For the past two years, I've organized my work around these four emphases: we are church, we are Lutheran, we are church together and we are church for the sake of the world.

I want to spend a little time thinking with you about what is means to be Lutheran in the 21st century. What do we mean when we say we are Lutheran? The 500th anniversary of the Reformation is fast upon us, and this month, as in every October, we will observe Reformation Sunday. Maybe a good place to start is to ask why it's important and helpful to have a Lutheran identity. Some would say that denominations and denominational loyalty are things of the past. There is some truth to this, especially if our denomination is defined by ethnicity and culture and our loyalty is primarily to the denomination and not to our Lord. There was a campaign during the 1980's church growth movement to get rid of any denominational markers whatsoever. The stolid St. Paul Lutheran Church on the corner was supposed to be renamed something like "The Church at Pheasant Run." How evocative! How cool! How vaguely woodsy! A simple name change would accomplish two things at once: stop scaring the denominationally averse away and attract tons of people. It didn't. In an attempt to become more attractive we became generic. Having a clear sense of who we are and what we believe isn't a detriment but an asset. If we are well-defined and well-differentiated, we are more able to engage in ecumenical and interreligious dialogue and can be a clear voice in the public square.