Issue 1495 – Stuffy – July 10, 2024

I originally wrote today’s Gleanings in 2006 while pastoring “the cowboy church.” Although I no longer serve in that capacity, the message remains relevant today.

I am often told that I neither look nor talk like a pastor. At times, that comment is meant as a compliment. Sometimes, by “good religious folk,” it is meant as a rebuke.

Rightly or wrongly, many people (dare I say, most people) have an image of a “man of God” that they have garnered over the years. He is to be stiff, pious, formal, and above all earthly things. 

I once heard a church board member publicly rebuke a pastor because his shoes were not shiny enough. I heard an elder chastised in public because his suit was not nice enough. 

It seems that the image of a pastor or other church leader has become someone who is “better” than those he is called to serve. In other churches, pastors seem to compete to be the trendiest and least formal. They have rejected formality to hide behind a different uniform. I confess that I have a problem with that. 

I am all for professionalism. I fully agree with treating people with respect and dignity. I endorse wholeheartedly the idea of giving God His due and striving, with the Holy Spirit’s help, to be an imitator of Christ.

Please understand that I am not saying that “my way” of pastoring is better than someone else’s. Of course, we all have different personalities and styles that we need to be true to. Yet, holding the position should not cause us to fit into a mold regarding how we dress, think, act, dress, and talk. We need to be who we are and not imitators of someone else’s image of what we should be.

Jesus was not staid, formal, and stuffy, nor was he a study in current high-end casual. He certainly gave no airs about being better than other people. Why, He even (gasp) dined with sinners, talked to women, and played with children. He accepted people where they were but was never content to leave them there. He loved them but challenged them in their sins.

Jesus had the most problems with the formal “religious” folk. The Pharisees and Sadducees had mixed motives and legalistic mindsets at best, but you cannot fault them for their religious zeal. In many ways, they would fit the image of a pastor that many people have to a tee (if you took their robes off and put them in a suit and tie or a tailored “casual” outfit with $1000 running shoes.)

People in need were not afraid to come to Jesus. People in need are often scared to approach the church because they are worried that “church people” and pastors will reject them. 

That perception is a sad commentary on the church. That perception is very often accurate. If you do not believe me, ask yourself how the congregation would react if a hooker dressed for work and a wino in need of a bath showed up for service. 

What if someone with different colored skin came in? What about the person who violated the unwritten dress code showed up?

People came to Jesus because they knew He loved them.

Then children were brought to him that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples rebuked the people, but Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.”And he laid his hands on them and went away. Matthew 19:13-15

He talked with the woman caught in adultery and told her to sin no more. He spoke publicly with a Samaritan woman, breaking more social rules than I can count. He had a tax collector and a political zealot on His ministry team. Jesus broke all the religious laws in a way but was always faithful to the most important.

And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 22:37-40

There is a lot that we can learn from those words.

I am not advocating that we compromise the gospel; only the truth will set us free. I am not saying that we get soft on sin … conviction must precede repentance. I am not saying we must become like the world … we are in the world but not of it.

I am suggesting a radical old idea. Allow the church and its leadership to love people where they are. Let the church be all it was called to be. 

Encourage the people of the church to be open with their hurts, burdens, joys, failures, and successes. Let us put aside all forms of pretense and simply strive to be ourselves, working to be all that God has called us to be.

The church is made up of redeemed sinners who are being made holy. We’re not there yet, but we are on our way, and God will finish what He has started.

Until next time, may you be an imitator of Christ and wholly yourself.

Be blessed

Hallelu Yah / Praise God 

Kevin

Gleanings From The Word

Experience an extraordinary God in ordinary life. 

Soli Deo Gloria (For the glory of God alone)

Never let the enemy tell you that you are worthless or insignificant. Your value in God’s eyes is so great that it was worth dying for. You are a blessing to the world. You are so precious to God that his plan for heaven will not be complete without you.

__________________________________________ 

Please like and share this post with friends and your circle of influence. Also, feel free to comment. 

Did you know that we have an email version? It has the same great content but in a different format.

Subscribe today: https://mailchi.mp/f27bbeb09c22/gleanings-1 

___________________________________________ 

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are from the English Standard Version (ESV)