A REALLY BIG SHOE...STORE
When was the last time you went into a REAL store? What do I mean by real store? I mean a store that isn't one of those cookie cutter chains. I mean a store that doesn't have words like, "super", "mart", "city", "outlet" or "shack" in the title. I mean a store that isn't part of a strip mall, or shopping complex. I mean a store that is an independently owned and family run.
While you scratch your head and try to figure out if such a store really exists in this world of megamarts and franchisehuts, let me tell you about the REAL store I recently visited. It's called Taylors Shoes and it is just around the corner from where I live.
I had noticed the store before. Actually, I had dropped by and looked at the display case many times, but I never entered the store because I knew by the quality of the merchandise in the window that this wasn't the kind of shoe store a guy with a wife and three kids frequents. Still, I admired the quality. I wondered what it was like on the other side of the door, but I was afraid to enter, lest I be found out by my discounted, discontinued, slightly irregular Nikes.
But, then the unimaginable happened-I won a $50 gift certificate to Taylor's shoes from some Father's Day draw. Here was my opportunity to have some really good quality shoes for preaching in on Sundays (everyone knows that good preaching shoes are essential. You need something substantial to stand up to all that fire and brimstone!) After talking with Sheila, I decided to take the plunge and I entered the store with a quite sense of reverence.
I knew that the store had to have been there for at least sixty years. It has weathered the ups and downs of our area and it has remained a viable entity. I appreciate longevity. Longevity says something. Longevity proves something.
As I walked in the store, my senses took me back to my childhood. I immediately remembered the smell. It was the smell of a REAL shoe store. I remember the service. The gentleman, seasoned by the years, was professional, dignified, and helpful without being pushy. More than that, this man knew shoes. He ushered me around and we discussed what I was looking for. My gasps at some of the price tags gave me away, as did the sweat on my brow, but Mr. Taylor never drew attention to the fact that I was shoe store riff raff. Instead he got me to sit down, took off my shoe and pulled out his wooden foot measurer. Do you remember them? They have two sliders on them, one to measure width and the other to measure length. He did the measuring; being careful to get me to stand so that the measurements would be accurate, and he measured both feet! Then he got the shoes. He took them out of the box and used a beautiful shoehorn to insert my feet into the shoes then he tied the laces. He checked the fit and made me walk around and basically treated me like royalty-at least that's how it felt. It had been so long since I had been treated that way in a store that I almost felt embarrassed! If I wasn't a manly man, a tear may very well have welled up in one (only one) of my eyes.
Throughout this experience all I could do was think of when I was a small boy. The smells, the wooden foot sizer, the shoe horn, even the tying of the laces sparked familiar memories. Experiences I had long forgotten surfaced again. For a few brief minutes I was in another time-a time when people valued costumers, a time when knowledge and skill and service touched your soul and not just your wallet, a time when customers were people and not just profits.
I went to pay for the shoes and noticed that he still had his original cash register. He did have a calculator-one concession to the modern age, but the cash register was one of those big, ornate steel and brass jobbies with well worn keys. I asked him about it and his reply was quite simple-"it still works well, so why would I replace it?" Why indeed! I walked out of the store feeling better than when I went in. Why? Well, it wasn't because of my purchase-although I love the shoes. No, I felt better because, for a brief period of time, I was made to feel valued, important and comfortable. No wonder the store has weathered the storms of retail-treating people with dignity and care will never go out of style!
Seems to me that the Church could learn a thing or two from Taylor's shoe store-I sometimes wonder if we have gotten into the cookie cuter franchise business where we follow around the latest success story and try to duplicate it in our context. I know that many think that new things are better-just because they are new, but isn't that our culture coming into the Church? Isn't that the advertiser's brainwashing speaking? You know, we always have to have the new, improved, latest thingie on the market.
Don't get me wrong-new things reach new people and we need to make sure that whatever we are doing is communicating the gospel in a relevant way. But, having said that, can we not see that there is great value in connecting each generation to the generations before them? Isn't there something we can learn from the faithful we follow? Aren't there some familiar sights and sounds and smells to a sincere faith that will touch anyone's heart? I am not talking about mindless tradition here, or religious observance, I am talking about genuine faith that speaks to any time.
Regardless of what we try, let's make sure that the gospel remains the gospel and that the hallmark of your church is that you treat everyone with the same kind of care and dignity with which Taylor shoes treated me. Trust me--love, care and respect will never go out of style. If I'm wrong, I'll eat my shoes. No, not my new ones!
If you have any comments or thoughts, email me by clicking on my name at the bottom of this page and I promise to write back.
