Pastor Patrick’s Perspective: February 2026
“I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.” Jude 3b ESV
I’ve been think about labels and effective or ineffective they are. There are some words that really don’t do they job we thought it did. That is, the word doesn’t carry any meaning or do any work for us. The actual word I’m speaking of is the word Protestant.
Like many labels, “Protestant” began as a pejorative, that is an insult. After the Second Diet of Speyers in 1529, six Lutheran princes filled a “letter of protestation”, or dissent. The Diet required them to follow the majority rather than the faith. They labeled themselves as “evangelicals” which means gospel, since their actions were guided by the gospel. Quickly though, their Roman adversaries nicknamed the Reformers as the Protestants.
Over the centuries, the designation of Protestantism evolved to include far more people than those involved at the Second Diet of Speyers. For some, the world of Christianity is divided between Protestants and Roman Catholics. For others, it is divided between Protestants, Roman Catholics, and Eastern Orthodox. But you get the picture, they include the Lutherans, the Reformed, the Anglicans, the Anabaptists, and all the rest. (Some might include all types of heretics as ‘Protestants.’)
But there is another sense of Protestant that can be troubling. It is the “just” Protestant, we are all the same. Or rather, there are no substantial differences between various flavors of protestants. Lutherans have been particularly susceptible to this. As non-English speaking people from a minority denomination, Lutheran immigrants struggled to fit in. During the early days of our country, prominent Lutherans recommended dropping Lutheran distinctives. Some of our ancestors migrated to the US because the German state the forced union between the Calvinist and Lutheran churches.
Even more recently, we seen moves to sameness. In the wake of WWII, many denominations sought bonds and shared resources between one another. While ecumenism is to be lauded, unified Christian witness often replaced serious discussions about theological nuances of the different traditions. Just watch a movie from the late 1950’s and ask yourself, is this pastor a Lutheran, a Presbyterian, a Catholic, or a Methodist. Normally, you can’t tell. And this contributed to the morass that we currently see in American Christianity.
So what good is the word Protestant? Properly conceived, the word denotes a collection of churches not associated with the pope in Rome, but it provides no unity between them. Protestantism is not a confession of faith. It does not tell us what is preached, what is given at the altar, or how sinners are justified before God. It flattens real differences that matter because they deal with the forgiveness of sins, the certainty of salvation, and the comfort of troubled consciences.
For that reason, Lutherans have always preferred clearer words. We are evangelical, because the Gospel stands at the center. We are catholic, because we confess the faith of the one holy Church. And we are Lutheran, not because we follow Luther, but because this name points to a clear confession of what God gives in Christ through Word and Sacrament.
Labels can confuse or clarify. Protestant may tell part of the story, but it cannot carry the whole weight. What finally matters is not what we protest, but what God gives: Christ crucified for sinners, preached into our ears, poured over us in Baptism, and placed into our hands in the Supper. That is the confession worth keeping.