Clericals: Aye or Nay?

Meet Pippa:


Pippa has been part of our household for almost eight months now, a very welcome and happy addition to our family, who is always ready to play with her ball from early morning to late at night (if we'll throw it for her!). There are many reasons I like Pippa (remarkable, given that I wasn't really a dog person before), but one great reason is that she is always pleased to see me, no matter what I'm wearing. She doesn't act differently depending on what I'm wearing.

Take a typical weekday morning. I'll come down to take her outside and I'll probably be wearing jeans and some sort of hoodie/fleece/jumper, and she jumps up ready to play. Sunday morning, I'll come down in my suit and clerical collar, but she doesn't react differently; she'll still jump up and be ready to go outside and play. She simply doesn't understand the different (and perhaps bizarre for her) changes of clothes I wear on different days. After all, she has her coat (which sheds quite a bit of hair!), always looking the same. My clothes change daily, maybe even a couple of times in the same day. The clericals mean nothing to her.

Yet there are some people who react very differently when they encounter me in clericals, and not always in a good way. For example, some of the young people who came to drop in were getting to know me, as we were trying to get to know them and teach the Bible. Then one Sunday evening we had a special service in church and I had been wearing my collar (rather than a normal shirt as we normally do on Sunday evenings). They couldn't believe that I was a minister! When they saw the collar, that small bit of plastic, suddenly their defences were up! No longer was I just Gary, but I was a minister, that alien, weird species of non-human!



It's not just young people either. People of almost any age will suddenly change how they speak or act - apologising if they should accidentally swear in my presence... As if I haven't heard those words before!

Sometimes the collar can be a useful tool for ministry - especially in hospitals, in order to gain access to some wards outside of visiting hours. It's an easily recognisable sign of who I am. At others, though, the clerical collar can tend to be a barrier to forming relationships and the business of everyday personal evangelism.

If only everyone was more like Pippa, and take me for me, not some stylised impression of what a plastic collar infers...

Forgiveness of (Scalp) Sins

In my last sermon, I was speaking about how we need to understand the culture we're living in, and use it to communicate the gospel, the good news about Jesus. The implicit assumption here is that people may find the ideas of sin, forgiveness, grace, gospel etc hard to grasp, so any connections from culture - movies, TV, music, - may help unbelievers to understand.

Over the past couple of days, however, I've been amazed to see a TV advertisement using precisely the language of sin and forgiveness - to promote a shampoo. Even consider the marketing being associated with the product from the Head and Shoulders website. The religious imagery is plain to see - hands held devoutly in prayer and forgiveness for scalp and hair sins being proclaimed.

Is the company only targeting Christians with this ad campaign, or are the key concepts of Christianity more widely grasped? Perhaps the ads will enable us to speak about the one true Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who saves us from all our sins through his death on the cross and his resurrection.

Suits You, Sir

To mark my birthday, and also because I'm always very hard to buy presents for, the parentals decided to buy me a new suit. That being the case, there was only one place to go. For as long as I have been buying suits, I have been a customer of the same place, and now recommend them to you, my readers.

Collar and Tie in Lisburn is the best place to buy suits! Raymond, the guy who always advises me knows his stuff, having been in the suit business for a long time. He's also good craic, and keeps us entertained while I try on the various styles. But the best thing has to be their prices. Go and see for yourself, but let's just say that for the price marked on the suit alone, I was taking away the suit, two shirts and ties, socks, and a new pair of black shoes.