What does the name Xenos mean, and why are there two lead pastors instead of one?

by John Rue, Director of Communications

People are always asking about the name Xenos Christian Fellowship. Some of our members regret this name, because it can cause suspicion, like anything that is unusual. The name actually makes sense. Xenos is the Greek word for alien or sojourner, and the Bible says Christians are sojourners in this life; our citizenship is in heaven (Philippians 3:20). Also, the word means host, which we feel we are to non-Christian guests. But the reason we have the name goes back to the time of our incorporation as a church in 1982.

By 1982, we had already existed for 12 years under the even stranger name, “Fish House Fellowship.” This name had never been chosen by us, but was rather a description of “the fellowship meeting at the Fish House.” Fish house was the name of the original house on The Ohio State University campus we used as a headquarters. By the 1980s, the house had long since ceased to exist, so calling our church by that name was absurd.

The elders met at the time of our incorporation, realizing we would be stuck with any name we chose at that time. Some suggested a more conventional name, like some kind of community church. But the majority didn’t want to be identified with the idea of a conventional church because our field of ministry is anti-church in attitude. We decided a name that raised questions, but didn’t fit any known category (one that could be easily dismissed by cynical guests) would be better. At the time we were publishing a magazine called Xenos, so we decided to call it Xenos Christian Fellowship.

We considered changing our name when we moved into our new facility in 1997, but decided not to. We were worried about becoming too conventional and being viewed like a normal church. Moreover, we already were known widely as Xenos, and felt it would be a major headache to change our name. We decided to keep our strange name and oddball image that comes with it. Xenos members jokingly refer to each other as “Xenoids” (often pronounced with a robot-like tone of voice).

Why are there two lead pastors instead of one?

Xenos has two lead pastors, or elders, Dennis McCallum and Gary DeLashmutt. We consider this distinctive to be an unimportant and peripheral feature, by no means mandated in Scripture. In fact, both Dennis and Gary have stated they would not recommend this arrangement for most churches.

The arrangement at Xenos is based on the unique history of these two men who have worked as partners for 30 years, after knowing each other since kindergarten! They were not only partners in ministry, but also co-owned a business for years before they joined Xenos staff. Their partnership has been mutually beneficial, as they believe their personalities are complementary.

But they believe it would be both difficult and pointless to try to duplicate such a partnership in most cases, and if one of them were to die or leave, almost certainly no effort would be made to replace the lost partner in a coequal role. Usually coequal partnerships become a deadlock and a liability, but in our case it seems to work out well. Today, the two men (like most staffers at Xenos, where office sharing is encouraged) work every day in the same office, with their desks adjoining. They meet for breakfast, sharing and occasional prayer on Tuesday mornings at McDonald’s, as they have for 25 years.