you scooped me…I was going to say “the blogger formerly known as MMM” I like the ideas above for keeping the MMM theme…:)
My sacrament talk today was on keeping the commandments and I was impressed to make the point that following the counsel of leaders is included “whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same” and mentioned the name change. Thanks for your attitude of obedience, MMM