Thursday, January 24, 2008

Church

Now this is what church oughta look like!
 

6 comments:

Todd Ramsey said...

Ethnically homogeneous?

Keith said...

In tweed suits and bowties, no less!

Those were the days.

Scotty said...

I've been church shopping for a while here. I went to a little Baptist church and it didn't look that much different than that picture. Every guy had a suit and tie, every lady wore a dress! Needless to say.....my longish hair, goatee and mustache AND the Hawaian shirt???...can you say the word, STINKEYE??? I GOT it!!

Keith said...

Scotty: I know what you mean. There was a time that my hair was past my shoulders and I wore an earring. I don't wear the earring anymore although the hole is still there, and age has taken its toll on my "locks". I would get the "stink-eye" from folks as well.

The church we attend now is pretty conservative/traditional. All of the pastors and some of the mean wear coats and ties; most of the older women wear dresses. I tend to dress business casual on Sunday mornings. Evenings -- for some reason -- are different. Pretty casual, except for the pastors. I actually like the more "formal" style, my wife leans a little more toward casual. (I have a couple of those "hawaiian" shirts myself.)

I put stuff like the Andy Griffith pic and comments here on my blog mainly to get a dig in on visitors like Todd and others that drop by regularly. Those emergent types really hate it when you talk about their clothes...
8^)>

Scotty said...

Living here in Florida now for almost 10 years, the WHOLE state is casual in almost everything it does. Most times you'd be hard pressed to spot somebody wearing a tie. That carries through to most the churches down here.

Gots LOTS of Hawaian shirts here, been wearin' 'em in and outta style forever. My mother was born there and a lot of the portagee side of the family is still there so, I'm always on the cutting edge of the newest and loudest shirts! Always wore the loudest ones on gigs with the various bands I was with....

Although I DO wear the more tame ones at church....

Jim W said...

Having been a stranger in more than a few towns over the course of my life, I can state that being a stranger is enough to get everybody looking at you. It wouldn't have mattered if I dressed like everyone else, or wore a toga and swim fins, I was noticed. So, while I can see a point to what Scotty said, maybe he just needs to realize that it wasn't so much the outfit, it was that you were new.
Small towns "love" strangers. That is they love the buzz that strangers generate. A stranger can keep a small town occupied for days. A stranger who actually attends church and isn't dressed "properly" could keep that town happy with gossip for months!
I know in my past, after the whole place stared for awhile, almost always someone asked me to dinner. If a dinner invite didn't come, they usually at least talked to me. Sometimes, I was asked to come again, and they really meant it. If the church was having a potluck or a picnic, they always invited me.
Wish I could say the same of the so-called seeker-sensitive churches. I've gone to some of them for months and the only conversation was when the "worship leader" paused after a song and told everyone to "greet someone around you". I call it forced friendliness. It sure isn't natural.
So, yeah, the locals can be intimidating, but I'd bet they really could care less how you're dressed.