Why Do I Wear A Collar?

I get really funny looks when I go places on campus, because I'm usually wearing my clerical collar. (I get really funny looks from the good Methodists in this part of Texas, too.) No, I'm not Roman Catholic...so why do I wear the collar?

You might blame it on the fact that I most recently served as a pastor in England, and the custom in that place is that all ministers of Christ wear a collar, not just the high-churchy ones. But it goes deeper than that for me.

You see, the collar means that I'm a high visibility person. I wear my faith on my sleeve...err, neck. That's dangerous, because I'm as prone to mess up as the next person. But I'm not wearing it so I can be recognized. I wear it because it means that someone can stop me, wherever they see me, and talk. For some people, it might be a turn-off: "No way am I going to talk to that wierdo." But I hope the collar does mean that I represent a group of people searching for a different way of living.

And that's my hope for the whole of our ministry here at the Wesley: that we would be recognizably different from the hostility, distance, and violence that is present in so much of our common life. That won't be accomplished so much by wearing different clothes, but by living under different rules: hospitality, gracefulness, servanthood, integrity, righteousness, justice, peace, generosity, and the like. And I am convinced that where there are people who earnestly try to live by those rules, there we will be blessed by the presence of God.

Originally posted 1/18/07.