stereotype

some friends and i were talking today about the stereotypical contemporary church pastor. the summary of our statements was:

Pastors-With-Shiny-Heads-Or-Just-Have-Cool-
Spiky-Hair-And-A-Goatee-Sporting-Rob-Bell-Type-
Rimmed-Glasses-Who-Wear-Embroidered-
Flowery-Shirts-And-Dirty-Washed-Dark-
Denim-Jeans-On-Stage

now please know, we say this in total jest. you have to admit…it’s pretty close to truth!

anyway, this got me thinking how easy it was to come up with this stereotype and it made me want to take it a step further. i wonder now, how would we stereotype the contemporary church?

so, based on the culture we live in today, the cards from churches you get in the mail, the signs you see, the stuff you might watch flipping through TV or see on the shelves at a bookstore…if you were to walk into a modern, American church today…

what would you expect? what kind of stereotypes have been created, and how true are they? good? bad? ugly? who cares?