Before we arrived in Eastern Europe, we were told that the culture is typically very conservative, especially in the churches that we would work in. Knowing this, I bought a dress in Swaziland that came below my knees that I could wear when working with ministries in Eastern Europe. I now see that even though the dress was a great choice for Swaziland (women were required to wear dresses past their knees in Swaziland also) the dress does nothing to keep me warm in Eastern Europe, but that is not the point that I’m trying to convey.
At first I wanted to whine and complain about having to wear a dress that comes below my knees because I don’t necessarily believe there is anything wrong with my knees showing. I was wearing the longer dress to appease people around me and not necessarily to please God.
We have had many conversations within our team and with people on our squad about what it means to be a Christian in the secular world that we live in. How should our lives look different from people in the world around us because we believe in God?
We have asked ourselves questions, such as is it acceptable to watch a movie and listen to music that contains swearing, sexuality and violence? Well, I guess anything is acceptable with the forgiveness and grace that God gives us, but if we are really trying to live a life to honor and please God, then will we purposely choose to watch those movies and listen to that music?
I think that in our generation as young people, we have been hurt by the “Bible Thumpers.” Do you know whom I’m talking about? The people who preach at us and tell us that we’re sinners and going to hell because of the things that we watch and listen to when in reality they know nothing about us. They were on campus in college, they were in our churches as teenagers and we have surely seen them on corners thumping their Bibles in big cities.
I think that our generation has been so hurt by the “Bible Thumpers” not knowing us and yet telling us what is wrong with our lives that we have wanted nothing to do with them. We have turned in the other direction and taken a new stance on evangelism. Now in churches, we try to fit in with the secular world until someone cannot tell a Christian apart from a non-Christian and we reach from within our similarities to find a link to tell people about God because we believe that the person will relate to us better.
We are not responsible for marketing God to anyone. We do not have to fit into the secular world around us in order to tell people about Jesus. God has the power to do anything He wants and He will attract people in his own way shape and form without us trying to play His part. It is our job to be honest and vulnerable and to tell people about what God has done in our lives, but we do not have to try to do anything extra to try and win people over to Him.
In Acts 1:8, Jesus gave the disciples the first commissioning of the church. It says, “…you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” God asks us to be His witnesses, to tell people the truth about what He has done in our lives, and He will do the rest.
So, if we should not try to fit into the secular world in order to tell people about Jesus… then how should our lives look different from people in the secular world? Should someone be able to tell me apart from someone else on the street and know that I have Christ in me?
Our ministry contact while in Serbia has been challenging us with the idea of what we should physically look like as being a Christian. He believes that as Christians, we should look noticeably different from people who not know God. I’m not sure if I agree with everything that he says, but I am trying my best to honor the things that he is saying because a lot of the difference might be a cultural misunderstanding. He told us that we should wear the best clothes that we have to church on Sunday to honor God.
This is where the dress story fits in. Since we are traveling, we have a very small selection of clothes to wear. I have 2 pairs of pants and one of them zips into shorts, so I’m not sure that it even counts as being pants. I have one sweater that I pulled out of a free pile at the end of last month and one cardigan. Other than that, all of my clothes are meant for warmer weather. (Yes, that means that I have been wearing the same outfit for the past 7 days straight!) I wanted to honor God and the request of our ministry host, so on Sunday I put on my best clothes for church. I wore a dress that comes just past my knees with black ¾ length tights underneath them. I wore my Keen hiking shoes (once again… it is all I have), and a pair of leg warmers to bridge the gap between my shoes and my tights. It wasn’t cute, and it surely wasn’t fashionable, but it was the best that I had.
I’m not sure where I stand yet on the idea of wearing our best clothes to honor God on Sunday, because I don’t know if God cares about our physical appearance or not…. but I have been challenged on a deeper level with the idea that, as Christians, our lives should look different from people in the world around us. I believe that I should choose to honor God with the clothes I wear, the movies that I watch and the music that I listen to and not fill my mind and heart with things that will push me farther from God. I believe that I should look identifiably different from the secular world around me because I am not of that world.
Romans 12:2 “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
(We listened to a Louie Giglio sermon series in Romania titled, “Carrying the Name” that thoroughly described how Christians should live so that the Name of Jesus is imprinted on their lives, it was wonderful, you should listen to it!)
