Comfort the disturbed. Disturb the comfortable.

I saw this quip on a t-shirt in Florida last week. Comfort the disturbed. Disturb the comfortable.

I think ... YES. This is what we should do. And, it's what we need. I should be disturbed if I'm getting too comfortable.  As church leaders... Christians... humans ... we have the tendency to present things from our side of the table. Our perspective only. We'll seek out resources that support our viewpoint.

It's uncomfortable and messy when we expose ourselves to perspectives that swing outside our lines. And, people don't like being uncomfortable. Especially people in church.

Which is why, so often, the church is known not for comforting but for judging. I'm as guilty as the next guy and it takes work not to live in the "bubble".

I was on a call today with some great leaders who stretch conventional thinking across the country.

• Shawn from Seacost in South Carolina
• Steve from Community Christian in Illinois
• Kellian from Lifechurch.tv in Oklahoma
• Randy from Perimeter in Georgia
• Dave from Sugarcreek in Texas

I'll be spending more time in conversations with this group throughout the year, but today we spent some time talking about what we're doing in our personal lives to learn from the scribbles that fall outside of the lines drawn for us. In the process, we're able to learn about the people who need our comfort.

On the call, I talked about a few books Mark and I read on vacation last week. Each of them revealed a condition of human nature or culture I was blind to. Read anything lately you wouldn't necessarily leave out on your desk at work? I did... and in the interest of full disclosure...I'll share a few of those titles with you now: Running with Scissors, The God Delusion, My Secret, The Secret Lives of Men and Women and Story: The Way of Water (a biography about an astronaut we met at Kennedy Space Center last week).

I can't say these books will necessarily show up on my recommended read list...but I can say I learned from every one of them and that none of them were a waste of my time.

I'll leave you with this... a picture of Mark and I with Story Musgrave, NASA Astronaut. Talk about a guy who stretches himself outside his comfort zone.

 

Comments

[edmund]

I agree that there are positives to reading material or interacting with others that stretch our thinking (is that the same as disturbing our comfort?) but as leaders how much do we expose others too? Do I present a counterview with every message or half the messages or occasionally.

As a church leader I want to teach, encourage and lead people to worship, serve, learn, etc... I've been with leaders who seem to want to disturb just to disturb. Or to comfort just to placate...

Nice blog : )

[Tim Schraeder]

I read "Running with Scissors" last fall. It's an intense read for sure, definitely not one I'd recommend either, but it really was an incredible story. I read his latest "Dry" on going through re-hab... it's really crazy amazing he's still alive. And of course, any of the PostSecret books are incredible.

That group sounds awesome. Keep it up.