Church is for losers.

The church is not a collective for winners; it is specifically for losers.

It’s a hospital for broken souls, an island of misfit toys.

A God who has died – has known losing and brokenness and nakedness –

  A God who has died has no time for the lie of perfection.

Anyone who now or evermore

  Will not have a single flaw or problem in life may pass on by;

  All others are welcome here.

Need we add: “All” means “All” without a single equivocation.

I know it sounds odd,

  Since we’re sitting in this gorgeous building dressed in our good clothes,

  But the church is a home for the sick and suffering, the tired and oppressed.

It is a place of honesty where we are seen for what we really are before God,

  Where we bring everything we have, the good and the bad together,

  And just let it be, in the presence of Almighty Mercy.

Failures, ne’er-do-wells, underachievers, washouts, lemons, flops, and freaks

  Are all welcome and needed.

So welcome, again, my brothers and sisters, to the Losers Club.

You’re not better than anyone else, and you’re not worse.

You just need love, like me and everyone else, and so you have come.

Come for mercy, healing, restoration, and I’ll bet in a very real sense, resurrection.

So let it be.