new things. new video. elephant!

It's been an amusing time informing people of the name change for our service.

Sometimes I get overwhelmed by the amount of ambiguous yet sincere names we have for our different groups and initiatives in church. I've been a part of 3 seperate 'Pulse' groups across completely different continents and names intended to glorfiy the Lord through loaded meaning like 'Revive', 'Regenerate' and 'Illuminate' are all too common. Naming seems token most of the time, and often leaves me cringing and just wanting to call it all simply 'church' and 'homegroup'.

But it would seem that most people would prefer the classic names and opt for something less strange than we have. For most, when I tell them we've named our church group 'elephant', I get raised eyebrows, a slow nod and the simple response of "Interesting...".

However, helping to shape the culture of our young adults group at Windsor Park has meant that although we've had specific ideas in mind, we've also kept our ears to the ground with what people are struggling with, what they're really thinking about, and what isn't working in our church environment. It has lead us to become a group that grabs the tricky issues by the horns, let the uncomfortable voices get some air time and learn to hold things in tension. We've had to move out of opinions and standpoints in the black and white and become comfortable camping in the greys of life.

Alongside all of this is a desire for everyone to be authentic with each other. And this comes at a cost too. We want people to be honest and to feel at home enough to talk about their depression, anxiety, addictions and doubts. Because, quite frankly, we're all a bit messed up, and adhering to some sort of false veneer of perfection just isolates everyone. We want to struggle well together and not pretend.

So with all of this we just don't want to adopt certain behaviours only for church. We want to get rid of our imposter selves and learn of the God who loves us just as we are and not as we should be. This scandalous love that demands nothing from us but our attention. We want to really understand that though sin abounds, grace really does abound all the more. It is so foreign to our human concepts of right and wrong and justice that we often diminish it. But it's not about performance and putting up a front. It's about acknowledging how it really is and knowing God in that.

We're not ignoring the elephant in the room.

And that's why the name fits, at least for now.