Our church
leadership is interviewing for an associate pastor position and while the
congregation was not afforded the opportunity to hear the applicant preach, he
did give the communion mediation. I appreciate that the man was comfortable behind
the podium; however, he was way too comfortable in casual attire. With his
denim jeans, untucked and unbuttoned sport shirt over a T-shirt he might
well have been delivering a communion meditation at church camp. Certainly,
clothes don’t make the man, but they do make an impression…and they are an
indicator of the respect one holds for their audience. Paul said, “Give
everyone what you owe him: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then
revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor” (Ro 13:7 NIV).
1 comment:
Gail;
-----Even though our culture steered into the casual, it didn’t run off the road into sloppy. And even if it does drop a wheel into a sloppy rut here and there, we were not created to reflect culture. God created us to reflect Him. We were made in His image, not culture‘s image. Steering our reflection to that of the culture deviates from the image He created us to reflect.
-----But that isn’t to say casual is sinful. Nor is it to say that culture is evil. The Preacher would say there’s a time and a place for everything. I would tend to think carrying reflection of the Lord from the church into the culture is the correct timing and placement for reflections. Carrying reflections of the culture into the church just never made sense to me.
-----Two or three years ago I went from wearing button-up shirts and blue jeans to church to wearing suit and tie. There’s only been a couple Sundays since that I’ve been to church in blue jeans -twice when I was out of town, and once when I had work to do immediately after the service. From my High School days forward I had been searching for the evidences of God amongst the material aspects of His Creation. I know we’ve all been trained to see His evidences in the changed lives of people. That has its validity. But He isn’t God if the histories in His Bible are not evidenced by the shape, aspects, and antiquities of the physical world. So I searched. And I asked for His leading. And I mined for real information all my life since then, always asking and trusting He would lead me across the pieces of the puzzle I needed to see. One day He did that. I saw reality’s evidences fall into place like a finishing jig-saw puzzle. I was so taken aback at the solid foundation of evidence supporting the truth of His Word that I felt like I had come face to face with Him. I realized then just how truly face to face with Him everyone is, even the atheist (only some refuse to see past the veil of this temporal life.) People fail to realize that every tick of the clock brings them one moment closer to being bare nose to nose with the Almighty God of All Things Forever. I quickly got into a suit when I saw His reality in the physical evidences. It was kind of like a falling on my face before Him, but in the way of dress.
-----And it wasn’t just because the Lord helped me to see Him in life’s physical evidences. It wasn’t only that my mind now grasped a little more of His reality. Grasping that reality elevated my impression of the people around me, His people because they have relationships with Him, and the rest of the people because He desires a relationship with them. It all seems too important for blue-jeans and T-shirts.
-----I understand that dragging cultural elements into the church is meant to afford a level of comfort and welcome to the spiritually dead needing to come alive in the gospel. But I also understand that fourth, fifth, and sixth century Christianity was a time of dragging the culture of those days into the church. And so Christianity adopted many pagan aspects trying to help pagans feel comfortable in church. Then I hear even the T-shirt-and-tattered-Levi wearers’ criticize the church of those days for compromising their faith. I wonder if some folks have ever looked into a mirror.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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