Your Church’s Identity isn’t Made in a Week

We like labels.

Attractional. Seeker. Fundamentalist. Missional. Reformed. Emerging. Non-Denominational. Contemporary. Traditional. Liturgical. Bon Iver.

We like labels that is, until we are given one that we don’t want. A lot of time and energy is spent of creating an identity for our churches. Sometimes this can be expressed in a label.

It is appropriate to be concerned with how we are perceived. Earlier today our Creative Arts Pastor was agonizing over how to introduce a song. His question centered on whether or not the congregation knew the meaning of what they were singing. Do you take the time to explain possibly creating a speed bump in the service? Sing it anyway?

Are we a church that sing things we don’t understand? Do we have to stop and explain every song and if so where do you draw the line? There is something about Monday meetings that make you live in hyperbolic extremes.

Being concerned about perception is one thing. Thinking you can craft and present fully who you are as a community on a weekly basis is going to lead to an identity crisis for participants and first-timers alike.

Culturally it is odd to ask someone to suspend judgment. Sure first impressions will be made, but as a local church we have to live in a tension of identity. Like scattered plots on a graph given enough time patterns and a median will appear. Without time and repetition though you have a very skewed reality.

This isn’t very workable for those first-time guests who only give you one shot. It is impossible though, for you and your community to present your full identity in an hour.

Relax and give yourself some freedom to do different things that are in the right zip code but not always the same block.