Are You Wearing the Wrong Clothes?

I’m up on Christianity Today’s Gifted for Leadership blog today:

I like fashion. When I am away with my family and retreating on vacation from the mundanes of life, I gravitate to the style shows. One of my favorites is the show What Not to Wear. The show begins with a human project, someone whose life is not reaching its full potential because of the inappropriate way she physically presents herself to the world. The human projects are recommended to the show by family members and friends who love these fashion misfits. They know the hearts of the misfits and are concerned, knowing that many people will not take time to look beyond the physical and really get to know their loved ones well. So they arrange a fashion intervention which reinvents the human project’s closet: out with the old wardrobe and in with the new.

The entire experiment begins with two stylists informing the human project of what not to wear and why. After several years of ministry and as I enter my final full year of seminary, I have often thought about the concept of this show. One of the common questions people ask seminary students is “What do you want, or plan, to do after seminary?” For a while, I simply answered with “I don’t know,” but now I’m beginning to ponder more seriously. Questions of vocation and calling should not be taken lightly. Unfortunately, in the ministry, I observe too many leaders who walk around like fashion misfits—good-hearted people wearing the wrong “clothes.”

As a young minister, I don’t want to put on the wrong clothes. Continue reading at Gifted for Leadership.