My Pastor's Name is Sigur Ros

I believe that church should be based in community. I don't like traditional church hierarchy. I don't think it's healthy for a faith group to be represented by a single person: Pastor, Priest, Head Honcho, etc. Even trendy "Preaching Teams" create an us/them mentality. Not only is this divide disempowering, it breeds stagnancy. Some people are the spoon feeders and the rest of us consume.

So why was I so unnerved last night when, at my church, no Head Honcho stood up to deliver a neat, compact "Message"?

The evening's food for thought was far from concrete. Instead of getting answers, we got questions. A bunch of them. From a bunch of different voices.

On top of that, we soaked up a music video from Sigur Ros, the band with their own beautiful and mysterious language. Talk about ambiguity.

At first it was like being thrown into the deep end without my swimmies.

But after letting this radical new concept nibble gently away at the tradition to which I subconsciously cling, I like the idea. Church isn't about one guy (or gal, if your church is that daring) handing out answers.

It's all of us, together, on a great and frightening quest.