I was listening to comedian Aziz Ansari speak on success in his profession and something he said struck me. Aziz actually feels better about his art when his comedy is bombing than when the entire audience is laughing. He explained that when he fails, he knows it is because he didn’t play it safe and took proper risks needed to be a great comedian. It is easy to tell the same jokes that got you to the limelight and never strive for more. His authenticity wasn’t tied to laughs but to his ability to push himself into the unknown.
While I admit not particularly digging his comedy, I do appreciate the way he approaches it. It’s easy to coast. Life is hard and sometimes you just need to pull your foot off the gas and move more glacial, doing what you have always done. Yet I believe the people who do this the most dive slowly into a life they never dreamt of. No one deep down wants a life covered in bubble wrap, sometimes it just works out that way.
Recently I started a community in our church for some of the most overlooked and misunderstood segments of people, young adults. I say “community” because this is what we have seen as a need in their culture. It is easy to call it a “ministry” but it is difficult and terrifying to build an intentional community. As a community we work at giving a voice to those who have seen Church, and to a large part faith, as a spectator sport.
What if we made room for questions? What if we attempted honest answers?
What if we felt connecting to each other was key in connecting to God?
Next Community hopes to break down the wall between generations and leaders to create a questioning, wrestling, honest, and gracious space to grow Christian discipline past the borders of the usual format. Not that this is correct or I hold anything against the way we do church in America. I love it. I give my life and career to it. We just want to take a risk. We’ll see if we bomb.
Matt simon blog 