Come As You Are
// October 12th, 2009 // Faith
One of our players told me he couldn’t go to church with me because his shoes aren’t nice enough. He said when he has enough money to buy church shoes he will go with me. It breaks my heart that that Christians have led him to believe that what God has given him isn’t good enough to go to their church and worship his maker.
Jesus didn’t say come and follow me when you are ready. He didn’t say come and follow me when you can afford it. He didn’t say come and follow me when you meet our minimum dress code standards or when you have nice enough shoes. Whatever shoes Sufry has are the ones God has provided him with and thus good enough to serve and worship God in.
It makes me sad that rather than encouraging him or helping him, someone burdened him. If his shoes bother you so much, buy him some shoes you find acceptable or get over it.
Most of us don’t wear nice things to church to impress God or be respectful anyway. We wear nice things to church to impress people but that is just my personal rant.
I don’t think this just applies to clothing. What other customs do we have that keep people out of church? What can we do about them?
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23 Responses to “Come As You Are”
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So here's my question…if he had shoes, would he go?
He has shoes. He has just been led to believe they aren't nice enough to wear to church. And in the end he came with me, so yes.
That stinks. I kind of know how he felt (but not quite). Because it was handicapped accessible for mom, I went to a Church for a while where the other members were …… above my economic level…. I volunteered to read….. I wore my BEST outfit… There was NOTHING wrong with it, but the person in charge derided me because the (black) jacket OBVIOUSLY didn't come with the (black) skirt, and was not bought as an ensemble. After that, every time we prayed "to welcome the poor", I found myself getting angry because they can't even make the lower middle class welcome, how the h-e- double hockey stick do they expect to be able to make the poor welcome..
Yeah. I found another handicapped accessible Church to go to…
Oh, funny story. A lady elsewhere was talking to mom criticizing how the teenagers in Church were dressed. Mom said…
"At least they aren't dressed in their P.J. 's and still at home….. Maybe we should just take them as they are."
That may be the best comment I've ever read on this blog and I think you know exactly how he felt. It makes me sad that there are so many people that have that kind of experience. I wish we were able to look past people's clothes and see their hearts. Thank you for your comment and your mom sounds like a spunky lady.
I heart Helen's mom!
I have to say that I'm somewhat wary of churches thats members are all dressed to the nines. Who is it they're trying to impress?
Exactly, I don't think we should dress poorly, but we should be conscious of whether what we wear welcomes new people or makes them feel excluded.
It was pretty much ingrained in me at an early age that I needed to look my best at church. I don't think my parents or teachers who taught me this had bad intentions and they wanted me to do this out of respect, but it does make me focus on what I'm wearing at church too much. I don't think anyone should look down or judge anyone based on their clothes, but the sad reality is that it does happen all too often in churches. I actually think the church I go to now does a good job with this and that's one of the reasons I believe it when they say they want people to "come as they are"…because they show that.
You mean the church we go to?
This is the sort of thing that just ticks me off. I'm not sure when church became a place for the perfect, whether on the inside or the out. I'd much rather it return to what it once was, which is a place for everyone to gather regardless of appearance. Because when you get right down to it, we're all dressed in rags.
Amen
"We're all dressed in rags." – Billy Coffey hit the nail on the head here! And YAY to Helen's mom! That's exactly right! I can't add anything better to the discussion, so I just say ditto to what's already been said!
We had some pretty impressive comments today. I enjoyed them more than the post.
I think we should give our best to God, but that has much more to do with our hearts than what we happen to be wearing.
Amen. I knew you were just holding out until the end of the day to see how gratuitously I would self promote my post.
Yes, grasshopper…you are learning.
I quit going to one particular church because my husband doesn’t go with me and I was constantly harassed about my husband not being there with me and the children. I am an awful quoter and will botch it if I try word for word, but the Bible says a wife can lead her husband to Christ through grace and actions. It was tough trying to convince him when I would come home from church frustrarted and offended.
The last church I went to I was sexually harassed by key people and currently attened no where. I am praying this will change soon and I can find a church that is all about serving the Lord and not self serving. I also pray for those two men to realize what they did was so wrong and hope they change thier ways.
Wow, that is awful. I pray God sends people into your life that love and encourage and that you find a church home. Until then, there are lots of awesome churches online.
I get so frustrated over this type of superficial garbage that keeps good people away from church and ultimately away from God! It's true some use it as an excuse, but the flip side is that some 'Christians' have a lot to learn!
Thanks for sharing this…looks like you have plenty of us who agree!
I've been overwhelmed by the response. It is sad how many people have had this kind of experience.
When I moved to the south I ended up at a very large 'southern' church (I'm not going to say what denom) and having come from the West and a Calvary Chapel church (they started as a ministry to the hippies), I was used to dressing 'down' for church. Well, as I was walking to take my seat, I was re-directed to the back of the church and snubbed. Never went back.
Guess I had left my gloves and hat back on the Oregon trail…sigh.
I'm not sure how I would react. I don't think I would take it well.
I remember people mumbling about the t-shirts and jeans my boys wore to church. I always responded that I'd rather have them there with us than at home in their Sunday best. One weekend my youngest even showed up with blue hair (a poor-choice dye job while Mom was out of town). "Same color as God made the sky" was his response to the naysayers. Coming as you are to worship is better than not coming at all. I hope we as Christ followers can get that message loud and clear to those who don't know Him yet.
Lol, your youngest has quite the sense of humor