Mark your identity. . .

I live in a decent size city (about 250K) with a deep and abiding affection for chains.  We have all the chain fast food joints including those who are up and coming and those who are down and on their way out.  We have all the chain restaurants with the menus that seem to be different versions of the same basic playbook though some seem to do well many belong to mostly bankrupt franchises.  We have all the chain stores (including an incredible 10 or more Walmart locations) and that means we can shop in person, have it delivered to our car or have it dropped off at the house.  We have all the chain strip mall franchises and that reflects the obligatory strangely named boutiques whose products are a mystery as well as more than the usual nail salons, spas, etc...  What we do not have are unique places to eat or shop that are local or have local roots.  I wish that I could say there was hope for more differentiation but it does not look likely anytime in the near future.

We have the same odd conglomeration of churches whose worship services, sermons, programs, and buildings seem carved from the same retail or mall playbook.  There are new names that tell you nothing about what the group is about (Bridge, Lifelight, etc...) and old names DBA something chic but in their corporate documents they sound like a number and a Baptist church (or Church of Christ or something similar).  We have Christians doing pretty much the same things on Sunday morning and everyone claiming they do it better, did it first, or have improved upon the entertainment style of doing church with something for everyone.  Some of these churches were once distinctive but not so much anymore.  More of them have read the same playbook and are beginning to look and act pretty much the same no matter their denominational tilt.

So skip theology and think about this.  What can a liturgical and confessional church gain from offering a faint echo of what others are doing better or doing on a small scale what some are doing in the big box kind of churches in town?  That is why it is so foolish to cast aside a real identity for a fake one and presume that this will attract those looking for something authentic and real.  Is this really the best we can do?  Is adiaphora merely a cover for mimicking anyone and everyone except our hymnal and confessional documents?  If we want an identity, why not try our own?  There is nothing quite as distinctive as a liturgical and confessional Lutheran Church on Sunday morning.  Chanted liturgy, reverence, solid Biblical preaching, doctrinal catechesis, and the like are not to be found in the no-name churches and most Roman Catholic parishes seem to be lost on a time trip back to the days of Peter, Paul, and Mary.  Honestly, in my decent size city there is only church doing what we do -- that is us!

Instead of competing to be relevant, why not play our trump card.  We have a God who is accessible to us in the Means of Grace and every Sunday we walk upon the holy ground of His presence bidden by the Spirit to touch eternity and taste immortality in the Eucharist.  We have a God who actually cares more about holiness than happiness, about the eternal treasure than what is in at this moment.  We are a people who gladly surrender our diversity to be one people before the one Lord by means of the one baptism.  Mark your identity before the world but make sure it is as Lutheran as it can be (that means, by the way, catholic and apostolic and not sectarian!).  If Lutheranism doomed to die, let it die because we lived and died as the people we said we were and not as a people who try on new clothing and a new identity every time something new shows up.  We have a distinctive identity.  Let's flaunt it!