Random Thoughts on Church Attire

OK, so Dan put me up to this. Pick a topic, and just start writing. So this topic came to mind. How did it come to mind, you ask? Well, I was thinking about our church’s service in the park this Sunday. And how much I enjoy it. And how one of the reasons I enjoy it so much is because it’s appropriate to wear a t-shirt, shorts, and sandals, even when leading the music. And that led me to thinking about church attire in general.

So what do you wear to church? I’m talking about Sunday morning, when you attend the regular weekly service. At Noelridge, I usually wear a pair of khaki pants and some sort of collared shirt. If I’m feeling sloppy I’ll wear jeans with the collared shirt. One time I even left the shirt untucked. But usually it’s khakis and a collared shirt.

Now, this isn’t a universal dress code for our church. Our pastor usually wears dress pants, but may match those with a golf shirt in the summer, other times a shirt and tie, and on rare occasion, add the jacket for the full formal look. On any given Sunday you will see lots of folks in jeans, and in the summer you will see a fair number wearing shorts as well. Given that our air conditioning doesn’t keep up very well in the summer, shorts seem like an attractive option at times.

Having said that, I just can’t bring myself to wear shorts to church. Why? I suppose part of it is thanks to my mother, who was firmly against wearing shorts to church, even for Wednesday night activities. Old habits die hard. Another part of it is that if I’m up leading music for the service, I figure not everybody wants to have to look at my bare legs. And I suppose another part of it is that I know there are people in the church who probably are against wearing shorts on Sundays, and as part of the leadership I don’t feel the need to push the point. I’m not caving in to their legalism, I just don’t feel like making an issue of it.

I had a discussion on this topic with my in-laws some time back when they were visiting. They come from the “dress your best to honor the Lord” school of church attire. Interestingly, they were also missionaries in Indonesia for a few years. So I wanted to ask if just going in a loincloth and other similar tribal garb would be OK. They didn’t bite. It’s based on culture, they said. We should look our best to honor God.

But what about that verse that says “man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart?” I asked. Well, yeah, sure, that’s true. But hey, we’d dress nicely if we were going to meet the President, right? So why do we dress sloppily when we go to church? Do we have more respect for the President than for God? At this point I’m shaking my head a little bit.

Then they noted that the youth pastor at their church (a megachurch in Charlotte, NC) got some very bad reactions from older folks in their church because he didn’t wear a tie to their formal service. He was wearing a jacket over a polo shirt for the “informal” service, which had just gotten over, and he just wore that to the “formal” service as well. And they mentioned this to me as an example of people being disrespectful with the dress code. I think about that time I asked how much improved the service would be if the pastor just left on his polo shirt but the old folks started thinking about God instead of worrying about the pastor without a tie. I think the discussion went downhill from there.

So if you happen to be in Noelridge Park in Cedar Rapids, Iowa around 10:30 this Sunday, you’ll probably hear me playing my guitar, leading some singing. Pretty much guaranteed I"ll be wearing cut-off shorts, a t-shirt, and my sandals. And having a lot of fun doing it.

And thanks, Dan, for the suggestion. It’s the most fun I’ve had blogging in quite a while. I’ll have to do it again sometime.

Enough DaVinci, already!

I’ve heard just about enough about The DaVinci Code by now.

First, the hoopla over the best-selling novel.

Then, the adulation from the press and all of the discussion regarding the “historicity” of the fiction.

Next, the Christian reaction to the movie, covering the entire spectrum from “Cool” to “Yawn” to “EVIL, RUN FOR YOUR LIVES AND BURN THE HERETICS WHILE YOU’RE RUNNING!!!”.

So it was with some hesitation that I read a piece on Opinion Journal today entitled “Debunking the Debunkers”. The topic: how would C.S. Lewis have responded to DaVinci Code fans? I was glad I read the article.

“I have been reading poems, vision-literature, legends, myths all my life,” Lewis wrote. “I know what they are like. I know that not one of them is like this [the Bible].”

So said Lewis, and he was right.

The wrap-up:

Here is the real harm of these modern conspiracy theories: They may appeal to our emotions, but they violate our common sense. They reject reason, just as surely as they reject revelation. “I do not wish to reduce the skeptical element in your minds,” Lewis explained. “I am only suggesting that it need not be reserved exclusively for the New Testament and the Creeds. Try doubting something else.”

Good stuff.

a time of refreshing

I hadn’t realized how burned-out I was getting. When I step back and look at it now, it should’ve been obvious. I’ve been leading worship at Noelridge for the last 5 years or so, and have never taken off more than about 4 weeks a year. And those weeks were even more work than the weeks that I just led it myself. It wasn’t the leading so much; it was the preparation. Planning the service, writing instrumental parts for our various musicians (some need chords! some need notes! some can transpose… some can’t!), practicing beforehand, then leading. First it was one service per week, since last September it’s two services. I was getting to the point where I didn’t even want to do worship team.

It came to a head last fall. My initial position was that I wanted a bunch of time off. O.F.F. I didn’t figure it was feasible, but it sure sounded nice. (It still does, sort of.) After some discussion with the pastor, we decided on a scheme that we started in January. Under this new scheme, I lead solo and usually take requests one Sunday a month, and another Sunday every month I enlist somebody else to plan and lead. God has blessed us with David, who is willing and able to plan, prepare music, and lead. He’s been improving every month.

So this month, this upcoming Sunday is the week I’m off. Which means I don’t have to worry about dealing with worship team practice tonight. I don’t have to be there for the early service on Sunday if I don’t want to. Heck, I don’t have to be there at all on Sunday if I don’t want to. And it feels good. It’s refreshing. And next week I’ll be cranked up and ready to go again.

So that’s my little thought for the day: rest is good. Time off is refreshing. Don’t be afraid to ask for it. No sense in burning out.

reasonable theological concern, or overly picky?

I was thinking through some songs that we haven’t sung for a while in church, and this issue came to mind, so I thought I’d share it here. One of my main criterion when selecting songs for the church to sing (and I plan the music for almost every week) is that they be theologically sound. This manages to disqualify a substantive number of modern praise songs, and a surprising number of older hymns from our hymnal. I might go so far as to say that this is my primary criterion. Certainly there are others; singability is right up there. But theological correctness has got to be at the top of the list.

So we come to today’s topic: the old chorus “Create In Me A Clean Heart”. The text is pretty much straight from Psalm 51:

Create in me a clean heart oh God,
And renew a right spirit within me.
Create in me a clean heart oh God,
And renew a right spirit within me.

Cast me not away from Thy presence oh Lord,
And take not Thy Holy Spirit from me.
Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation,
And renew a right spirit within me.

My theological nit is with the fifth and sixth lines. When David penned these words some 1500 years before Christ, the threat of having the Holy Spirit taken from him was quite a real one; he had seen a similar thing happen to Saul when Saul rebelled against God. At that time the Holy Spirit didn’t indwell all those who believed in God, but God specifically directed the Spirit to rest on certain people at certain times. But now we’re after Pentecost, and so those that believe are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit remains as a seal of our salvation. We’re not in danger of having God take it away.

So on to my theological question. While I love the submissive attitude of the first part of this chorus, I have real questions about singing those two lines, because I think they represent a fear or concern that we shouldn’t have. Is this an appropriate distinction to make? Or am I being overly picky? Your thoughts are appreciated.

a good weekend to be off

Yesterday was my first Sunday of just taking a break from leading the worship team. David Green did a very respectable job in my absence. The Lord used this weekend to remind me once again that His plans are so much better than mine. He knew I would need this weekend off.

Laura was difficult all weekend. It’s not really her fault; she’s teething, which makes her cranky anyway. It was combined with a cold this time (a cold that I have too), so in addition to the drooling, her sinuses are perpetually clogged, and she’s been running a 103 degree fever. Tylenol or Motrin will bring the fever down for a few hours and turn her back into her bubbly self, but about 4 hours into the 6-hour dosage, the fever comes back and she gets owly again. She’s not sleeping well, either; she’s been in our bed the last two nights, which is a last resort for us. We don’t sleep well with her in the bed; she’s a restless sleeper and snores. However, it’s better to lose sleep to a snoring baby in your bed than to a crying baby in the other room.

Sunday I made it up in time to get to the second service at church, so I did get to hear the sermon and the worship team. Like I said, they were pretty good, David’s got a good musical sense. Mostly they were just lacking a clear leader. Somebody on the WT has to know where you’re going, when you’re going there, and then just grab everybody and take them along. That just takes practice, and time doing it. As long as people are willing, I’ll be happy to provide them opportunities to practice, and any coaching that I can do along the way.

Now it’s Monday. Becky reports that Laura is still feeling bum this morning. Please, Lord, can this teething get done with?

worship team follow-up

So we did two services this morning after the great WT practice on Wednesday, and the services went really well, too. Nice to be back in the groove. I did an Andrew Peterson song for the offertory: Faith to be Strong. I think it was well-received.

worship team stuff

We had our first WT practice in about a month on Wednesday night. It was good to get back to it. I don’t know what was up on Wednesday, whether I turned the monitors up higher than usual, or what, but we sounded really good vocally. Harmonies were tight. Everybody sounded nice and even and balanced. What a nice sound. I’m looking forward to Sunday… hopefully we accomplish something similar then. Hate to leave your best stuff on the bullpen mound in warmups. But the glory goes to God either way.

One of the good things that’s come out of my sickness over Christmas and my efforts to weed out my schedule has been several people coming forward to help out with leading the worship team. For much of the six years I’ve led the team, it’s been hard to line someone up for just the occasional Sunday I had to be gone. (Just a few times a year!) But things are changing. One woman who has attended for a long while and has led worship other places in the past wanted to start participating. So we got her involved. Now the gal who volunteered at a moment’s notice when I was sick back in December has indicated she’d like to be available to fill in from time to time. And then earlier this week our bass player (a phenomenal all-around musician) said he’d really like to lead some services and he could do that playing either the bass or the piano. Praise God for his supply!

I distributed a WT schedule for the next two months that includes me having one Sunday off each month and another Sunday where we are more informal and don’t have a WT. (That was the pastor’s idea, not mine… but I don’t mind it.) We’ll see how it plays out, but I think this is the start of some easing off of my WT load… and that will be very nice.

Noelridge Park Church

So, after months of planning, debating, and voting, we finally have a new name for our church. Formerly Noelridge Baptist Church, we are now Noelridge Park Church. We will be implementing the change as quickly as possible.

I think it’s a good choice. People wanted to keep the Noelridge name. (it’s the name of the surrounding neighborhood.) They had discussed Community or Bible as words to go in the name, but those are so common as to be kind of “blah”. “Park” is good since we’re right across the street from the park, and it also has a bit of a stately feel to it.

I’ve got the domain name registered (www.noelridgeparkchurch.org), and as soon as I can get a few pictures taken we’ll have a new website up. We’re still in need of a logo, so if any of my loyal readers happen to have mad talents with graphic design and want to do some pro bono work, leave a comment and let me know.

It’s fun to see things moving in this direction. I am excited as I look forward to what the Lord will do in the coming months.

The church name is changing!

After months of prayer, planning, and discussion, we took a congregational vote last night of intent to change the church name. The question wasn’t one of voting for a specific new name; rather, in this step, we indicated our decision that we want the name to change. Next up is to pick a specific name. We’ll meet again in a couple weeks to do that.

Our hope in this whole thing is that our church name would not be an impediment to the gospel. I think it’s a good step.

Worship Team changes...

We had our first worship team practice using individual microphones last night.

Currently, we just have one condenser mic on each side of the stage and 3 or 4 people gather around it. The sound quality is terrible. Thanks to Nate Hines who graciously loaned us 4 SM-58’s, we now can practice using individual mics. We’re going to split into two worship teams, each with 3 vocalists and some instrumentalists. The start date is Sept 11, so we’ve got some work to do pretty quickly. I think it’ll turn out OK, though.

Practice last night went about as well as it possibly could have; the singers really noticed how much better things were with handheld mics - better sound, you can hear everybody… good stuff. It was kinda funny - I told Janice “sing louder, we can’t hear you”… and her reply: “I thought if I can hear myself then I’m singing too loud…” Welcome to real sound with monitors! :-) It’ll take some ironing out, but in the end it will be a huge improvement over our current configuration.