weWe are all familiar with the old cliche, "sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me." This is one of the most irresponsible and nonfactual phrases we could train ourselves or our children to believe. Our words matter! Proverbs 18:21 teaches us that the power of life and death are within the tongue. In other words we have the ability to speak life or death, strength or weakness, praise or complaint, into the lives of others. 
The things that we say to people are embedded into their spirit, whether it be conscious or unconscious words we are told stay with us and either haunt us or become a blessing to us! We can all relate to this if we think back over our lives. There  have been times where people have spoken death over our dreams whether by accident or on purpose. Their words held power. They either pushed you toward your goals or they pushed you further away in despair of thinking that you were not capable.
James describes the tongue as a small fire that has the ability to sets an entire forest on fire. One word can change the entire atmosphere! When we enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise we have the power to influence others to have the same attitude of worship! On the the other hand if we enter His gates with ungrateful hearts and complaints then we set the mood for an awful gathering where worship is absent altogether!  
My number one problem when I speak is that I fail to think first. Ashamedly, I must admit there are many times when I have allowed my tongue to outrun my brain! Many mornings while driving to work or before I take the pulpit to deliver a sermon or conduct some type of meeting I pray that the Lord would help direct my words, help them to be clear and administered with love and kindness, because our words do matter! 
How we speak to our children matters. How we talk to our spouses matter. How we talk to our brothers and sisters in Christ matter, and how we pray to God matter! Every word we speak matters! 
Matthew 12:36 
"But I tell you every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of Judgment." (NASB) 

"Unconventional Christianity" What does that phrase mean to you? 
We live in a world full of traditional, religious program and conventional Christianity. 
By definition the word conventional means to be in accordance with what is generally done or believed. 
When we think of a wedding we automatically see a bride dressed in white being walked down the aisle of a beautifully decorated church or chapel, when we think of the birthing of a new born baby we see a room crowded full of closest kin as they surround the exhausted mother and father. When we think of a funeral service we see a casket surrounded by flowers and a preacher to eulogize the service. We have all been brought up with certain traditions that have been handed down through the ages that become sacred to our ancestry. Few people have ever dared to venture out of the waters of normalcy into the realm of the unconventional. What if God never meant for us to be conventional? What if He had something completely different in mind? 
What if it doesn't matter where we sit in church, or what we wear to church? What if it's not about the style of music or tempo? What if God just wants people to follow Him wherever He is leading even if the place He is taking us looks different from the place where  we've always been? 
"That's just the way we've always done it" is the most toxic mindset we can get stuck in as a living organism. The church is alive and ever progressing, ever developing, ever growing, and ever changing! We are not changing what we minister but we are changing how we do ministry! Being an unconventional Christian is not easy you will face change, challenge, criticism, inconvenience, and loss but the reward for following God into the new place of promise and provision He is leading us to is far greater than any persecution or loss we may suffer. Don't allow the stigma that other may place on you to dictate your relationship with God!
(Colossians 2:8) "See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ."