Christians and Branding

 

"Is your nose a little stuffy?"  my wife, Elaine, asked our oldest son.

"Well, Mom," Vincent answered.  "I do feel the need to use a Kleenex now and then."  

He paused a second, then said.  "I'm sorry.  I should have said, 'tissue.'  I really don't want to advertise for companies when I am talking."

"But what do you say when you are talking about off brand Legos?"  Elaine queried.

"Maybe you could call them 'Legos that aren't Legos,'" Elliot suggested.

"That's way too long," I put in.  "Part of the point of names to have shorter ways of referring to things than long descriptions."

"The right term for them, Dad," Vincent said with great conviction.  "Is 'Bricks with Studs.'  That is what people should call them, because that is what they are."

"Maybe so," I said.  "I think the real thing the word Lego has going for it is that it is short."

The world is full of brands.  In the south, most soft drinks are referred to as "Coca cola."  An insulated mug is a Yeti and a vacuum flask is called a Thermos.

The reason is that these companies have impacted the marketplace.  Their products stood out in some way that ended up sticking their names on all of the other subsequent, similar products that ended up on the market.

I think about the term "Christian" in the same way.  It has been nearly 2000 years since the first believers were called Christians.

In the beginning, the apostles and those who followed on their heels called themselves "Followers of the Way," but at Antioch, people who were not believers called them Christians.  Over the years since then, the term Christian has come to mean many things, some of them good and some of them very bad.  

I am afraid that when we tell people around us that we are Christians a mental picture is conjured up.  That image is not always a good one.

Perhaps, non-Christians think of the political stances that many Christians take on social media.  Maybe they remember the time they were waiting tables and a man with a WWJD bracelet short changed them on a tip or, got angry with a manager.  Maybe they think of a Christian pastor who was revealed to be having affairs or involved in pornography.

Those of us who are branded as Christians cannot change that past narrative.  The only thing we must be certain of is that as we speak into other's lives our impact is for good.  

Every action we do will speak to others of what it means to be a Christian.  Let those actions be filled with love and purity.

By our actions we can show people who a Christian really is -- someone who behaves like Jesus in every situation, every time.

Even on the Internet.