Would Jesus Wear Jeans

So yesterday I had a meeting with a 63-year-old grandma. She was interested in joining C3 and she wanted to come by and talk to me about the vision and direction of the church. She started out by telling me about the first time she visited one of our services, she said she couldn’t believe her eyes, when the pastor came out to preach in jeans (I hear that a lot). Her exact words were “I didn’t know what to think, then he started talking and I heard the Holy Spirit of God talking through this man in jeans.” She then proceeded to tell about how she has been drawn back week after week to experience this “different kind of church.” By the end of our conversation we were both saying how it’s so amazing what people will allow to get in their way of experiencing God. She was saying for her she almost missed the experience of C3 because of jeans. The problem comes when we as people start to put our religious traditions and rituals (like pastors in suites) over and above truth. Jesus experienced this throughout the Bible from the Pharisees and the religious elite. In fact, this morning I was reading Mark 2 where the Pharisees where arguing with Jesus about his disciples picking grain on the Sabbath. They cared so much more about their customs than they did God or the well being of others. So after our meeting I laid out the question; if Jesus were walking on earth today would He wear jeans to church? Our answer; yes. It’s not very hard to believe that if you truly believe that Jesus cared more about connecting with people than He ever did about religious rituals or traditions. That His heart was to love people no matter what they look like and to reach them where they are at.