"God of the Odd Ducks" -Porcupette
the church isn't high school
Over the past year, I’ve shared the idea behind this article with a few trusted souls, and each time, they’ve said the same thing: You should write it.
So here it is. After a whirlwind 2024, I finally feel ready to put my thoughts into words. I won’t bury the lead:
The church isn’t high school.
Whether we’re talking about the local church or the broader Church, the idea holds. Let’s start with the local perspective.
The Local Church
When Lauren and I moved to Kansas City in 2018, we joined a church that had experienced hypergrowth. Before long, it was bursting at the seams—physically and emotionally.
As John Maxwell says, “Nobody drifts to a place where they want to go.” Like in the ocean, you can start close to shore, but after swimming for a while, you might find yourself 100 feet away from where you intended to be. That’s how I saw our old church—adrift, far from where it wanted to be.
I’d attended this same church in high school, not long after it was planted. Back then, it felt like a community just stepping into the ocean, full of promise. By 2018, however, signs of drift were unmistakable.
What indicated the church had lost its way? What lessons stayed with me after we left in 2021? I might not have answers to these questions if God hadn’t, in His grace, led Lauren and me to a church that felt grounded—an Anglican congregation that has remained firmly rooted since it first “entered the ocean” nearly 70 years ago.
This church welcomes everyone—regardless of age, status, appearance, or background. When people hear “welcoming to all,” they often think of race, gender, or orientation. But that’s not my focus here. Instead, this experience taught me something deeper: we serve a God of the odd ducks.
This isn’t to say the individuals at our church are weird—as if calling them that would make me or anyone else “cool.” Quite the opposite. At our old church, “cool” was the centerpiece, radiating from the pulpit outward. People dressed, talked, and even name-dropped in ways that aligned with a specific image.
At our new church, there is no name-dropping. There’s no effort to be cool. The people aren’t weird or cool—they’re just themselves. Whoever they are, however they arrive, they walk through big red doors each Sunday and are greeted with genuine smiles.
We’re all odd ducks. All 8 billion of us. And that’s exactly how God designed it.
The Church in Society
The personal experiences I’ve shared aren’t unique to me. If you want a deep dive into why the Western Church has struggled in recent years, the podcast The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill offers excellent insight. But I’m not here to dwell on cynicism. Instead, I’d like to offer encouragement as we head into 2025.
Let’s make the next five years of the Church about embracing odd-duckery. Let’s move away from focusing on “cool” in the pulpit or even giving that conversation much air. I’m tired of talking about failed leadership and its aftermath. It’s time to move forward.
To do that, we might need to rewind the clock—back to the early Church described in the book of Acts. There, an unlikely group of uncool characters entered their own ocean of shared experiences and unified vision: to follow a God who became man, lived, died, rose again, and now dwells with us.
To join that mission, being “odd” isn’t just acceptable—it’s essential.
Note: Last week, I shared at the bottom of my normal Substack, The Porcupine, that the Porcupine is getting a relaunch, featuring The Porcupette!
If you noticed the new email header at the top of the email, thanks to my talented designer friend, Abigael Elliott, who designed the updated Porcupine and Porcupette sketches (Porcupette is the name for a baby porcupine).
In 2025, I’ll send a bi-weekly email with slightly longer content—think blog post length—to complement these shorter, punchier updates. I’ll resume bi-weekly Porcupine updates as well.
This relaunch stems from a desire to release more personal work and writing into the new year.
Thank you for reading The Porcupine/Porcupette—I’d love to hear from you (reply to the email or click the button) if anything resonates with you throughout the year!