Why I don't want to feel frumpy at church anymore...

I started volunteering at my church last Sunday. I am officially a member of the First Impressions team for the 12:30 service. The purpose of this team is to give our first time guests a WOW experience when they visit. Within this team there are many different roles. There are the parking attendants who are responsible for directing traffic and making sure our first time guests get rock-star parking. There are the greeters who hand out the programs, make sure everyone gets a pen to take notes during the service, and will even come out with an umbrella if they see you walking in the rain. There are the ushers who make sure you get a good seat. There are the coffee bar attendants who brew up fresh free coffee every Sunday. There are the information table attendants who are there to answer all your questions.

And then there is my team at the First Time Guests tent. We have a tent set up outside of each service to greet first time guests. We get them to fill out an information card, give them a gift bag which includes a nice travel coffee mug, a book, a brochure about the church, and some mints. We then walk them over to the Kids Life building and get them set up there if they have kids or we walk them inside, show them where the bathrooms and the coffee bar are, and answer any questions they may have. We are there to get to know a little about them as well as make them feel more than welcome at our church.

Also since I am serving the last service, it is our responsibility to make up 70-100 gift bags for the next Sunday (although this week we were making gift bags as we went because we had over 300 first time guests!) We also have to put everything away at the end of the service. Carry all the tables inside, take down the big sign and put it inside, carry all the supplies inside, and break down the tent and carry it inside. It was a lot of work and we weren’t done until 2:30.

While I am not excited about having my 4 hours of my Sundays from now until January taken up, (I need to get to the service I attend by 10:30 to get a seat judging from last Sunday and I guess I won’t be leaving until 2:30 with my new volunteering role), I am excited about becoming more a part of the church. It is a big church and sometimes it is hard to feel connected to it, but already just in one Sunday of serving I feel more connected. I feel like what I am doing is important and I am looking forward to getting to know more first time guests as well as other volunteers.

However, I need some new church clothes. This Sunday I wore my normal attire of jeans and a somewhat nice shirt which I never feel uncomfortable in when attending the service (we are a very contemporary kind of church!). But in the First Time guest tent I felt self-conscious. As I looked around there were so many girls in cute sundresses or cute capris and stylish shirts and I just felt like I wasn’t putting my best face forward for our first time guests. Sure there were other people in jeans and even shorts and t-shirts, but they didn’t stand out. They didn’t give people a WOW impression. I just thought to myself “I could be cuter. I could be more stylish.” I felt frumpy and unattractive.

So even though I am broke as a joke, I got some new dresses on sale from J Crew. What do you think?




I got this dress in an mango (orange) color

What do you wear to church?