Church Crazies and the Imago Dei

There is a group of people at our church who are crazy. That’s not really news. Every church has them.

How do I know they are crazy? It’s because of the way they talk and the ideas that they have. This group of people, they think that the gospel of Jesus Christ is SO big and SO transformational that it actually has something to say to the world that exists outside of the Sunday School classroom.

They believe that God, as Creator and as the Source of this image which we bear, has something to say to the creative classes of people which surround us. Painters, musicians, actors, sculptors, photographers, graphic designers, the list goes on. Whether they are Christian or not, they are all in some imperfect way, reflecting something of the character of the Most High Creator. And as a bearer of this image of God, they are worthy of honor, respect, love. In short, they are worthy of being shown worth.

This group of people at our church, you know the crazy ones, they are beginning to ask a simple question. What is our role in taking forth the gospel of Jesus Christ to this community of artists? By showing worth to this community of people who are often found far outside of our “respectable” evangelical enclaves of Norman Rockwell worship, could we actually be scratching the surface of what it means to be truly Christian?

See, I told you they were crazy.

And from where I am sitting, crazy kinda’ looks a whole lot like the stories I read about Jesus.