Jesus was a counterintuitive genius: 
- The last will be first and the first will be last.
- Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.
- Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
- On the sabbath his disciples were hungry and they plucked heads of grain to eat.
- Jesus stretched out his hand and touched the leper.
We, on the other hand, are somewhat addicted to the habitual, the sensible, the standard operating procedure. This is why we continue to staff governing boards with Church Pillars and plan the same events every season. While – in this season – typical congregations will hang the greens and Christmas carol and organize children’s pageants, some counterintuitive congregations will forgo the usual worship service on Sunday, December 25th and ask people to stay home with their loved ones praying with personalized home liturgies. Others will suggest that – instead of gathering for Christmas Eve in the sanctuary – they gather in livingrooms with non-Christian neighbors for prayer and singing.
My New Year’s Resolution (it’s never too early): To cultivate a culture of counterintuitiveness in the church.
The Presbytery I serve owes a scary amount of money. THE DEBT. I heard about THE DEBT prior to moving here and I’ve noticed that many people see everything that happens in the church through the lens of THE DEBT.
I’m done with this – after only 3 months on the job. Yes, there is debt but has anybody noticed WHY we have debt? This particular Presbytery chose to Do The Right Thing some years ago, which involved taking on a debt for the redemptive purposes. It was a matter of justice and holiness. It was an effort made to heal what was broken. Debt was accepted for the sake of the weak and hurt. And we probably would have taken on even more debt if anybody thought it might help.
Here’s another counterintuitive idea: I would love to see the angriest pastor on “the right” and the angriest pastor on “the left” covenant with each other to hang out once a week in 2011 to pray for each other, to hear about each others’ pets and hobbies and loved ones.
Here’s another counterintuitive idea: Sell your church building – especially if it’s a drain on your financial resources. Meet in a comfortable Third Place (more about Third Place Ministry tomorrow) and set up a church incubator space for multiple church staffs and other non-profits to use through the week for screen time, study, conversation.
Other counterintuitive ideas?
A Church for Starving Artists 
Can I come work for you? Seriously.
🙂
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Shawn – I’d love that. In search of a community that is worthy of you.
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“Here’s another counterintuitive idea: Sell your church building – especially if it’s a drain on your financial resources. Meet in a comfortable Third Place (more about Third Place Ministry tomorrow) and set up a church incubator space for multiple church staffs and other non-profits to use through the week for screen time, study, conversation.”
I had to laugh when I read this, because I said something like that in a Bible study last night. I was talking about a friend whose church sold their property and now rent a storefront in a strip mall, using the proceeds from the sale for ministry out in their community. I said I was kind of jealous of the freedom that allowed them.
It did not go over well.
In all fairness, our congregation does let numerous community groups use our facilities. But we spend so much time talking about our facilities at council meetings that we never actually talk about our mission.
My counterintuitive idea? I would love to be a part of a congregation that didn’t worry about membership rolls, that didn’t have annual pledge drives, that didn’t run every meeting using Roberts Rules of Order. Instead, they would talk about and struggle with what it really means to follow Christ in the 21st century, how we can embody justice in our community, and what sharing God’s love means individually and collectively and trust that the other stuff would flow forward from that.
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I’m so conflicted about the worship at home on Christmas day thing. I guess I’m just stuck in the past. I still think there’s great joy and good theology in leaving the comfort of home on Christmas day to do the culterally counterintuitive thing of spending time worshipping with one’s community.
Feeling old and grumpy.
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Stop all the fantasies of doing things differently just for the sake of doing them differently. Stop trying to innovate just for the sake of innovating. Stop being reflexively anti-traditional and anti-institutional. Stop trying to be “counterintuitive” in the cliched modalities of post-modern secularism.
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Bless you Scott. I wish we could get together over coffee or something, Brother.
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And likewise. Only it has to be real authentic coffee, brewed the old fashioned way, served in a real mug, with real cream and real sugar. No instant, no synthetic creamers, and no artificial sweetner.
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