Content To Wear The “No Brand” Name
Categories: Church of Christ Bulletin Articles
A marketing professor at a well-known university once asked his students to make a side-by-side taste comparison of two soft drinks — Coca-Cola, and Sam’s Choice Cola. Each student was asked to taste both colas and indicate which tasted better. The majority of participants stated that the Coke tasted better to them than the house brand generic, Sam’s Choice.
Imagine the students’ shock when the professor revealed that the soda labeled “Coca-Cola” was Sam’s Choice, poured from the same bottle as the alternative selection! Even though the two drinks given each taster were identical, most imagined that the sample labeled as the Coke “brand,” tasted superior to the product bearing the Wal-Mart “brand.”
Folks, through the advertising medium, we’ve been “brand conditioned.” For many years, the Coca-Cola Company has invested billions of dollars in advertising to convince the world that Coke is “the real thing.” We have learned to associate the name Coca-Cola with quality soft drinks. Thus, it stands to reason that Coke “must” taste better than any other soda. After all, would the Coca-Cola folks ever lie to us as consumers? Therefore, given the choice between the Coke and Wal-Mart brand colas, we have been “brand conditioned” to expect the Coke “brand” to taste better than the Wal-Mart “brand” even if it really doesn’t taste any different.
“Brand conditioning” is one reason that we as New Testament Christians, have a problem in convincing people to embrace simple Bible-based Christianity. Folks, we have no “brand” name to sell. We are of the “generic” faith — the “house brand” of religion. If someone asks us about our faith, and we reply, “I’m just a Christian,” their next question will often be, “Yes, but what kind?”
Denominational churches have long conditioned people to think of religion in terms of “brand” names. Being “just a Christian” is like being “just a cola” — if you have no trademark or “brand” name on your label, your faith can’t possibly be as good as one of the popular “brands.” However, the existence of various “brands” necessitates differentiation.
There’s no value in the Coca-Cola name if every other soda tastes exactly like Coke. However, in the area of religion, differentiation leads to conflicting creeds (cf. 1 Corinthians 1:10-13; 2 Corinthians 11:1-4; Gal. 1:6-12).
For example, each church needing its own document or set of documents in explaining why it is “different” and better than other “brands” of churches — Roman Catholicism having its catechism — Methodism, their Discipline — Baptists, their Manual. However, the church described in the New Testament, has no such “brand” name document. As Christians, we only have the Bible and nothing else to define our faith. In the eyes of our religious neighbors, we are “generic,” — an entity with no “brand” name — an “off-brand” or “house brand,” if you will.
In the book of Acts, an honest reader will find neither “brand” nor denomination of church simply because they did not exist in the first century. In fact, if we read all of the apostolic letters, we will not find Paul writing to one kind of church or “brand,” Peter writing to another “brand,” and John writing to yet another.
However, it is recorded that the first disciples “continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine” (Acts 2:42), and were commanded to “speak the same thing,” having “no divisions” among them, and “be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment” (1 Corinthians 1:10).
They practiced the “no brand” faith — only practicing “the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 1:3).
Folks, the world can keep its labels, creeds and “brand” names. As New Testament Christians, we’ll remain content to wear the “no brand” name of Christ (Acts 4:12; Acts 10:43) — associating ourselves with those who have been added to the Lord’s church (Acts 2:42; cf. Matthew 16:18) — that body of saved individuals (Ephesians 5:23) — with those folks who are just called “Christians” (Acts 11:26; Acts 26:28; 1 Peter 4:16).
Related Articles:
- “Attend The Church Of Your Choice”
- Which Church Will You Look For?
- The Lord’s Church — Built To Last!
- “Saving Faith”
- An Active Faith Is A Necessity