I both love and hate that we have “Lutheran” in the name of our church.
I love it because it’s honest. It tells you a bunch about our history and theology. No obfuscating with generic names. Since non-denominational is basically always baptist, being denominational helps anchor us as a community so you can know it is “this” and maybe not “that” but also “this.”
I hate it because a lot of people have never heard of Lutheran, so it takes a long explanation. And since there are multiple kinds of Lutheran it also requires disambiguation. Like “yes we are Lutheran but not that kind of Lutheran.”
Our congregation has become a safe landing place for many from other traditions who want to call a progressive and ecumenically open and inclusive church home. So it’s worth taking the time regularly to share the history and disambiguate. To that end…
At our new member potluck tomorrow 12:15 after worship I’m going to do a history of Lutheranism (and it’s place within progressive/ecumenical Christianity) in 20-30 minutes talk and record it as a podcast, because so many of our people are coming from other traditions. And a podcast because those who are traveling have asked for a recording.
I promise it will be the radical version. If you live in the area, you are welcome to join us for the potluck and the talk.
And on a side note, those of you following this blog likely notice it’s very clean with no advertisements. I love this about Substack, and it’s why I’ve migrated to this space.
I also know that some of you really want to help support those creating great content. So this is an invitation to consider a paid subscription to the blog. For the time-being, I very much prefer to create content for free for all readers, but I welcome paid subscriptions, and will likely develop some methods for paid subscribers to give great input into what is created here.
Blogging allows those of us who write to post the idiosyncratic thoughts and perspectives we’ve arrived at. I don’t have to try and optimize my posts for search engines in order to get more readers. I can just be me. Support from subscribers encourages and frees up even more time for such content.
Thanks to all those who have already transitioned to a paid subscription. You rock.
Now, watch your inbox tomorrow for that podcast. And join in person if you are available.