Thursday, April 12, 2007

Relevant Ideas

What we think is old and out-dated today, was someone's great idea at one time. Someone was in a church staff meeting one day and said, "I have a great idea, the pastor should wear a big shiny robe while he's up there giving the sermon." And then everyone else at the meeting started giving their opinions:

"I don't know, I've never seen that done before."

"That's a dumb idea."

"I don't see pastors wearing robes in the Bible."

"Just because it's not in the Bible doesn't mean God's against it."

"I think we'll really be able to reach this community if Pastor wears a robe. The Bible is all about the church reaching the world."

"How much is this robe going to cost?"

"Is the pastor supposed to wear anything under the robe?"

Someone at that meeting gave an impassioned speech about pastors wearing robes and after some persistence and a few really heated discussions, he finally got his way. And then the church, for some a reason that could only be attributed to the pastor becoming a relevant guy in the community, you know, "real," started to grow. Then explode. And everyone wanted to know his secret. He was invited to speak at all the conferences.

He shocked the conference attenders when he took the platform wearing his robe. The crowd began to murmur.

"What is he wearing?"

"Sell out."

"He's compromising with the world."

"I wonder if my board would get me one of those."

"Is he wearing clothes under that robe?"

He talked about meeting people where they are. He talked about the status quo and if we don't change our thinking, we'll lose this generation to the liberals. This generation isn't interested in traditional church. "At our church, young people are coming out in droves. If I need to wear a robe to reach this generation, then I'm wearing a robe. If wearing a robe means keeping even one soul out of hell, I'll wear the robe! I'd even wear a... a... a pointy hat!"

"Hey... a pointy hat... I wonder if my board will let me wear a pointy hat."

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good Post Bryon. Kind of resonated with me as I read because I was wondering about being wondering about being all things to all me and how in some circumstatnces it would be right to wear a "dog collar" i.e. funeral of the unchurched. So that they know who the minister is.

I can't see myself ever doing that but the willingness for us has got to be there hasn't it? Tal Brooke said something once that I've never forgetton: "One of Calvary Chapels strenghts is it's ability to reach out to a dying generation". Sometimes I wonder how far we have come from that to "reach out". What does that mena these days?

Anonymous said...

Finally! Fresh, funny, relevant, insightful, convicting, and entertaining.