Chris Ortiz on Culture Conformity

I was radically saved during the early 80s from sheer atheism. I had long hair and played in a heavy metal band. I looked the part of the subculture of those days. Long story short, I gave it all to Christ on a chilly November evening and attended my Christian service in a Baptist church in Dallas, Texas. I looked like a freak. My hair was nearly to my stomach, teased out, and I had nothing but "rock" clothes to wear. Guess what? NOBODY in that Southern Baptist Church looked like me.

I got there early, and the first man that greeted me was an older deacon with a pot belly named Bennie Bell. He came right over to me, gave me a hearty greeting--which surprised me--and then guided me to the front pew of the sanctuary. I had planned to sit in the back, for obvious reasons. I was bombarded with Baptist blessings as nearly every person came to see this strange sight...
Folks, the power of God is in the faithful preaching of the gospel, not in hair gel and contemporary praise bands. I loved my first pastor. He was a PhD, and somewhere in his late 50s, but I hung on his every word. He looked nothing like me. Outside of Christ and His Word, we had nothing in common.
In conclusion, Driscoll and Co. could learn a great deal from leaders like Ron Paul. Here's a conservative, suit-wearing, grey-haired, wrinkled, soft-spoken politician, but he's all the rage with young people of every ilk. Dr. Paul isn't trying to conform to culture. He isn't sporting sunglasses and playing the saxophone on Late Night television. When he's not campaigning, he's in Washington taking on the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, or making his case at a freedom rally. Ron Paul lives by conviction, not conformity, and young postmoderns love him for it. http://www.chalcedon.edu/blog/2008/05/resistant-sectarian-reformed-folks.php