Feb

Old School vs New School Church

Over the past few days the media has been abuzz about President Obama and the White House staff working in dress shirts and ties. I’ve listened, read and written about the debacle of proper White House attire. The funny thing is that this whole debate reminds me of the church and what people believe is respectable attire for church.

Old School

When I was young, most of the women at church dressed like the Queen of England, complete with hat, purse and white gloves. Women were modestly dressed in their Sunday’s best. They would not step out of the house if anything was wrinkled, stained or scuffed. Pants for women was definitely out of the question. Men wore suits with a hard crease in their pants, their pocket handkerchiefs were starched and neatly positioned and their shoes would pass a military inspection.

The King James Version of the Bible was the only real Bible. It was heresy to consider any other translation. We might not have understood “thee, thou, begat, sitteth” or a bevy of other old English terms, but that didn’t matter because it was in the real Bible.

During the 1960′s there was a shift from hymns and traditional gospel music to a more contemporary style of Christian music. In the African American church Negro Spirituals lost ground to a new genre of gospel music that was labeled blasphemous because the sound was too secular.

New School

Most ministries today just want to bring people to the church. Many churches believe in Jesus’ style of evangelism – meeting people where they are. Clothing wise, that can mean many things: jeans, business casual, suits, hip hop, whatever. Shoes may be wing tips, loafers, pumps, stilettos, sneakers, sandals or Timberlands.

Bibles might be the King James version but more than likely they won’t. Instead, King James has been replaced by New King James, New International Version, Amplified, New American Standard . . . Some people carry electronic Bibles and some have downloaded the Bible into their PDAs or cell phones.

Technology is king. Screens are used in the church for announcements, displaying words of congregational songs and the Scriptures so everyone is on the same page (so to speak). Church web sites and blogs are a standard means of communication. Email and Twitter are replacing phone trees.

We have ministries to help us park and to take care of our children while we worship. We have early service for our more traditional members and a later service for more contemporary worship.

There are so many other things that could be mentioned here. The point is that times change and new traditions evolve. What worked in the past may still work but it doesn’t mean that a different approach is wrong. Our responsibility in the church is to evangelize people and bring them to Christ. As long as we accomplish this – old school or new school – the means justifies the end.

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