"Avoiding Both Self-Ghettoization and Trinket Evangelism"

Fr. Oliver Herbel has an excellent post on balance in Orthodox life and outreach in North America here. He speaks at one point of Orthodox Christians who grow out their hair, wear all black, and wonder around with long prayer ropes and I couldn't help laughing - partly because I was trending in that direction at one point :-) and partly because I still meet converts in that phase.

When I left Protestantism the question of how to be relevant to the wider culture around me ceased to be a question and the beard and prayer rope were added to my 'look.' I certainly haven't grown in faith since those days, but more and more I'm realizing that the question of relevance isn't irrelevant :-). It can be thought about too much (and result in awesome stuff like crowd surfing during church), but that doesn't mean that we in the world shouldn't take a look in the mirror from time to time and ask ourselves how we are witnesses to others of God's call to communion with Him.

So, there's my half penny on all of this. Fr. Oliver's article is much better and to the point. Enjoy!

Pictured is yours truly being culturally relevant in a kilt - culturally relevant for a friend's wedding that is :-).