Modesty & Simplicity

[Sunbeam]

Amen.

[Josh]

In my home congregation and around others in our group I feel they way. The nearest ones I could visit with are 2.5 hrs away.

The closest people for me to visit (1 hour drive) are a group that is a probably a lot less open minded about that kind of thing. They can't really help it, it's just how they are. If you look at their website it spends most of its time explaining why they are very busy and you probably shouldn't visit them if there is a risk your won't look right/act right/talk right:

Visiting Our Community
We would love to have you visit us and look forward to learning more about you. If you have any questions about what to bring ( shouldn’t bring), just ask. We do have a policy that anyone that visits our community the first time doesn’t come for more than two days.

We welcome all that love Jesus and follow him, although we have certain expectations you should keep in mind while among us.

We expect that our visitors will eat with us, attend our meetings, and work with us wherever they are needed. It is the best way to get to know each other. If you feel that is not possible please do not come.

Even though we may not have come to the same position on everything, we will respect your convictions, and expect you will do the same in return. We cannot welcome anyone that stands in spiritual opposition to the brotherhood here, that seeks to undermine it, or make proselytes from among us.

We expect you to become acquainted with what we believe before visiting here, or considering our community for your future home. A number of articles on this web site will help you understand us better.

We expect you to ask questions and will gladly answer what you honestly wish to know. We may also have questions for you, and look forward to learning from you as well.

At the same time, we have arrived at some working positions as a group and we cannot change our way of doing things to accommodate what every visitor might expect. We hope you understand, and that our time together may be one of peaceful growth in the Spirit of Jesus. If it turns out otherwise, we may ask you to leave.

We expect you to care for your own children, while here. Certainly, we will help where we can, and will gladly incorporate them into our communal activities. But you, as parents, will be responsible for them at all times.

If we meet one another with honest hearts, in humility, in the Spirit of Jesus, we do not doubt our time together will bring with it rich rewards. Praying, working, and eating together resolves more issues than many words.

[Josh]

(I understand fully where they are coming from. But there is a need for plain people who are welcoming to those of us from worldly backgrounds who feel like we could never fit in with nice looking, nice acting godly people. I do everything I can to make my own home and life one of those places.)

[RZehr]

It was a tongue-in-cheek response anyway, so don't take me too seriously.

Unfortunately, some in our circles might not exactly be kidding about that kind of thing, and it's personally exhausting and stressful to think about how my lifestyle really doesn't measure up to what a lot of people expect in our circles.

I am currently stuck in a bright red "sports car" and don't want to take the time to go back to the airport and exchange it. I am seriously considering avoiding going to visit some Christian people this weekend just because it's so utterly embarrassing to roll up in this thing. So my choices are to avoid the fellowship and just sit in a hotel by myself, or take an hour or so to try to exchange it.

Next week I need to go to a city - and country - with zip all of any plain churches or even plain people. I will be around lots of ungodly people, sinners, and $30 lunches and $90 dinners. It would be really nice to have some fellowship in between all that.

I encourage you to just go visit them. I know of people that were in the same situation, embarrassed, and they just sorta half apologized and let them know it was a rental car, didn't have much choice, etc. most will understand.

[Josh]

Last plain church visiting I did (at AIC 2017), there was a white Ram 1500 in the rental aisle. Got a home run there. No weird looks when I pulled up.

[JimFoxvog]

I am currently stuck in a bright red "sports car" and don't want to take the time to go back to the airport and exchange it. I am seriously considering avoiding going to visit some Christian people this weekend just because it's so utterly embarrassing to roll up in this thing. So my choices are to avoid the fellowship and just sit in a hotel by myself, or take an hour or so to try to exchange it.

Could you park a half mile away from your destination?

[Josh]

I am currently stuck in a bright red "sports car" and don't want to take the time to go back to the airport and exchange it. I am seriously considering avoiding going to visit some Christian people this weekend just because it's so utterly embarrassing to roll up in this thing. So my choices are to avoid the fellowship and just sit in a hotel by myself, or take an hour or so to try to exchange it.

Could you park a half mile away from your destination?

I actually did that once, but in this particular case, that would just stand out more (and, worse, make me look like I was hiding something).

[Sunbeam]

I am not sure whether this parking a half mile away is a serious suggestion or not, but I think it is really sad that the (realistic!) fear of being harshly judged for the vehicle he is driving is causing Josh this sort of angst.

Shame, double shame. These things ought not so to be!

[Josh]

I am not sure whether this parking a half mile away is a serious suggestion or not, but I think it is really sad that the (realistic!) fear of being harshly judged for the vehicle he is driving is causing Josh this sort of angst.

Shame, double shame. These things ought not so to be!

I have tried to take my feelings to the Lord and listen to him what I should learn.

I think my take-away is that I should better understand how hard it could be for someone else to try to come to church, change their culture, and fit in to new and strange ways. So I will try to do as much as I can to help the next seeker I encounter with those things. And I will also see how I can make sure my own behaviour is as welcoming and hospitable as possible, and dial back my own judgment of how worldly worldly people are.

[Adam]

I am not trying to be smart but I am curious... how is it justified for you not to live like the locals because you do not feel like you can but someone else can not own a particular car because to you it is extravagant?

You said yourself your house is extravagant or more than what they are used to. Why not live like they do? You have just proven what Ernie said people judge because of what the see or think you have not really what your heart is doing.

Those are fair questions, and I am happy to respond to them. On two occasions we lived for five weeks in a bush house without electricity or running water. Even then, we weren't living as the people here live because we didn't grow all of our own food, but rather we purchased it from the store. We came to the realization that, because we didn't grow up living that way, we weren't very good at it. And what took local people a few minutes to do (chopping firewood for example) would take me hours (I am not exaggerating). So if we were to live as the local people live, we would literally spend all of our time just trying to live, and I wouldn't have any time to do the Bible translation work that God called me to do. A second consideration was the fact that living as the locals live would indeed burn us out. I just can't eat sweet potato cooked in fire ash every day as my main staple. My daughter won't even touch sweet potato. My wife would burn out if she had to hike to the river multiple times a week and wash our clothes by hand. So we decided that if we were to fulfill the call God had on our lives, we needed to live in a way that was sustainable for us and would allow us to, in fact, do that work. For us, that means a western style house with power and a water tank.

I see this as a very different circumstance from the rich man who says to himself, "I've given a lot of money to charity already, so now I am going to reward myself and buy a Lamborghini." I just cannot imagine a scenario in which the purchase of a Lamborghini is necessary for someone to fulfill God's calling on their life. If a person really cares about the poor, and truly takes the words of Jesus seriously, I don't see how he can purchase a Lamborghini. I can, however, see the necessity of buying a Land Cruiser or something like that if a person is working in a remote area with bad roads and needs reliable transportation. A Land Cruiser is expensive, but I think it can be justified as a needed expense to accomplish God's work. There are many parts of the world that are quite inaccessible if someone doesn't have a durable vehicle like a Land Cruiser. However, I don't see how a Lamborghini could be justified as a needed expense to accomplish God's work.

I hope that clarifies my position for you.