About Church Unusual with Pastor Guy

First, welcome to by new blog, Church Unusual! In this space, I hope to provide you with more than just my thoughts, but to help you figure out how you can be the best YOU that YOU can be, all without being overly churchy.

So, Who Are You?

That's a big question, and I will do my best to answer it.

First, I'm a partner to the best elementary school teacher in the world (he truly rocks), the poppy to an adorable, yet stubborn, furby, a brother, an uncle, a nephew, and I think, a really cool friend.

I'm a United Church of Christ Pastor in Western Maryland, currently working on being ordained (that's a blog post for a later time...), and pastoring two small rural churches:

• Keysville Grace United Church of Christ, Keymar, MD since 2015, and
• Mt. Pleasant Reformed United Church of Christ, Frederick, MD since 2016.

I am a proud graduate of Dominican University and the Lancaster Theological Seminary.

My website is here: www.guysjohnson.com. 

I love good food, good wine, and amazing company.

Why are YOU writing a blog? Don't we have enough of those already?

We do have enough blogs already. Give anyone a computer and an internet connection, and they fancy themselves the next big advice columnist. Give them an audience, and they can just broadcast their ideas to the world!

Or...because I spend an inordinate amount of time on social media, generally trying to help others, I figured this could be a space where I can actually expound on ideas, as well as provide podcasts of my sermons for my friends and family members who don't live anywhere near me but want to hear what happened on Sunday morning.

Church Unusual? What does that mean?

Throw away everything you think you know about church, preaching, liturgy, and all of the other things that go into traditional church membership. Forget about suits and hats. That's not what we do in our worship spaces.

Many times, I will preach in jeans and a polo. That's unusual for someone who came from a traditional African-American religious background. We are not afraid to challenge the texts. That's unusual for most Christians. We believe that everyone, Everyone, EVERYONE has a place in the congregation. That's unusual. We are not afraid to worship God with our minds. That's really unusual.

So, come back periodically. In this blog will not only be my thoughts, but many weeks, sermons will be here as well, along with a podcast. I hope this blesses you.