An Inauspicious Start

How I Learned to Love the Ambiguity

1. Divergent Dad

It’s an inauspicious beginning, that when I wrote my intro, it basically was idea vomit. I started with entrepreneurship (I blog at Entrepreneurial OCD if you’re interested in paying for the privilege of reading what I write on that topic), then changed it to religion, then parenting, then just gave up on the whole thing and went back to religion. Like my writing style, my decision-making takes me a bit to get to the point.

I can write when I want to, and hopefully, every once in a while something here will turn out absolutely brilliant. I like to write a lot and though I am getting to do some of that in terms of marketing products, it’s not the same as expressing your deep-held beliefs on a page.

And so that takes us to what the hell, anyway? So, I started Divergent Dad as an idea because I am a Divergent Dad (I hope I am, anyway). I generally find that I don’t agree with most people, sometimes including myself, and I’ve found modern western churches boring, uninspring, ‘safe’, all the things that I think Jesus was disgusted with in the First Century. I think we’ve become what we were meant to supplant. I prefer to chart my own course, I am skeptical of most things, and tend towards conspiracy theories, and this influences my….well, my everything. This doesn’t mean I don’t think the Bible is God’s Word, I just think we’ve decontextualized and dumbed it down, westernized it, made it so ‘safe’ to modern ears that we really just have supplanted the glorious holy rebellion that Jesus was calling us all to be a part of.

And that’s what I’m looking to do here. Substack (I’m sure they’re watching) says that I should be really precise in my writing and tell you what I’m writing about, how often I’ll produce product, etc etc. That’s for those Substacks with paying customers. This is my thing, and I’m not going to commoditize it, nor will I ask you to pay me for it. You can’t judge me by refusing to pay me, just unsubscribe if you don’t like what I’m saying. Before you do, though, ask yourself if you believe the story your in is…..exciting, dangerous, fun. If your honest answer is yes, this probably isn’t the publication for you. If your answer is no, let’s see how far this thing goes….

2. A Community for the Curious and those who just don’t fit in.

I believe that my greatest doubts about the modern western church come from 2 things:

1. My own experience. If you read my introductory section, John Eldredge’s sentiment that most modern church men are trying to be nice rather than courageous has always resonated with me. And in the process, most of us are bored out of our minds, not just with our lives but with Jesus himself. I don’t think that the God of the Bible is as boring as we have made him, and I intend to find out if I’m right.

2. The church and how it handles those who don’t ‘fit’. We are supposed to be a place where people are welcome. Jesus ate with tax collectors, sinners, prostitutes, essentially the dregs of society. We tell them they have to ‘change’ before they are acceptable within our walls. I can’t say that I still don’t struggle with this concept, and these pages are where I will spend some time digging into what I think we SHOULD be doing. I especially am discouraged by how the church handles those with mental health issues and I will likely write about this fact quite often.

Bottom line, in my opinion, the church is broken because it’s not ok to go there unless you already are ok. And that’s not ok. And I want this space to be different than that, so though I have strong opinions on things I’ll do my very best to respect yours and to create a space where it’s ok to: question, not be ok, curse, be mad at God, doubt, be different, and any other reason that you feel you don’t fit in.

3. Why are you still reading?

Oh, I may not have mentioned it, but I’m also an absolute smart-ass. And I think there’s room in heaven for those too. As such, you’ll get a healthy does of smart assery here, colorful language and all. If you don’t like it, you’re welcome to read some other boring Christian substack, but you’ll be just as bored as when you began.

---