As Kevin Hendricks from ChurchMarketingSucks.com has pointed out, the Southern Baptist, Foursquare, and Episcopal denominations are all currently running some variation of the “I am/We are [insert denomination name here]” advertising campaign.  As I think about it, I find myself asking “is this a good idea?”

Don’t get me wrong.  I don’t have any kind of issue with churches or denominations advertising.  Advertisements have the potential of encouraging people who are interested in Christ to walk into a church for the first time, and they can encourage unconnected Christians find a place where they can belong.  Both of those are good things.

However, I’m not sure that doing it in a way that emphasizes the differences between churches is necessarily a good thing.  When we focus on the differences between us, we destroy the unity that should bind us together as believers in Jesus Christ.

I believe that having different denominations and different kinds of churches and churches that have different focuses is a good thing.  Different people respond and connect with different types of ministries and different kinds of pastors.  If every church looked and sounded the same, then only people who connected with that style of ministry would be affected.  There would be a lot of people who would drift away from the church, or who would never walk into a church in the first place.  To me, this is part of what it means for the church to be the body of Christ.  We need arms and eyes and livers and ribs.  The body needs all of the different parts in order to operate effectively.  In other words, we need all of the different parts of the body of Christ to work together in order to reach as many people and to have as big of an impact on the world as possible.

When we focus too much on what makes us different than every other brand of people who identify themselves with Christ, it seems to me that we start fall into the trap of saying “because you are not an eye, you have no place in the body.”  Certainly there comes a point where the differences are so great that we are no longer part of the same body, but I think churches are often too quick to reach this point.

And it is certainly true that people outside the church wonder why those of us inside the church can’t get along.  People who don’t know Jesus probably couldn’t tell you one difference between the Baptists, the Episcopalians and the Foursquares, and they probably don’t care.  And if those of us inside the church spent a little more time focusing on the things we share in common rather than on what makes us different, it would be easier for all of us to affect the world around us for the sake of Jesus.