Today’s author is Intentional Interim Lead Pastor, Steve Sylvester.
In the pastor’s office at Prince of Peace there is a dry erase calendar. It leans against the wall atop a filing cabinet, on top of which are also three candle holders (with only one presently serving its designated function) and a cross. Right above the cross and centered toward the top of the calendar are these three words: Keep Church Weird.
The suggestion that the body of Christ ever was weird is, for most believers, anathema. The encouragement for it to continue to be so is simply beyond comprehension. Followers of Jesus, after all, are to be sober, serious, thoughtful, measured in everything we do. The Cambridge Dictionary, however, tells us that to be weird is to be “very strange and unusual, unexpected, or not natural.” And really, this fits right in with St Paul’s exhortation that as Christians we live in, but we are not of the world. Put more plainly, we should be weird.
So, I haven’t used that word to describe this congregation to anyone, but I certainly could. Your order of worship on Sunday is kinda set, but also a bit loosey goosey. Kinda weird. During the week, your facility hums with activity, much of it only tangentially connected to Prince of Peace. In these days when churches are often foreboding fortresses or musty museums, that’s weird. You share your land AND your building, to say nothing of your hearts, with people who most churches would encourage to find a place in someone else’s backyard. Decidedly weird. And you do all of this joyously. Very weird.
As you make your way through this week, I encourage you to embrace weirdness. Be consciously out of step with a world that knows only winning or losing by pursuing the middle ground. Love openly and reflexively without wondering what you might receive in return. Treat the world around you not as a combination food pantry and toilet, but as the ongoing work of God’s hand. And speaking of God, is there anything weirder than a God who responds to inattention and rejection by forgiving and loving?
I mentioned above those three candle holders. It’s not just that only one of the three is being used. It’s also that even that one is not actually “holding” the candle. You see, the candle is too big around to fit IN the holder, so it’s just sitting on top of it. I like looking up at that throughout the day. It reminds me how good and necessary it is to Keep Church Weird.