Thursday, March 12, 2009

Where are the Lutherans?


According to Time magazine, the third biggest idea changing the world right now is "The New Calvinism." Essentially, what this strand is made up of is people who line up theologically for the most part with Calvinistic theology, while at the same time being relevant (in a good way) to the culture. They plant their churches in the heart of cities, rather than in the suburbs. They preach doctrine on Sunday morning for up to an hour and a half. Yet their Pastors dress "hip" and their music is "cutting edge" (Sorry, I couldn't think of a better phrase than that to describe it).

The New Calvinists are excellent at marketing and outreach to their communities and are most popular with young people (not young families, young single college students and others in that age group; they love the in depth talk about theology.)

So here is the question that I have had for a long time: Where are the Lutherans? Our theology is just as robust (actually I think more so) and at least in our denomination, the emphasis on mission to our neighbor is extremely high. So why aren't we making the same kind of impact? Here's my guess: Lutherans are terrible at marketing and actually have an aversion to it. What do you think? Can "New Lutherans"(is that an oxymoron?) be just as "world changing" as the New Calvinists?

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