Being different is easy. Anyone who’s experienced nerdom knows this. It’s not hard to stand out as different or odd because most everyone is trying to hard to fit in. The formula looks like this: look around you, observe the customs and norms of a majority of those around you, dress or act in a manner that is either opposite or off just enough to make it weird. It’s as simple as that. I’ve done it for most my life.

Being different isn’t hard. Churches and Christians have been different like this for ages. And like the formula above much of the oddness of Christians and churches has much to do with being intentionally different from what’s considered normal around. We define ourselves based on what we don’t do (i.e. we define ourselves by being weirdly different from those around us)

I suggest that those who follow Jesus should be weird, they should be different, but it should have nothing to do with choosing to be different from the culture around. That’s an easy way to be different but it’s not a wholly redemptive way of being different. The invitation that Jesus brings is to live distinctively. It does not require comparison to live distinctively as Jesus invited–it requires courage. The definition of what that distinctiveness looks like is not formed by saying what we DO NOT do but rather what we do do…yes, I just said do do.

On one hand Christians do not exist in a bubble, they are very much enmeshed with the context in which they live (as they should be! This is not a bad thing and deserves its own blog), but on the other hand they should not seek to be defined simply in contrast to that bubble. Jesus was not about the rejection of culture but about the restoration or renovation of it. There are obviously things that must/need to be rejected in our world, but those ‘rejectable’ things are often bastardizations of something that was actually intended for good.

Defining ones self (or ones church) simply by rejecting things you don’t like or don’t aprove of around you is easy. Anyone can do that. Defining ones self (or ones church) based on an intentionally chosen way to live is much more in line with the life Jesus came to offer…but it is most definitely a more difficult road to follow.

Rejection is easy–direction…devine.