Blogging Ottinger (tim)

I saw this article from Speaking Out Of Turn and was immediately incensed. The author puts across a few points that I take issue with.

The first is that heavy people, by virtue of being large, are people with self-control problems and aren’t trusted (shouldn’t be?):

when someone on the stage can’t control their diet and lifestyle, it makes people checking out the church wonder if they can trust what else these people have to say.

I rub shoulders with quite the array of highly-respected, highly-trusted, highly-paid professionals in the secular world. These are the top of the top in technology. Guess what? About half are overweight. I also work in offices with all kinds of managers and leaders, and these also are about the same. The secular people at the secular organizations don’t think twice about the weight of the consultant or manager who is helping them get their product developed and out the door.

This is the kind of “church for the attractive” thing that ticks me off. There is no reason that your best worshipers, best singers, best ministers should have to look like sports models. In fact, you might have an equal-but-opposite distraction of you put the “hotties” on the stage and hide the “fatties” in the back. Ask the hotties sometimes, and you’ll find that a lot of times people have no idea what they’re saying. Also, there is jealousy and disdain for them that they don’t deserve and never ask for.

The best programmers and consultants on the earth are not the best-looking ones or the most athletic. Those factors seem to be unrelated.

Overweight people on the stage, be they pastors or volunteers, send a signal that the leaders of this church struggle with self-control.

Hmmm. I went through a list of all the best and worst ministers I’ve ever known, and guess what? It was an even split. Some of the worst ministers I’ve ever seen were athletic (or at least trim) and pretty nice looking. A few of the best I’ve ever worked with had no earthy beauty that we should follow them. In fact, that line sound familiar to me. Didn’t I hear it somewhere before? At least one of the best I know of (strong integrity, full transparency, a real heart for ministry, a powerful stand for what is right, a life of conviction) is quite heavy, even “substantially” so (almost morbidly). I don’t think that this is an exception to the rule that self-control is a general trait. I think that kind of broad brush does nobody any good.

Leaders forget that the people are a part of the programming itself
Churches that do evangelism right spend countless man hours and dollars creating compelling services – lights, stage, video, drama, experiential elements, etc. What leaders often fail to realize is that the people on stage are part of that presentation. Shouldn’t the same amount of planning and intensity go into the presentation of the people on stage as the other elements?

This is the kind of appearance-mongering that I think is at fault for a lot of church problems. The planning of people is that you should pick those that have the talent and the integrity and the commitment and the heart for what they are doing, regardless of appearance. And if you have a choice between a hotty with mediocre heart and average voice and an ugly person who is no more talented but has a real heart for the work, I suggest you pass on the hottie. It should be about the work and the servanthood, not about the look.

You will find that a lot of people who are tops in secular work are heavy partly because their schedules keep them on airplanes and business meetings and at desks working on documents and books and design work. Sedentary lifestyle is hard to avoid when one is in high demand, and the call of work often pulls us to sacrifice feeling better for getting things done. It’s a hazard, of course. Try adding having a wife and children to having a busy schedule with travel engagements, and it takes an awful lot of self control to keep things under control. This is why a lot of experts are either heavy or underweight (controlled through diet or nervousness rather than athletic self-maintenance).

I started working out 3-4 times a week. Ironically enough, I joined Weight Watchers. Since February I dropped from 268.7 pounds to my goal weight of 210. I’ve kept the weight off and feel great.

More importantly I feel confident on the stage.

No one’s ever accused me of being a supermodel, so my confidence hasn’t come from looking better. It’s come from feeling in control of my lifestyle, and not feeling like my appearance is a stumbling block to what I’m trying to say.

Sleeping great and having 10x’s the energy hasn’t hurt either.

Ah. Well. Congrats to Pastor Jones for conquering this difficult problem and for improving his self image and his energy and sleep quality! A big WOOT for that.

But to other people it probably didn’t matter so much as it does to him, and I suspect that neither his congregation nor his god love him any more or any less on account of it. I suspect that it matters rather a lot less than he thinks.

My worship team is actually a set of pretty attractive people. Only a few of us are big, and the others are actually very attractive larger women. I’m the only guy sporting a spare. Mind you, my weight is not always up, and I’m working on bringing it down, but I know that I’m doing that for me, not for God. Glenn Kaiser has more weight than me and he’s a wonderful guitar player and minister. If I had to be his size to be more like him, I would do that in a second. And if I were skinny and dead gorgeous, it would still be brilliant to replace me with him (were he to move to my area).