Slobs and Preppies

Here we go again….there are 2 kinds of people in the world, slobs and preppies. I am sitting here thinking about Timothy Keller’s book The Prodigal God, which of course is about two kinds of people in the world, elder brothers and younger brothers. Those are the two brothers in the parable of the prodigal son. One of them is a preppie, the other one a slob. You may have other terms for them, like one is Party-er and the other a Do-gooder; one is a Pharisee and the other a sinner; one of them is liberal and the other a conservative; one is Ford guy and the other a Chevy guy. They are all related to each other.


I wrote last year about how irritating this ‘two kinds of people’ thing gets after a while. I think that maybe it is better to think that there are two kinds of people in the world: those that think there are two kinds of people in the world, and those who don’t. Unfortunately I was reminded again of how poignant this little device can be last Sunday morning. You see, I generally go to the early morning service in the sanctuary at our church, but every so often I go to the ‘contemporary’ (aka, ‘rock n roll’) service to help out with the offering and such. Last week I was at the contemporary service.

I am always amazed at the effort some folks put in to looking like slobs. Especially the guys in the band. There they are in front of the crowd with jeans full of holes, a shirt that is too small and looks like it was rolled up in wad for the past week, a stubbly beard, and hair that hasn’t been combed in who knows how long. These are not poor folks who can’t afford clothing without holes or don’t have access to a shower and a laundry. These are folks who work hard at looking like slobs. I don’t get it. Somehow it is ‘cool’ to look like the younger, prodigal son after he hit bottom.

Which reminded me of the prodigal son. Or rather, it reminded me of one section of Keller’s book in which he comments about how traditional churches chase away the younger-brother types by our elder-brotherness, which in turn raised in my mind the question of what church is supposed to be about anyway. Is church supposed to be designed to attract the younger brother, party going, slob types? Or is it supposed to attract the elder brother Pharisee types? Or neither?

My current vote is for ‘neither’. The reality is that we seem to be doing one or the other, with the ‘traditional’ service being to attract the elder brother types and the ‘contemporary’ to attract the younger brother types. Neither of these types want to venture outside their own comfort zone. Neither wants to be made uncomfortable. Both seem to me to go to church at least in part to demonstrate their own style rather than to worship God.

I think the idea of ‘seeker sensitive’ church doesn’t serve the purpose of church and doesn’t make much sense anyway. I am Calvinistic enough to think that there are no seekers without God first seeking us. But we should not be chasing people away either. We should instead be true to what worship is supposed to be, which is to cause us to recognize our own need for God and then respond by worshipping God. So, the goal of church is not to attract younger brothers; nor is it to attract elder brothers. Both brothers are in it for themselves. Both see their approach as best and both seek to put God in a position of owing them something.

The hard thing about church is to cause the Pharisee elder brothers to recognize their Pharisee-ism, repent of it, and respond in humble worship while also causing the partying libertines to recognize their libertinism, repent of it, and respond in humble worship. Instead we often just reinforce both of them by playing to their style. Maybe we should make everyone switch to the other service after they choose the one they want? As someone said, ‘to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted’ is what we should be trying to do. Not easy. It is certainly done best by the Spirit.

I actually enjoyed a couple of the songs we sang in that service, despite the band’s appearance. But I can’t say I left with a sense of having encountered God there. Some people appeared to have done so. Still, I wonder how we reconcile these ‘2 kinds of people’ in our church services.

I am re-reading the book Nudge as well. In it there is a blurb about a product called Clocky, a robotic alarm clock that ‘runs away and hides if you don’t get out of bed’! Such a product is needed because there are two kinds of people in the world: those who get up when the alarm goes off, and those who don’t. We need to get one of those for Daniel!