Branding Faith

A few nights ago, I was talking late one night with a fellow pastor friend. He was telling me about a lady who had started attending his congregation who had been a longtime member, going way back to worldwide days. She was up in her 80s now. She was a widow. Her husband, who actually, she and her husband used to work around Pasadena. In fact, Debbie used to work for her husband in the male processing area during her years of college. They had been married later in life, second marriage, I think, for both. In fact, this lady said that their wedding was the last wedding that Herbert Armstrong performed. Didn't know that. Anyway, she's since widowed. He had died. She's in her 80s. Through the last 15 years or so, with the beginning of the United Church of God in the turmoil of the mid-90s, she and her husband, before his death, they had kind of lost track, not of the truth, but with the issues in the church, they had more or less been sidelined and kind of fallen between the cracks. Whatever their decisions, they had not been a part of anything, even though they maintained their faith, but they had not been a part of any organization. Within the last year or so, she had made one or two visits to a United congregation where my friend pastors, and just recently she had begun to attend on a regular basis, and he was visiting with her and talking. She made a comment to him. She says, I'm home. I'm home now. I got to thinking about that with a lot of other thoughts that I had going through my mind, and I got to thinking, that's wonderful. What was it about this, the United Church of God, that then the congregation where she finally began to find a home, what was it that made it a home? What was it that drew her back? This was a long time church member. What were the qualities she saw? What were the marks and the signs and the notes that she saw that told her she was home? How do you know when you're home? Just back to your house. How do you feel when you're in your home? Why is it so good to be at home? What is it about our homes that make a home? Something we recognize, something we feel comfortable with, something we keep going back to? Why was this lady at home? I'll leave that question, we'll come back to it. I want to do a little bit different type of sermon with you this afternoon. This is not going to be a sermon where we wind up with three points to better Bible study, seven points to being a better husband, or fifteen points to buying a used car, which was the title of the very, very first Spokesman's Club speech I ever gave.

Fifteen points to know in buying a used car. Now, any of you guys that ever been through Spokesman's Club, you know a bit off-grid a bit to chew, didn't I? Six minutes, yeah. Well, anyway, we'll talk about that tomorrow. So, it won't be that kind of sermon that I'm going to give you three points to study to some action or whatever, but I think that you will have some points to ponder, consider, and think about it as we go through here because I'm doing a lot of thinking about a particular subject that fits into that particular statement made by this lady who had returned to church. One of the issues that I'm involved with as a chairman of the media committee and with the committee and the administration right now is an issue that is a key strategic issue that we had defined over a year ago for the church and hasn't yet been done. That is defining who we are and our message and as we present ourselves to the world. You might think, well, we're the church of God, we preach the gospel, you know, what's the big issue? This is not rocket science, right? Well, it's true, but in our world today, I think you might recognize there are a whole lot of religious messages out there. There are a whole lot of voices out there. There are a whole lot of what's some people call in the marketing world brands in the religious world. Not only our particular corner, the church of God market, but the wider Christian market and the religious world.

There's all kinds of ministries and ministers and programming and magazines and messages that come from people, from Rick Warren to Joel Osteen to, you know, you run down the list on Sunday morning or on any particular area. There's a lot of voices out there and there are a lot of messages beyond the religious message that are competing for attention from you and I. We like our music, we like our movies, we like our books, we like our television, and everybody's competing for our time and our attention, and it's very intense in this modern society. As we preach the gospel, as we make that effort, we have a lot to contend with. There's a lot of competition in one sense. That doesn't mean we try to adapt and water down our message in any way, but we've got to be smart. Mr. Armstrong was a pretty smart advertising man when it came to crafting a message in his day and in his time, and we've got a unique challenge that even he didn't have in many ways. So, what we are grappling with is this concept of that, for lack of another word, let's just call it branding.

You know what branding is? You know how they brand a cow out west? They put that cow down and they take that hot branding iron and they put the circle K ranch on it or bar 9 or whatever it is, and that brand denotes ownership and says that that is my cow.

And branding is a kind of a buzzword or a hot topic item in modern marketing and advertising, and especially with religion as well. There's a book that we were all given, and I've been spending a lot of time in, called Branding Faith by a man named Phil Cook. Why some churches and non-profits impact culture and others don't. Branding Faith. It's an interesting book, has a lot of interesting concepts. This person is more or less... He grew up a church kid, not our church, but a Protestant church, and he consults with churches and religious groups and non-profits about getting their message out today and how to position it and how to market it. And it's got a number of interesting concepts, very good concepts that I found to be quite interesting. What exactly is a brand? How do you define it? What is it? There's a lot of ways you can put it. Let me put it this way for our purposes this afternoon. A brand is what people think of when they think about you, your organization, or your product. It's not difficult. A brand is what people think of when they think of you, your product, or your organization. Let me take just a minute and let's take it to our level. When people think about you, what do they think of? When you think of someone, what do they think? When you think of me, what do you think of? When I think of Peter Holmes, David Cobb, Karl Rothenbacher, Ralph Zimmerman. What do I think of? I think of you. What do people think of you? They have certain impressions. At work, do they think you're dependable, competent, on time, or late? Do you deliver your work on time, or do you always have an excuse? Think about that. Where you work, the people you work with, you develop certain images of this particular person, and they of you, competence. You develop certain images of this particular person. Do you add any distinctive value where you work? Do you serve a purpose? Do you contribute? Do you make a difference with people? Lori Mink is a teacher. She makes a difference every day with people, with little kids in first grade at her school, in a unique way. What do you add where you work that you work enhances the value? That's part of what you consider in this. When people think about you, you might ask it this way. What is it that you want to be known for? What do you want to be known for? A good carpenter? A good mechanic? A good worker? I could talk about Freeman Emil. He's not here today, but if you ever go to Freeman Emil's house, he's got a couple of plaques on his wall. One of them is called the Freeman Emil Award. He didn't create that at one of these little kiosks at the mall. That was done at a place that he had volunteered at for years and years and years. Because he was such a diligent volunteer, capable, service-oriented, they actually created a Freeman Emil Award. I think they give it out every year. Is that correct, Bonnie? She's nodding her head, she knows. I've seen it. He's got one, because he's Freeman Emil. Freeman needs an award.

What are you known for? What do you want to be known for? Any time you go through a little seminar or exercise to write your mission statement, they always ask, how do you want your obituary to be when you're dead? Write your own obituary. We're not going to do that today, don't worry about that. But what do you want to be famous for? What do you want to be known for? Everything we do defines our own brand. It all matters. The way you answer your telephone matters. There are some people over the years that I know whenever I call them, I know how they're going to answer the phone. Sometimes you put that phone out over here, and sometimes you can expect just a gravelly voice or short curt. You don't know if I offend you by calling. The way we answer the phone, the tone of our voice defines a lot. The look on our face. The look on our face. I'm famous for that, I understand. My looks are famous for whatever. What's on your Facebook page? That defines you. You know that?

Whenever we make people our friends on Facebook, I get a lot of people in there, I have no idea who they are. They're my friends. Some of them I've clicked on their site and looked at their pictures. I'm thinking, you've got to be kidding. You put that up there for everybody to see? There are some things that you wonder where people are thinking. They don't realize how public Facebook is. What they put up, some goofball picture that was taken late one night or whatever, defines them for a lot of people. You've got to be careful about that. You've got to be careful how you handle email. That defines you as well. This is what I'm saying in terms of how you understand what a brand is for this concept. For every one of us, there's a word of mouth reputation that builds based on what we do, what we say, and what we are. Call it character, personality, reputation. That's how it is. Now, that's you. That's me. We all, in a sense, have a brand. There was an article four years ago that I have a copy of called, The Brand Called You. It is true. Another part of this definition is what people think of your product. You're a manufacturer, you're a company, you put out a product. That product is you. It represents your company. When we go to buy that product, we're buying a lot, aren't we? We're expecting quality, we're expecting cleanliness, we're expecting reliability, we're expecting good taste. That's why you have brands like Starbucks that have been built into a multinational brand. There are things about Starbucks you can pretty well know, wherever you will go into a Starbucks store. You can expect consistency, look and feel, same cup of coffee, regardless of where it might be. McDonald's is the same way. I've had McDonald's hamburgers all over the world, and everyone tastes the same. I won't tell you how it tastes, but you know what a McDonald's hamburger is. It's consistent. They manage to do that, and they do it with French fries too. I don't know how, but a McDonald's French fry tastes the same in Europe as it does just down the street from my house. These are these brands. Kentucky Fried Chicken, when you buy Kentucky Fried Chicken, you're expecting something. Hershey's Chocolate is another brand that has been built. You expect certain things. Nike. Martha Stewart, a big brand right there.

This one, Martha Stewart's built on the personality of one individual. It suffered a few years ago when she went to jail. It didn't completely collapse. It did come back, but it did take a big hit when she went to jail. But Martha Stewart has made herself into a brand. When we buy our clothes, we have certain brands we identify with. There's Claiborne, Antaylor, Banana Republic, Levi's, Coldwater Creek, whatever it might be. My famous story on this is the power of branding when it comes to clothes. A few years ago, when we were in Israel, Scott Ashley and I running around Israel, we were having dinner one night at an outdoor cafe on the Sea of Galilee in the city of Tiberius. We were sitting next to a table full of Arab young people. They were at having dinner and we were having our dinner. I just happened to look over and just listen to them and watch them. The guys had on Nike tennis shoes, Levi jeans, some... I forgot to brand a t-shirt they had on. They were smoking Marlboro cigarettes, drinking Coca-Cola, and eating hamburgers and French fries. The power of those brands transcend nations. They speak to us in different ways. We expect certain things. Sony, Microsoft, Apple, Disney, and the world of entertainment. When you think of Disney, you think of certain family entertainment, for the most part anymore. Not always. Clean and expensive theme parks. I understand it takes a second mortgage to get into Disney World these days. That's what you think of. ESPN. Steven Spielberg is a brand in that sense.

I mentioned a while ago in the religious world, Joel Osteen, Rick Warren, for those of us older here in the audience, remember the brand called Oral Roberts? Oral Roberts was a brand. Do you know what church he was in? Anybody know what church denomination Oral Roberts represented? No. He used to know Oral Roberts. He was the healer. He had a healing ministry. Oral Roberts University is what he's known for. He's still alive, I believe, but he found that university. Religions tend to take on the name of the dominant individual. We all know about that from our own experience in this way. Brands are very, very important. When you think of them, you think of certain things. When you think of the Red Cross, what do you think of? What? Come on, let's get interactive today. Disaster aid. Right. You think of that. When you think of Salvation Army, what do you think of? Help, aid. United Way. These people, charity, when you build these organizations, they are known for certain things. The power of branding is such that if you do it right, even what represents your brand is something you will always know. I want you to remember that thought. The logo, the packaging, the product, how you put it out, if you do it well enough, people will always know that it's you. I want to give you an example of that to illustrate what I'm talking about. I want to do something that I normally don't do, so don't think that Mr. McNealy is kind of going left, south, or flaky on us here. But I'm serious. I'm going to ask for a volunteer to come up here for a minute. An adult volunteer? Someone volunteer to come up here for a minute. You're not going to be embarrassed. Donald, come on up. All right. Donald Hartman is the brave one in the bunch. Donald, I'm going to blindfold you. Go ahead and close your eyes.

I'm going to give Donald something and ask him to identify it. This is a clean bandana. I've had a cold all week, but I didn't use this one. Is this the one they gave us in San Antonio, Deb? This came from Texas. About this time, I know something about this one. Some of you were wishing you were up here. Can you see anything, Donald? I'm going to show the audience. Don't say a word. I'm going to show you something so you'll know what it is I'm going to give to Donald. Everybody recognize? Donald, I'm going to put this in your hand, and I want you to tell the audience what it is. You'd better get this right.

It's a Coke bottle. What is it? It's a Coca-Cola bottle. It's a Coke. Thank you very much. Donald, give the boy a hand. There we go. Thank you very much, Donald. It's a Coke bottle. Something you will know in the dark and recognizable. This cost a lot of money for me to buy yesterday. I'm going to tell you something. But if I had one of these two-liter bottles, he wouldn't have known if it was Pepsi or Coke. The man who designed this over 100 years ago for Coca-Cola, he had two things in mind that he had to do. One was to have a Coke bottle. He had two things in mind. One was to make a distinctive bottle that people would recognize. He started looking at the Coca-Cola product and what it was made from. Back in those days, Coca-Cola was really made from cocoa, the cocoa pod. He went to nature and looked at a cocoa pod. A cocoa pod has a distinct shape, which was translated into this particular shape of this bottle. That's why it has that shape. It has become an icon for over 100 years. It is instantly recognizable. As Donald just demonstrated, you can know it with your eyes in the dark being blind. That's an important thing to recognize. There are few products that are like that. I could have put an iPhone in Donald's hand, and he would have known an iPhone or an iPod. You think about other products that if you just had it in your hand, would you know? Would you know? A lot of imitators or competition, I should say, have come and gone with Coca-Cola products over the years. This one has endured, and the concept that they came up with has endured as well. There was a second design element that had to be designed into this. I'll tell you about that in a few minutes. We'll hold that thought and come back to it. But the brand had to be something that could even be recognized in the dark. That's when you've got good packaging. That's when you've got good design. That's something that endures if everything else functions, which with Coke, in this case, it has over the years, obviously even when they tried the new Coke a few years ago. But I will have to tell you, and those of you that are my age will know this, that Coke today, even classic Coke, doesn't taste like Coke when we were growing up. I see Brian and Freda shaking their head there, and Peter's doing the same. It doesn't taste the same. Probably because they use high-fructose corn syrup. The cane sugar is better. If you ever get a Coke that's got cane sugar or Dr. Pepper that's got cane sugar, it tastes like Dr. Pepper when you were growing up. It just feels so nice, soft, and warm, and gives you good feelings because it reminds you of your youth. High-fructose corn syrup does change the taste of soft drinks like that.

So a brand is what people think of you, your product, as well as your organization. Now, when we bring this down to the level of the church, what we are trying to do, what we need to do, what we want to do, we're not designing Cokes. We're not selling coffee. We're not selling clothing, cars, financial services. What are we selling?

What's the church selling? God's truth. We're selling the gospel. Our mission statement says that we are preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God and preparing a people that God adds and calls to the church. You know, when you look at the Bible, you look at the Scriptures. It tells us a great deal in regard to the brand of the church or the brand of a Christian. If you look at the brand of the church, to identify what it is, what it should be, there are many things that we learn from the Scriptures that are important. There's a brand, if you will, in the Bible that we could say is the Corinthian brand. The church at Corinth. Turn over to 1 Corinthians 1.

1 Corinthians 1. Paul begins in verse 10 to describe this church. The members gathered on every Sabbath.

He says, I plead with you, brethren, 1 Corinthians 1 verse 10, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that you all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. For it has been declared to me word of mouth, reputation, grapevine. It's been declared to me, Paul says, concerning you, my brethren, that those of Paul's household that there are contentions among you. That's the brand of the Corinthian church at this point in time as Paul wrote this letter. A divided, contentious church. And he goes on in the rest of the letter to show what those contentions were. It was an immoral church. They were tolerating immorality. They had doctrinal confusion.

There were some there who did not believe in the resurrection. That's why you have 1 Corinthians 15.

They had divisions based on personalities, which he says in verse 13, is Christ divided?

In verse 12, he says, some say I'm of Paul, some of Peter, some of Christ. So he goes on and spends the rest of the book talking about what it meant for that church to be divided. So the church of Corinth had a brand.

They were a divisive church at this point. Now, the story of Corinth doesn't end there. If you read 2 Corinthians, they made some changes to where their brand got turned around. They had to go through a market search and analysis and surveys.

And they cleaned their act up. They changed their thinking about one another, about God, about Paul, about a lot of things. It's called repentance.

And they changed. There's another church that has another brand, if you will. It's the Philippian church.

Turn to the book of Philippians.

Chapter 1 and verse 4.

Paul says, I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine, making requests for you all with joy, for your fellowship in the Gospel from the first day till now.

This church was known for its fellowship in the Gospel and what that produced. Paul brings that up. That's part of their reputation.

In chapter 2 and verse 12, he says, Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, as you have always obeyed. That's a very strong, positive affirmation of the character of the people in that congregation.

It was an obedient church. When Paul and when others thought about the church at Corinth, they thought that this is a group that is loving, good fellowship, hospitable, they're obedient.

In chapter 4 of Philippians, verse 10, there's another trait that is brought out.

Paul writes, I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at last your care for me has flourished again, though you surely did care, but you lacked opportunity.

Not that I speak in regard to need, for I've learned whatever state I am to be content.

The Philippian church had cared for Paul. They had sent him money and food and it seems other things.

And they were a generous church. So he's commending them there for their care that had flourished for him again, and that they did care, and thought it seemed other opportunities.

So it was a generous church. They were an obedient church. And it was a church that was known for its fellowship.

That's the Philippian brand. The Philippian brand.

A reputation of how people thought about them and how Paul saw them.

We could go into some of the other churches here, but there's one section in Revelation where we have seven churches enumerated.

In Revelation 2 and Revelation 3, there are the seven churches beginning with Ephesus, going all the way down to Laodicea.

We've been through those at various times, and reading and preaching about them and talking about them.

If you look at each one of those seven churches, they have distinct personalities, issues, problems.

Each one has a distinctive brand.

We all know about the Laodicean brand, don't we?

Luke 1, indifferent, needing to repent.

The Philippian brand. A unique message to that church.

Each church has a brand, if you will, in this message here of Christ to the churches that you could talk about.

You see that in these stories, and you could go back to the story of Israel and Judah and the children of Israel, the time of the Old Testament.

You could build a case in that particular way.

I use these to illustrate the fact that congregations or the church has certain brands that you look at within the story of the Bible to understand this whole concept of how people understand you, what they expect, what they think of, what they feel that you are able to deliver and to do.

The Philippian church is obviously the one that would inspire imitation.

Not so much the Corinthian church, except in the need to repent and the ability to change when corrected. That's a good quality there.

But the others in Philippi, in a sense, are that much more.

Now, let's take this down to another level.

This is kind of a broad macro level of the church. Let's bring it down to another level.

What does the Bible tell us about the brand called a Christian?

What verses might come to mind when we think about this brand called a Christian?

Think about that for a minute. We just had one pressing glaring, not glaring, but prominent aspect pointed out on the Passover service.

Turn over to John 13.

This is one of the clearest statements right here.

John 13 and verse 35.

Jesus says, By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.

By this they will know you are my disciples.

By this we could say, this is your brand, if you're going to be a Christian, that you love one another.

This is what your reputation will be. This is what you're going to be known for, that you have loved one for another.

That is as distinctive as you can get from the Scriptures.

It's obviously a very strong one and a very important one to know.

There are others. If we go back to the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 28.

This applies directly to the children of Israel, the nation of Israel.

I think we understand that it applies to the church as well.

Deuteronomy 28, verse 9.

This is the blessings and cursings chapter.

Deuteronomy 28, verse 9 says, The Lord will establish you as a holy people to himself just as he has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in his ways.

Then all the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they shall be afraid of you.

The commandments of God walk in them, and then people will see that you are called by the name of the Lord.

That's a defining brand.

A commandment-keeping people. A law abiding, keeping the commandments of God.

The people of God will be known for the fact that they keep the commandments.

They keep the law. That's repeated in many different ways.

All the way down to Revelation 12.

At the end of Revelation 12, where at the time of the persecution at the end of the age, the dragon goes after those who have the testimony of Jesus Christ and keep the commandments of God.

So, you see that following all the way through the Scriptures. That's an identifying feature of the people of God.

Turn back to Exodus 31.

Verse 13.

It says, And then again down in verse 17, speaking again about the Sabbath.

It says, This is the classic Scripture that we all know that shows that the Sabbath is a sign between God and His people.

That if you keep the Sabbath, that is going to be a sign that not only are you holy, but it shows obedience and is a sign between you and God.

Very, very important Scripture.

The people of God are a Sabbath-keeping people, as well as a commandment-keeping people.

It's to get even more specific, but it is a sign.

Now, we know that that's not the only sign, because there's a lot of people who keep the Sabbath today, as we know, who don't keep all the other parts of God's law, as well.

So, it's still a sign, but there is more to it in that sense.

John 13.35 is another one in terms of just having love one for another.

This is what Christ said will be a sign, or by which you are known as my disciple, if you have love one for another.

There's another basic verse back in 1 Timothy chapter 3.

1 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 15.

This is another one of those classic verses that describes the church.

Paul writes 1 Timothy 3 verse 15.

He said, If I am delayed, I write to you that you may know that how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.

Here's another sign, a part of this brand of the church.

It is a place where you will find the truth.

It is the pillar and the ground of the truth.

There is a foundation, and there are pillars connected to that foundation that are holding up, if you will, the house of God.

That is truth.

Now, many, many other scriptures will define for us the elements of those truths, doctrinal truths that we have as a people. But the church will be a place where people can find the truth, the truth of God, the commandments, the Sabbath, the Holy Days, as well as all other teachings regarding judgment and salvation, the kingdom of God, sin, repentance, baptism. In fact, there is one verse back in Hebrews 6.

If we define the truth technically by doctrine, that's certainly a part of it.

But if you turn over to Hebrews 6, this is where Paul mentions the truth. In verse 1, it says, Therefore leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection.

So he's talking about the elementary principles of Christ, the basics, the foundation, the ground of the truth.

He said, therefore we'll leave that discussion, we'll move on. In the previous verses at the end of chapter 5, he was talking about being able to handle meat in terms of the word of God, and milk, and solid food. That you progress from milk to meat. A newborn babe just drinks milk. Gradually, as it grows, it's able to handle solid food. And then sirloin steak.

And you move from the milk, which is being unskilled in the word of righteousness, to being a full age, verse 14 of chapter 5. That is, those who by reason of use have their senses discerned, exercised, to discern both good and evil. And so you move from milk to meat in terms of fuller doctrine, deeper understanding, moving from basic and what he calls elementary principles here in verse 1 of chapter 6, to go on to perfection. And then he does something interesting. He says, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and faith toward God, a doctrine of baptisms and the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead and of eternal judgment. Verses 1 and 2 are actually talking about the doctrines of the church. Not all of them, but several of them. We have defined 20 doctrines in the United Church of God as our fundamentals of belief. But here, all of these here in verses 1 and 2 are mentioned in those. And they're well familiar to us. They're basic doctrines that are part of what we call the truth that we just read back in 1 Timothy chapter 3 verse 15. That's the truth. The church is the pillar and the ground of the truth. But keep in mind that he says we have to go on to perfection. Do you just study baptism, the doctrine of baptism or of judgment week after week, month after month? How many times do you need to go over the Scriptures to prove the Sabbath?

There are times to review. There are times to take an annual review or bi-annual review of certain things. Doctrine is very important. Doctrine is essential to the church. It is a basic, as it says, the ground of the truth. It is where you go to the church to find the truth. But Paul, in writing here in Hebrews, is saying we also have to go on to perfection. We don't leave the elementary principles. We build on that. We build on the knowledge about the resurrection, and we build to the deeper, profound areas of the meat of the word and of the matter of truth.

Paul also wrote in Corinthians that you can have all knowledge, but if you don't have what? What? What? Love. You're like a tinkling brass. You can know every prophecy, but if you don't have love, what good does it do for you? You can know every doctrine, every fundamental belief, backwards and forwards, every verse in the Bible to back it up. But if you don't have love, don't worry, we're not going to get flanky here.

You don't have anything. You see what I'm saying? You've got to be known for doctrine. You've got to be known for truth. You've also got to be known for loving one another. You've got to be known for your fruits. In Matthew 7, verse 20, this is just walking through, what is our brand? Keep that in mind. What are we known for? What is it about the church of God that is so iconic, so enduring, just like this Coke bottle, that you can know with your eyes closed what it is.

It's not a Pepsi bottle. It's not an RC bottle. I mean, you know what an RC bottle is. Only old people are raising their hand on this one. It's not an RC Cola bottle. It's a Coke bottle. It's not some other brand of religion. It's the truth. It's the real thing. The real thing. How do you know that? How do we convey that? How do we get that out? Matthew 7. Matthew 7, verse 20. Therefore, by their fruits you will know them. Here's another piece of the picture. By their fruits. How that doctrine translates into reality every day.

The way they treat one another and the way they treat and live their life with character, integrity, based on truth. By their fruits. Where there's peace, joy, love, long suffering, patience. You know the fruits of the Holy Spirit? Galatians 5. Those are the fruits that we could go on into to further enumerate this.

In chapter 5 of Matthew, in verse 14, what does Jesus say to his disciples, to the church? We know this one. Verse 13, he says, You're the salt of the earth, but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned?

It's then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. You, verse 14, are the light of the world. A city that has set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.

Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your God, your Father, in heaven. You are the light of the world. That's another defining element of the brand called Christian, disciple of Jesus, member of the church of God, member of the United Church of God. However you want to define it in terms of ourselves as a body, an organization, as a member of the spiritual body of Jesus Christ, these and many other scriptures that we can go to are what we would say are the elements that define the brand called Christian.

So, it's doctrine, and it goes far deeper than that. It goes beyond that. It's not just having the correct prophetic scenario. It's more than that, too. It goes down to the heart of some of those scriptures there in terms of who we are and what we are known for.

Now, you know, years ago in the church, back in the worldwide Church of God days, we had a seal. Remember the seal that we had in the worldwide Church of God that represented the church?

Do you remember? How many of you remember? What was on it? David Morrison? Child, the Lamb, and the Lion. Anybody know what chapter of the Bible, where that came from? David?

Isaiah 11. You're in the same book. You're in the right book there.

Isaiah 11, verse 9. Little child shall leave them. I remember when I first saw that unveiled, it was about 1963 or 4, one of the early feasts that I first attended. I remember this huge seal was out in front of the podium there at the Tabernacle in Big Sandy. This big metal emblem that was the seal of the church. I think it was about the time that they had had that finally imprinted.

For years we knew that. That identified us as a church here out of Isaiah 11. What was the concept behind it?

World tomorrow, kingdom of God, the millennium, tomorrow's world. Remember that name? The world to come, beyond today. That's what that seal and that image personified and showed to the world. Now, we left that behind and today we have this one. This is the seal of the United Church of God today. I think most of us probably don't even look at it up here every week. It's in front of us. But we came up with this seal and I think if you look at it, you see Europe and Africa more than you do anything else. Within the configuration you have a part of every continent on the earth. This was the perspective that was settled upon. But it's the seal of the United Church of God preaching the gospel, preparing a people. It's not a swoosh. It's not a pagan goddess.

Some people think it's on the Starbucks logo. It's not this, necessarily. This is our seal. It's a good seal. It's a good representation. This is what we have today to represent what we wanted to say about the United Church of God and international association. So we pictured the globe on this. So that's what we have. It's a good one. Is it perfect? I don't know. Did we come up with something else? I don't know.

But it represents what we say as a name of the United Church of God, what we want to convey, and preaching the gospel to the world. That's different in one sense than the specificity of the lion and the lamb on the old seal of worldwide days. But as people think about the message, they draw certain conclusions. This is another part of the thought here to bring this down to what we're thinking through and dealing with as we define our message. And seek to define this brand of the United Church of God and the message that it preaches to the world.

You know, and you look at a few places in the Scriptures, you find that when Jesus was arrested and he came before Pilate asking him, are you the king of the Jews? Which in a sense defined what they had heard about his message and what was his reputation, that he was the king, which in their mind, we've got a problem here.

Because if you're declaring yourself a king, that's treasonous. Of course, that was part of the issues upon which he was charged and brought at that particular point. And it's more Pilate-focused because he was a civil governor. The Jews focused on the fact that he called himself the Son of God. The Pilate focused on that, but it tells us something about Christ's message. Turn over to Acts 17. Now, let's look at how the Apostle Paul was perceived by his audience in Acts 17, which was in the city of Thessalonica, when they sought to arrest him.

Acts 17 and verse 5, the Jews were filled with envy and they gathered a mob and set all of the city in an uproar and attacked the house of Jason and sought to bring them out to the people. This was Paul and Silas. They sought to drag him out into the streets. Verse 6 says, when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out.

And here's what's important at the end of verse 6. Those who have turned the world upside down have come here too. That tells you the message that Paul was preaching and what people were responding to, that it was a message that was perceived as world-shaking. The message that turned the world upside down. Overturn the established order. Transform people's lives, if you will, as they preached the message of the kingdom of God.

This was how people received it. And this is what they thought about. It's not a bad perception. Because in truth, that's what the gospel of the kingdom of God does do. It does show that the world is going to one day be turned upside down. So it's another one of those defining markers of the Scriptures to tell us something about the message and what people are looking for and understand.

Now, there are many others, Isaiah 11, other prophecies about the world to come. We know that as we preach the gospel of the kingdom of God, we are focusing on the very truth and fact of the time of the millennium. The time after Christ's return. And that message is a visionary message of hope, of encouragement, of dynamic action that has changed our lives and when properly understood, can change our lives today. That's the challenge that we have to convey that when we talk about Beyond Today or the Good News.

It's helping people to understand that these are teachings, this is a promise, this is a vision, not just of a time in the future, but teaching the message, the way of life that it represents can make a difference starting today. It's not just a pipe dream for the future, but by living this way of life, it can transform your life. And I think I will share with you my personal thought that I've come to, that we've got to take a serious look at how we have been portraying that, because we're very good at giving information, we need to improve on transformation.

We're good at doctrine, we've got a lot of booklets, we're good at information, but we need to improve on helping people understand how that message transforms your life. Each one of us can think about how our lives have been changed by the truth. And I would love to put a camera in front of every compelling story that exists in the Church of God and get people to tell their story. And there are some good ones. And be able to convey that to the world, because again, we're visually oriented today.

And a middle-aged white guy talking behind a desk with a bunch of books behind him or on a set isn't always, for every occasion, the best way to convey the message. I'm being generous in calling myself middle-aged, but that's all right. I'm on a high end of middle-aged. I'm still middle-aged. I think middle-aged. Anyway, that's another part of the discussion, we'll save for another time. Remember what I said about this? There were two things to the design of this. There's another element that the man who designed it had to accomplish.

The design of the Coke bottle, he was told, had to be recognizable, not only in the dark, but if it ever got broken.

Recognize that? You're already set up for it. But I think most of you, if you pick that up off the street, you'll say, somebody dropped a Coke bottle. You wouldn't say somebody dropped a Pepsi bottle. You'd say, because even broken, the brand of Coke, the bottle, you know what it was. That's important, too. That's very, very important. In the dark, you can feel it. That's a Coke bottle.

Broken? You can look at it. That was a Coke bottle. Turn over, if you will, to John 13. John 13?

John 10.

John 10.

Verse 1. Jesus says, Most assuredly I say to you, that he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up some other way, the same as a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the doorkeeper opens and the sheep hear his voice. And he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.

They know his voice. That's all they have to hear. They know that it's the shepherd. They will by no means follow a stranger. They want the real thing. They don't want Pepsi. They want the real thing. By no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers. He used this illustration, but they didn't understand the things which he spoke to them. The truth, you hear it, you know it. God's Spirit is there. And you know it. This is what Jesus is saying. His sheep know the voice of the shepherd. And they know a false voice as well.

So the brand, the message, has got to be true. And it has got to be recognizable and distinctive for people to follow that. And continue to follow it. Now, remember I said that the second point of this design of the Coke bottle had to be recognizable when it was broken? You all passed the test on this one. You know what that is. Can a brand ever be broken? Can a brand ever be broken? Think about it. I mentioned Martha Stewart a while ago. Her brain kind of got broken when she was accused of certain illegalities and had to go to jail.

How many of you remember about 20 plus years ago the Tylenol scare? Remember the Tylenol scare? A few batches of Tylenol got tainted and some people died taking Tylenol. Nearly wiped out and destroyed the whole Tylenol brand. And, I think, the people who made it, Johnson & Johnson, pulled every bottle of Tylenol off the shelf. It cost millions. And I wondered at the time, would I ever buy Tylenol again?

How many of you buy Tylenol today? That brand nearly got broken with certain things, and that's a case study in what to do when you get crisis. It was able to be rebuilt. Did the brand of the Church of God ever get broken? Did it ever get broken? Yeah. 1995, 1994, 1993. The Church of God brand got broken. Big time. It shattered. And people scattered. And what happened? We know what happened.

Remember the lady I mentioned at the beginning of the sermon who said she had come back to the Church and she said she was home. She was home. What made it a home for her? I wrote down a few thoughts as I was thinking about that. Got them here someplace. Oh, they're right here. What makes a place a home? Someplace where you feel safe, comfortable, accepted, warm on a winter night, get your place. You can do whatever you want. Leave your socks out. Get your place. That's your home. It's a place where you know and you're known. You know what the cheer song said, where everybody knows your name.

That's part of being home. It's where you're fed. There's an old saying that home is a place where you go and they have to take you in. That's true. That has its own ring of truth as well. But home is where you'll be cared for. A church home is all of those in the spiritual dimension. This lady, along with many, many others over the years, and I'm sure there will be others to come, will come and become a part of the United Church of God.

And in their years in the wilderness, and we'll say, I'm home. I'm home again. Because of the doctrine, truth, the pillar and the ground of the truth, the message, the people, the feeding, the care, and all of that.

These are a lot of intangibles that we deal with in terms of what we define and understand as our brand and how we package and convey all of this. There's a letter that I've read before, and I pulled it out the other night as I was thinking through this.

And I don't know if I should read the whole letter. I can't read this letter without crying. Those of you that have been to Camp Heritage, you know the letter. It was written after our first year at Heritage by a young lady who came as a staff member in 1996. She wrote me a letter after the conclusion of Camp to explain what that first year of Camp, 13 years ago, meant to her as a 19-year-old. She'd been about 19 at that particular time.

18, I don't know. She worked on the staff that year. And she wrote me this letter. And I was trying to think through this concept the other night and it fit with where we are right now. And she said, Dear Mr. McNally, the recent split in the church that caused so many difficulties was also the cause of a very confused girl. After her dreams of working at SEP for the summer were shattered, broken, she was left alone wondering about everything but not being able to share her feelings with anyone.

She couldn't share with her school friends because the torture of the schism had to be felt and could not be explained. She's referring to the split in 1995. None of her school friends had been involved. She couldn't share with her church friends because none of them cared as much as she did.

She couldn't share with her parents because their problems were so different from this 16-year-old girl's problems and she couldn't possibly explain. She needed someone who had experienced the same thing. She got her acceptance letter to Camp Heritage and she says, I had to admit I was leery. I'd been to SEP many times.

I knew the differences between the two camps would be vast, and I was finally convinced to go. That short week of camp I attended changed my life forever. The friendships that I formed with my fellow workers will last eternally. I made friends that week. Not the normal, trivial friendships that are sometimes formed in high school but do not last beyond the confines of the school walls, but true friends who will be there for me when I need them.

I found what I'd been longing for. I found people who'd been through the exact confusion of the past two years as I had. We'd lost friends, family, jobs, and the peace in our lives that we'd grown to trust and appreciate. We all held the same beliefs and viewpoints, and we all lived the same way of life, and that was the bond we shared, that we knew, and we all understood.

We did have to explain it over and over again to people who would just nod their heads but truly have no idea what we were talking about. She goes on to make some other, many other very astute observations about not just the camp experience, but about the church experience.

I read this letter many times over the years. This is just a copy. It's not the original. I've got the original locked up, and it's a keeper for the ages as far as I'm concerned. But I finally looked at it from a different dimension the other night, and it was more than just camp, but camp was the place where she found her home. The church that she grew up in had been broken like this. When she came to camp, she found friends, she found peace, she found understanding, she found truth, the doctrine, but we weren't preaching doctrine every day at camp.

We were playing games and having Bible studies and just people being people and those things and living it as best we could. That's what she's really describing. She found her way home. She found her way back because at a time when the brand had been broken and when she finally got there and she saw certain elements, she recognized it for what it was. The real thing. The real thing. So, that's the brand. That's where some of my thoughts are about this concept of branding faith or branding God's truth and explaining that to the world.

I have to leave it at this point. It's inconclusive. As I said, I don't have three points for you. Much less 15. This is a subject that will continue. When I give this again, it will be a little bit different, perhaps more refined. But you think about it in terms of the importance of the message to you, to the church. I would ask your prayers that we can certainly refine that even better, clearer for our generation today and ask your prayers that we in the church can make that very crystal clear in some of these concepts to ourselves so that we in turn can preach that to the world.

And ask God's blessing on the product because we want everyone not only to find a home, to come home, but even for many for the first time to find the real and the true home and to find the real thing. And when they find it, to know what it is and to be able to recognize it during dark times and during times of stress that might break people's lives, the world, the church, to be able to always be able to know and find the voice of truth and that which defines the church of God.