Name It and Claim It: The Counterfeit Gospel and the True Work of Christ in Revitalization

Across the modern church landscape, few teachings have captured hearts and wallets like the “Name It and Claim It” theology—the idea that words, when spoken with faith, can bring forth whatever the believer desires: health, wealth, success, or breakthrough. This belief, often referred to as the “prosperity gospel,” promises divine favor through mental and verbal affirmation. It offers empowerment and hope, but it quietly replaces the sovereignty of God with the sovereignty of self. Understanding where this thinking originates and why it distorts the gospel is essential for every believer—and particularly for those laboring in church revitalization, where we depend on Christ to breathe new life into weary places.

The Roots of “Name It and Claim It”

The “Name It and Claim It” movement didn’t begin in the pulpit but in the parlor rooms of the New Thought movement of the late nineteenth century. Thinkers like Phineas Quimby (1856), Emma Curtis Hopkins (1910), and Charles Fillmore (1919) taught that human thought could shape reality and that sickness, poverty, and failure could be corrected through mental discipline. Their spirituality was less about surrender to God and more about harnessing universal laws through consciousness.

In the mid-twentieth century, Norman Vincent Peale (1952) popularized these metaphysical ideas within Protestant circles, blending optimism, mental imagery, and Christian faith. Soon after, evangelists such as Oral Roberts (1977), Kenneth Hagin (1968), and Kenneth Copeland developed what became known as the Word of Faith movement, teaching that believers could “speak things into existence” because their words carried a creative force akin to God’s own.

Around the same time, Helen Hadsell (1971)—a secular writer and self-styled “contest queen”—published The Name It and Claim It Game, explaining how she won nearly every sweepstakes she entered by visualizing her success and believing it into reality. Her formula—Select, Project, Expect, Collect—mirrored the prosperity gospel’s principles without the biblical language. Essentially, “Name It and Claim It” teaching is New Thought metaphysics dressed in Christian clothing, trading the universe for God, but retaining the same underlying principle: speak it, believe it, and it will come.

The Biblical Contrast

The Scriptures affirm that faith and words matter. Jesus said, “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move” (English Standard Version [ESV], 2001, Matt. 17:20). But context is crucial. Biblical faith is never a self-powered force; it is relational trust in a sovereign God. Faith does not control God; it clings to Him.

Jesus Himself modeled this in Gethsemane: “Not my will, but Yours be done” (ESV, 2001, Matt. 26:39). If the incarnate Son of God submitted His desires to the Father, how much more must we? The prosperity gospel promises autonomy; the gospel of Christ promises transformation. One seeks to control outcomes; the other seeks to conform the believer to the image of Christ.

The Apostle Paul teaches that “we walk by faith, not by sight” (ESV, 2001, 2 Cor. 5:7), meaning faith is exercised amid uncertainty, suffering, and apparent loss. Nowhere in the New Testament does it promise a life of unbroken prosperity. Instead, it calls believers to joy through endurance and hope in the midst of hardship. Sproul (1997) emphasizes that biblical faith is relational trust rather than a mechanistic tool for self-advancement.

The Dangers in Revitalization

For leaders involved in church revitalization, “Name It and Claim It” thinking poses a subtle temptation. It whispers, If you just speak the right vision, declare growth, or visualize success, the church will thrive. But revitalization is not a product of projection—it’s the result of participation in Christ’s ongoing work of renewal.

Jesus declared, “I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (ESV, 2001, Matt. 16:18). The verbs matter. He builds; we participate. Revitalization is not an act of human manifestation but divine construction. We do not “name and claim” growth; we sow and wait in faithful obedience.

Healthy revitalization starts where the prosperity gospel ends—with repentance, humility, and dependence. Positive thinking has its place; Scripture commands us to dwell on what is true, noble, and praiseworthy (ESV, 2001, Phil. 4:8). But Christian positivity is not self-generated; it’s Scripture-fed. We don’t “manifest” hope; we receive it as a gift from the God who raises the dead.

When pastors begin to think they can “speak life” into dying congregations by sheer optimism, they risk becoming spiritual illusionists rather than shepherds. Real transformation requires the cross—death before resurrection. It’s not a slogan to chant; it’s a process to endure.

The True Power Behind Renewal

The true Church renewal movement is not “Name It and Claim It” but “Christ Spoke and It Was So.” From creation to resurrection, God’s Word—not ours—has always been the creative force. When we preach the gospel, we do not declare our own power; we unleash His.

Paul’s ministry in Corinth bore no resemblance to prosperity. He came in weakness and trembling, yet the Spirit moved (Piper, 1995). That is revitalization: frail vessels carrying a flawless gospel. The goal is not to build monuments of our faith but to reveal the Master Builder’s glory.

The most dangerous part of the prosperity gospel isn’t its materialism—it’s its anthropology. It overestimates humanity and underestimates God. It tells believers they are mini-creators instead of image-bearers. The biblical vision reverses that: we reflect, not generate, divine light.

A Call to Real Faith

As Church leaders, we must teach believers that faith is not a transaction but a trust. It’s not the art of getting what we want from God, but the act of resting in what He wants for us. The revitalization of a church—or of a life—comes not through slogans but through cruciform love, faithful preaching, and patient discipleship.

Jesus is still building His church, not through incantations or affirmations, but through faithful obedience and the work of the Spirit. He does not need our declarations; He invites our dependence.

To “think positively” as Christians is not to conjure better realities from within but to anchor our thoughts in the truth of God’s Word. The mind renewed by Scripture does not manifest outcomes—it trusts the One who holds them.

The prosperity gospel offers an illusion of control; Christ provides the reality of grace. The first ends in exhaustion and disappointment; the second ends in resurrection. In a world hungry for instant miracles, Jesus still works the slow miracle of sanctification—turning dead churches and dead hearts into living testimonies of His glory.

The actual “Name It and Claim It” gospel is this: God named us His own and claimed us through the blood of His Son, Jesus (ESV, 2001). That is the declaration that builds the Church—and that no human word can improve upon.

References

English Standard Version Bible. (2001). Crossway Bibles.

Fillmore, C. (1919). Mysteries of Genesis. Unity School of Christianity.

Hadsell, H. (1971). The Name It and Claim It Game. Tyndale House Publishers.

Hagin, K. (1968). Word of Faith. Faith Library Publications.

Hopkins, E. C. (1910). Scientific Christian Mental Practice. Self-published.

Peale, N. V. (1952). The Power of Positive Thinking. Prentice Hall.

Piper, J. (1995). Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian hedonist. Multnomah Press.

Quimby, P. (1856). Letter to the people. Self-published manuscript.

Roberts, O. (1977). The Oral Roberts Story. Thomas Nelson.

Sproul, R. C. (1997). Faith Alone. Reformation Trust Publishing.

Jones, D. W. (2009). The prosperity gospel: A critique of the Word of Faith movement. Journal of Pentecostal Theology, 17(1), 45–68.