I have to confess that I’m not there yet. In the back of my mind I know how I like to come across; serious, intense, making frequent use of dry humour. Although I don’t care about certian brand names, (I didn’t recogize and of the “skater” brands you mentioned) I unconsciously try to buy clothes which lend themselves to the image I try to put across.

A few months ago a friend of mine, who’s not a Christian, told me that I can come across as harsh and that when we first met she thought I didn’t like her when all I was doing is acting like I normally do. So apparently some people don’t like the Tom Skerritt brand, at least initially.

Should I rebrand myself?

Brands aren’t necessarily NIKE or something with a logo, but an identity that we love and we think gives us value.

So in answer to your question, I think that anything that doesn’t look like God’s image in our lives, it’s something that we should be disciplining ourselves to change.

My point is this…not every part of our character can be neatly put into the “godly” or “ungodly” catagories; there are parts of our personality that just “are” so to speak. I don’t think that the fact that I’m serious, dry, etc, etc, nessessarily comes from God. What about these? In this age people tend to be a lot more laid back than I am. Should I cut this away because it’s considered distasteful be many of my peers??

W

We try to be loving to all people, so if someone is continually offended that I so forward with my comments, maybe I can try to hold my tongue when I am around them. Personalities are shaped around relationships though, i don’t think personality is a morality issue at all, but how my loved ones feel when I am in the room in repeated circumstances might be.

That make sense?

But to interact with what you said more specifically; I’ve never understood why people want to assoicate themselves with a certian brand of clothing, it seems to me that there are more interesting things to indentify yourself with. Moreover, do link your own identity with a corporate logo plays right into the hands of companies.

That being said I do have a certian “brand”…I like to dress like a grad student. If I were to dress like you I’d feel wierd.

We live in a brand saturated world and so our first instinct is to offer yet another brand to everyone hoping that this brand will outlast all the others

Church, which often runs on a business model, constantly carries on the same sort of conversation as marketers do: Branding.

Your so right on

In the same way that brands only have as much power as we buy into them, so too does the Kingdom hold weight in relation to our ability to give ourselves over to it. The problem is that the Church itself is sold on this idea, making it even harder to break free from.

Great post, Nathan. Thanks for sharing this.

Thanks for the comment.