People Want to Know Who We Are

I recently learned the artist and name of the theme song to the main CSI television show. The artist is The Who and the name of the song is "Who Are You?" As a church, this is what many people are asking as they hear about us, drive by our building, read something, see you in public, or, especially, when they come to visit.

There is probably not an exact definition of who we are because that can change from time to time. There are core values and traditions that may make us different, but those shouldn't be the labled items.

How would you answer this question, as to who we are? If someone were to come up to you on the street, whether they knew you or not, what would you say?

Would you say we're the church that meets at ___, naming our address? Would you say we're the church that doesn't have the instrumental music? Would you say we're the church that ___ and you fill in the blank. Defining our church can be a positive or a negative, in the eyes of someone else. What you say will take them to a different place of understanding than they had before. Labels are good and labels are bad, depending on the reputation. A label that is put on now hopefully would be changed, each time for the better.

I want to be a church where people are asking "who are you?" But I would want that person to find out that who we are is something positive. That even if someone asked someone not a part of our church "who are they?" That the response would be something positive, not judgmental or putting us in a box.

I once lived in a town where we had a retired prominent business man as a member. Many of the people of his generation knew our church as "his" church. Probably because of his prominence in the community. It drove me nuts! I wanted our church to be known by something other than that. To get it to that point the church must be the church to places other than the four walls of the building. Every Monday, for example, our church must be Jesus to people at work, school, in neighborhoods, in the grocery store, at sporting events, etc. We must be able to show people "who we are" in a positive way, outside of seeing your car parked in our parking lot.

Let's not just be able to tell people "who we are" but let's be showing them "who we are" because people are asking and inquiring. If they have a negative opinion, let's show them differently!

Live out "who we are" this week!