Annoyed, but encouraged and chuffed!

I’m annoyed because friends of mine have been hurt. Hurt for daring to question. Hurt by ill-advised words themselves uttered out of hurt.

I’m annoyed because they’ve been hurt simply for being unhappy with the status quo of a haemorrhaging church.

I’m annoyed because it shouldn’t have happened.

But I’m encouraged because they’re making people uncomfortable.

I’m encouraged because they’re cultivating a sense of holy dissatisfaction and provoking a basic discontent with what is, while awakening a desire to move toward what could be.

I’m encouraged because however costly, prophetic voices are worth listening to. Like prophets down the years the path they tread is often lonely and painful as their message is unpalatable to many.

I’m encouraged because behind every question (however provocative or ‘unpolished’) lies a quest, and that quest, is ultimately about the Kingdom.

I’m encouraged because as Einstein said ‘the kind of thinking that will solve the world’s problems will be of a different order to the kind of thinking that created them in the first place’ and increasingly there are those who dare to think differently.

I’m encouraged because there are a growing number of post-Christendom revolutionaries who recognise that ‘churches wanting to break free from the quagmire of their dysfunctional systems and climb out of their downward death spiral must learn to feel, think, and act differently than they do now.’

So I’m annoyed by their pain, but I’m encouraged and chuffed that I’ve got friends who are brave enough, daring enough and who care enough to break free from the ‘quagmire’ and question subversively.