Embracing awkwardness
At a staff meeting on Monday, Leo Chen said, “Our Mandarin Ministry works because everyone is willing to embrace awkwardness.” I stopped in my tracks, confused. “Go on”, I said.
“Just think about how awkward it is to try to talk to someone who does not speak your language or know your culture or customs. It’s weird. But people here embrace the awkward, they love each other and step towards each other even though they cannot understand each other. So we don’t just coexist, we have a shared ministry and it works!”
And he’s right.
The feeling of awkwardness acts as an alert system to warn you when some kind of social norm has been or is about to be breached. The feeling warns us when we are stepping outside boundaries of what is normally done, it keeps us in line and keeps us sticking to social norms.
Leo’s point is, we don’t do that here. We actually walk towards each other even though it will be awkward. Though the conversation might be impossible, though the connection might be peripheral, though the moment could be massively strange, people here at Christ Church embrace the awkward. Praise God. We are a group of risk takers!
Now, you know where this is going, right? If we can do it between Mandarin Speakers and English speakers - if we can embrace the awkward moment and survive - then surely we can do it with our friends who don’t yet know Jesus.
Inviting someone to church breaches lots of social norms and so is massively awkward. It risks putting religion in your conversation. It risks putting controversy into your relationship. It risks creating conflict where there is harmony. But it’s worth the risk right?
Listen to John 3:17-18…
“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”
To me, inviting someone to church is worth the risk of feeling awkward, getting rejected or even creating conflict in a relationship. The eternity of the people I know is riding on their relationship with Jesus and if my small effort can help point them in the right direction, then that is a risk worth taking.
So, will you embrace the awkward and invite a friend or family member to church? It’s not what most people do on a Sunday morning or evening, but Jesus is who everyone needs and he is worth feeling awkward for.
