Why Can't We All Just be the Same?

I've been away for the past week - for an actual, honest to God vacation. I went to Maine where the Internet still runs through a series of tubes and was unplugged. I know there was a great longing for my wit and deep insights, but my family needed some of my thoughts and attention as well. After a week they were more than happy to plug me back into the techno-world and let me share my great thoughts with others.

Recently I read an article from the Journal of the American Academy of Religion (religious eggheads of the world unite!); "De Facto Congregationalism and the Religious Organizations of Post-1965 Immigrants to the United States: The Revised Approach" by Wendy Cadge (vol 76, no. 2 June 08' p. 344-374). Once you get past the spiffy title, it is a good article making some interesting points.

Basically, Cadge seems to be arguing that one cannot make broad based assumptions about the formation and function of immigrant congregations in the US. There are points of similarity depending on the larger context (i.e. the U.S.) but there are also points of difference depending of the local context, the leaders, the particular members, etc. It seems to me that Cadge is picking a fight with folks from the world of Sociology, and that is not my 'hood, so I wont enter into that fray. What got me thinking was the level of applicability to the Baptist movement.
Within the Baptist movement we have similarities - things we all tend to share. Cadge listed the following similarities (note - Cadge's article is responding to a number of other articles and books. Her similarities and variations come out of that conversation. In other words... read the damn article!):

1. voluntary membership
2. identity defined more by the people who form it than by the territory they inhabit
3. systematic fund raising
4. a tendency for these families to be brought together under the roof of the institution on Sunday

Immigrant or not, I think we could agree that Baptists churches share these similarities.

The differences, or variations, Cadge lists are as follows:

1. Because of its lay leadership and voluntary function, there is a tendency for clergy to be professionals hired as employees
2. the congregation has a tendency to ethnic exclusivity
3. a tendency for [the congregation] to be multifunctional (featuring more than religious 'worship' including education, cultural, political, and social service actives)

Again, I think we could say that these variations exist among Baptists.
So here is the rub. Often I hear folks describe what the church is "supposed" to do, or be. We are often pushed into a box for how the pastor is supposed to act, what kinds of services the church is supposed to provide, and even how worship is supposed to occur. Yes, there are similarities, and probably more than listed above. Yet at the same time there will always be contextual variations, and more than the ones listed. How can we be true to a greater movement and at the same time flexible to the contextual variations we encounter. Or perhaps to put it another way, how do we be true to Christ, and at the same time allow Christ to be heard and incarnated in a way that is true to the here and now. Hmmm.....