Eclectic Christian

A number of years ago I was on holiday in the Tampa Bay area. On Sunday morning we decided to go to the closest Evangelical church to the beach. I said to myself, “It is so hot out, I would really like to wear shorts this morning.” I did have nice pleated shorts with me at the time. The problem was, I did not know if shorts would be acceptable attire in this church. “Surely”, I thought, “being so close to the beach they would want to reach out to the beach crowd and help to make them feel at home in the church.” In the end, however, discretion won out, and I wore dress pants to the church. As it turns out, not only was dress pants the right choice for this congregation, but I was practically the only one there NOT wearing a jacket and tie.

Now here is a site that would have come in handy back then. In the category of “I wish I had thought about it first”, is a new blog dedicated to reviews of churches. This one, is a little bit different from most in that it seeks to ask questions that aren’t usually answered on church websites. (Assuming churches have one.) It’s name, Can I Wear Jeans is taken from one of the review questions.

Anyone can leave a review of their church under the appropriate Geographical location. The site is less than a month old, but it looks like it is going to be a huge hit.

There are some negatives. My guess is that it is going to need a better database back end very soon, or it will risk collapsing under its own weight. All Canadian churches are listed in one set of posts and comments. Trying to search for a particular town returns no results because the reviews are in the comment section and not in the main post.

However, overall, it looks to have a very promising beginning. As to the question “Can I wear jeans?” For most of the reviews on the site it is a definite “yes”. As one review stated, “Why get all formal when everyone else comes in sweatpants? The really flattering kind with the elastic at the ankle?”

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 8th, 2008 at 12:56 pm and is filed under church growth, church life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.