what not to wear

Part 1
I've been asked to preach at a Mennonite church in Millersburg. After asking to be clued in on a few of the details, I finally asked, "What would be appropriate for me to wear when I preach at your church?"

Here's the response: "Oh, you can just wear whatever you wear when you preach at your church."

Jenny was with me. She felt compelled to intercept that one. "I don't really think you want to tell him that."

"Really?"

"Well," I replied, "I wore jeans and a t-shirt to church last Sunday."

Click here to see the response I got from the Mennonites.

"Well, our pastors wear ties."

"That's cool," I said. "I can dig up a tie."


Part 2
Natalie (my 7th-grader) has her first home volleyball game tonight. The coach asked the team to dress up for school today. So the question arose, "What exactly does 'dress up' mean?"

The coach says, "Just wear whatever you'd wear to church."

Natalie's going, "Sweet!" Because, of course, what she wears to school is pretty much the same thing she wears to church on Sundays. But of course, she stepped it up a notch this morning.


So, what about the way people dress at NewPointe? Well it really gets back to the message Dwight shared two Sundays ago. Remember the bridge and the planks? The idea is that we don't want to make it difficult for people to come to church. And believe it or not, there is an I-don't-have-anything-to-wear mentality for some people.

I love the fact that we can say to people who ask the What should I wear question: Jeans are cool. You could wear what you're wearing right now and fit in fine at NewPointe. See, we want to make it easy for people to come to church. We want to eliminate obstacles to coming to Christ. So the whole wardrobe objection...is not in play.

Come as you are. Isn't that the message of the Gospel?

...we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. Acts 15:19