Many Protestant churches continue quietly and modestly thriving. Beyond the stage of the Big Eva boys, anonymous pastors and congregations go about the business of the church. In the congregation where I worship, the minister faithfully preaches the word and administers the sacraments throughout the year. The elders and deacons care for the souls and the material needs of the people. And the congregants open their houses for hospitality, care for each other, share in each other’s lives.

The week of October 31, the traditional time to remember the Reformation, is also the annual moment when I like to reflect on why I am a Protestant.

As the years go by, being a Protestant becomes easier and easier for me. Pope Francis is, after all, the gift that keeps on giving. What with his apparent desire to turn the Roman Catholic Church into a standard form of liberal Protestantism (but with a bit more color), his program is less than compelling to anyone who, to borrow a phrase from Newman, is deep in history. While we may never know the truth about his recent alleged denial of Christ’s divinity, the fact that the story was plausible witnesses to the lack of theological understanding that has characterized his pontificate from the start. Not since the glory days of the Renaissance has the Catholic Church had a pope who makes orthodox Protestantism so attractive.

Of course, Protestantism has its own problems. The myriad magisteria of multitudes of parachurch ministries offer tin-pot spheres of influence for a plethora of popelets. And doctrinal orthodoxy is at a premium: A narrow focus on scriptural authority has led to a neglect of the catholic creedal dimensions of the faith. Classical theism and Trinitarianism are fighting a rearguard action even within some confessional institutions and churches. A dominant biblicism and a guild of theologians unschooled in historical theology has left us vulnerable to a soft Socinianism, which flourishes in the soil of sloppy thinking characterizing much of contemporary Christianity. And the economic realities of competition for a shrinking pool of consumers means that Protestant institutions—seminaries and even churches—are constantly tempted to market their marginal denominational differences as if they are of the essence of the faith.

Yet for all the chaos, many Protestant churches continue quietly and modestly thriving. Beyond the stage of the Big Eva boys, anonymous pastors and congregations go about the business of the church. In the congregation where I worship, the minister faithfully preaches the word and administers the sacraments throughout the year. The elders and deacons care for the souls and the material needs of the people. And the congregants open their houses for hospitality, care for each other, share in each other’s lives.

They reflect the basic truths of the Protestant Reformation: Called into being by the Word, the church proclaims that Word and reflects God’s character to the world through humble acts of hospitality, friendship, and kindness. And courage, too—courage that is not demonstrated by signing some online petition about homosexuality or pontificating in an online echo-chamber but by faithful witness to the truth in a hostile workplace. That is where Protestant Christianity is often at its finest.

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