This sort of story about this sort of church is pretty popular these days.  Hip, non-conformist start-up church meeting in an unusual place with unusual practices that seem to be directed at not looking like church while still being church.  Don't like church?  Come here.  We're a church, but a cool church that doesn't act like church.

That's not my comfort zone.  While I would be more than happy to do things very differently with church, it's not simply for the sake of doing things differently.  While I am often frustrated at the good things that become monolithic obstacles to reaching people, I don't feel that the purpose of church is to cater to people's desire to be shocked.  More accurately - I do think that this is what church is at it's core, and I think that substituting tattoos and hair dying and other gimmicks is pandering and giving people far less shock and awe than the Bible promises.  We have the most radical news in the world to share with people, but we want them to notice that we're using KFC buckets to collect our offering?  How is that really shocking?

On the flip side, I trust this church is meeting some people where they need to be met.  I'm not sure that St. Paul would have had a problem with this sort of approach - assuming that the message is being kept straight.  St. Paul might have commented that this group seems more caught up in who they are (and aren't) than in whose they are, this is a distinction that might be lost on a new convert to Christianity or a curious person wandering in.  There will be a time and  a place to talk about image vs. substance.  Or at least I hope there will be.

I think most of all I'm sort of disappointed in the pastor in this article.  I don't know him or anything about him beyond what the article says.  But I look at the enthusiasm and support that he seems to have from some of his people.  I think that if I had that sort of energy and commitment and dedication at my disposal, I'd be asking for something other than for the person to get a tattoo.  That's the sort of energy and dedication that could help launch new outreach opportunities,  could invest hours and hours in discipling new converts, that could go out and share the Gospel with a group of friends that might otherwise never hear it or come to church (no matter how hip that church might be).  I pray that this pastor is directing that enthusiasm and excitement and commitment into meaningful arenas and not just self-indulgence.  I pray that it's not just about celebrating how hip and un-churchlike we can be.  

Eventually you run out of body parts to tattoo or modify or dye or what have you in order to ramp up the excitement of young people.  Eventually you come to the end of your resources, the end of your abilities, the end of your ideas, the end of your energy, the end of your rope.  And at that point, what you want to be sure of is that you haven't conditioned yourself and your people to just wander off in search of someone who can continue to feed the need or desire for a rush.  Hopefully you've conditioned yourself and your people to take a deep breath together, to look into one another's eyes and step out in faith that says even though we're at the end of our abilities, the Holy Spirit is the one that is really at work here, and we'll continue to be as faithful as we can and allow Him to do His work.  

I pray for this young pastor and his unconventional flock.  There's nothing wrong with being unconventional, unless being unconventional is the main reason you're there at all.  And then you're dancing on a dangerously thin line between preaching a radical Gospel that turns this entire world on it's head, and simply settling for celebrating the fact that you're unconventional.  Which side of that line you fall to your knees on makes all the difference - in this world and the next.