Trevin Wax writes about the counter-productivity of building a church identity around barrier-building preferential distinctions instead of the barrier destroying power of the Gospel.
Wax provides a couple of fictitious examples of people who identify with the contrasting preferential distinctions of their home churches but share common uncertain experiences when it comes time to find a new church.
He then explains his concern:
Week after week, the churches emphasize and celebrate what makes them different from other churches. They celebrate their uniqueness – not the gospel uniqueness that shines light in a dark world, but a worldly uniqueness that would have us base our identity in stylistic distinctions between brothers and sisters.
Whenever we are formed within a context that celebrates certain cultural expressions over against other expressions, we begin to expect the wrong things from a church. So when the day comes for us to unite with a different congregation, our list of expectations is devoid of the gospel. The saddest result of [Wax’s fictitious church seekers] is that neither of them were looking primarily for a church that preached and celebrated the gospel. They were lost in a sea of peripheral issues because that is what their churches had celebrated.
Pastors and church leaders, it’s important that we believe the gospel; it’s also important that we celebrate this gospel in a way that makes clear it is “of first importance”.
What do we celebrate as a church?
Do we ever lift up our church’s expression as “what church should be” in a way that unites our congregation around a style rather than the gospel?
What You Celebrate as a Church is Just as Important as What You Believe.
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