The crazy ones (keep christianity weird - pt. 1)

I recently read Michael Frost's nifty little book 'Keep Christianity Weird: Embracing the Discipline of Being Different.' I honestly didn't find it one of his finer books, but it was quite good nonetheless.

Overall, it is a smallish book (in size) and at 170 pages just the right length for me. Each of the 7 chapters is around 20-25 pages, and it's not a difficult read. I relate very well to Michael's writing and like his stories. It's also packed with good and relevant information.

In chapter 1 he lays out the meaning and justification for 'weirdness.' As stated in an Apple advertisement, "Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do."

He interestingly defines "weird" as "eccentric."  He says it comes from the Greek terms ex (out of) and kentron (center). So he's essentially saying we Christians should be 'out of center.' In other words, all Christians who have made God the center and focus of their lives can rightly be called eccentric. On p. 8... "A true conversion to Christ involves displacing me and becoming truly 'off center.'"

I then like this prophetic spanking on p. 9:

"Today, the church in America seems to have traded in its mandate to be eccentric and aimed instead at an unconscious conventionality. Rural norms are too quaint, urban norms are too dangerous, so the church finds a happy medium in a suburban spirituality. It's impolite to think of ourselves as rich and demoralizing to think of ourselves as poor, so we find a happy medium in the middle class. We are happy. We are medium. We fit in. And very often we baptize that conventionality by suggesting that God is primarily concerned with order, and with us living peaceably with our neighbors. I'm certainly not suggesting we shouldn't be peaceable, but neither should we be indistinguishable from our fine, upstanding non-Christian neighbors... We're the 'off center' ones. Or, at least, we should be."

He also talks about cognitive dis-inhibition, Chuck Smith and the Jesus People, the Lausanne Covenant, and Pope Francis. It was a good way to start the book - by locating our identities off center and putting God at the heart of things.

Next up will be my summary of chapter 2...