GUILDERLAND — Berean Baptist Church in Guilderland Center is getting a new sign, approved in early November by the town’s zoning board, and a new name.

It will be known as the Centerpointe Community Church.

The church is in the process of updating its presence online and on social media to reflect the new name, Jesse Weber, the church’s senior pastor, said on Wednesday.

“We have been trying to increase our outreach into the community,” Weber said, noting that the church does not currently have many walk-in visitors who come for a service without being invited by a member of the congregation.

Attendance at services is “staying solid” at 60- or 70-plus, he said, and he hopes that the new name will emphasize that the church is welcoming to all.

He said that the “center” in the name reflects the location in Guilderland Center, that the word “community” refers to their outreach, and that “point” comes from the idea of Jesus as the “point” of all of their teachings.

Weber said that the “Berean” of the former name is from the Bible, from Acts 17:11, referring to a place with residents well-versed in scripture. That core idea has not changed at all; he said that he is an “expository preacher” and teaches through the Bible, “verse by verse.”

The church has always been independent, unaffiliated with any denomination, and that continues, he said. “We’re an independent church; we don’t have any other government over the top of us,” Weber said.

Weber, who was formerly the church’s associate pastor, became senior pastor when long-time senior pastor Larry DiNovo stepped down and became associate pastor. The two still work closely together, Weber said.

Other business

In other business, the board, at its Nov. 2 meeting, unanimously approved the following variance requests:

— From Christina Lawyer of 238 Woodsfield Dr. to put in a privacy fence in a front yard;

— From Tom and Sally Ketchum to permit the reconstruction of their fire-damaged house at 3935 Western Tnpke.; according to Acting Chief Building and Zoning Inspector Jacqueline Coons, the entire house is within the setback area — as are all of the neighboring homes — because it predates any town zoning codes; the Ketchums will keep the home’s original facade, but rebuild most of the rest of the structure, adding enough square footage to square the house off a little relative to the lot; and

— From Rick Bult of Fastsigns of Saratoga Springs to permit, at 1475 Western Ave., a total of 110 square feet of signage where 50 square feet is permitted, for the restaurants that will be opening in that site, Jacob & Anthony’s, an upscale sit-down restaurant,  and Bellini’s Counter, a takeout service. The restaurants will be in the stand-alone building at the corner of Fuller Road and Western Avenue that was originally a Howard Johnson’s and was, most recently, Mangia and Créo.

The closest comparables in terms of amount of signage would be Friday’s in Stuyvesant Plaza and Black & Blue on Western Avenue, said Bult; the signs for the new restaurants at the site in Stuyvesant Plaza will be, Bult said, “thin, scripted” white letters on a black background, and the only light emitted will be from the letters, not from the background.