Gym-encounter with a young female trainer

Earlier this week at the Converge Alpha Conference in Chicago Dan Kimball told us about a recent time when he went to the gym (a “once-every-two-years-habit”) and got to talking with a young female trainer.

“So… what do you do for a living?” she asked him. Dan hesitated. If he told the truth, would she brush him off? Maybe he should make something up? But what would he say? He was trapped. Finally he just went for it: “I’m a pastor” he said. The lower jaw of the young female trainer literally dropped, she back-peddled a few steps and fell into the weight machine behind her. “Oohhh, that’s creepy” she said.

(Creepy? Since when did pastors become “creepy” characters?)

Kimball talked to her for a few minutes and tried to unpack her less-than-glamorous characterization of his occupation. Well… turns out she didn’t know any Christians, personally. Turns out she’s never been a part of any Christian church. Turns out—not surprisingly—she didn’t even know any “pastors,” personally.

Okay, that makes me feel a little better. After all, THAT’S California. THIS is Minnesota. I haven’t run into that. And my hair doesn’t look as weird as Dan’s (uh… I mean, “as cool” as Dan’s).

But this 22 year-old trainer at the gym is not alone. Kimball said that many young people in his experience would agree with the statement made by one of them: "Jesus is cool, but some of his followers give me the creeps.

So, we might wonder… where did she (and others) get this characterization? Well, probably from the same place that most of the rest of us get our passing impressions of pastors (and Christians). From the media. And Hollywood. And on cable TV when you’re flipping through the channels and you pause just long enough to hear a 10 second snippet of a TV evangelist as he/she stares right at the camera, yelling into a microphone at you, like you’ve done something wrong.

Based on those sources of information, I would agree—pastors (and even some Christians) look creepy. But if that’s true then it’s even more important that, since I'm the only window through which some people will ever look to get an impression of Christianity, I need to change from acting the same as others in the world—but looking different, to looking the same as others in the world—but acting different.