Yesterday in worship, during the announcements, I took off my preacher robe to reveal a Snow White costume. It was both a promotion for our Trunk or Treat (come Trick or Treat in Southminster’s parking lot this friday at 7!) and then a dwarf came in and we did a bit about Stewardship.

Sleepy and Snow White decided the other youth dwarves should no longer be working in the mines to fund the youth program.

He’s looking for people to pledge the 2014 budget!

I also led the Time with the Children dressed as Snow White. I asked the kids what Snow White had to do with Jesus and was gratified the kids all looked at me with blank stares before I said “absolutely nothing!” I went on to teach them how to read fairy tales from a feminist perspective. (Any woman who can run a house full of seven men doesn’t need a prince in order to live to her full potential.)

These pictures were taken by members of the congregation during worship and posted on Facebook. Which brings up some observations for me.

A few years ago, I would have not been a fan of using social media during worship. I suspect I would (had I really thought about it) have thought it meant people weren’t paying attention in worship or weren’t engaged. And clearly, it is easy to be distracted.

But now it feels organic. It feels like we’re extending the walls of the sanctuary to include people who might some day walk through the door. It feels like we are including people who will never walk through the doors. It makes worship feel more expansive, somehow.

We’re working on how to incorporate social media into worship in a cohesive way after reading this article.  Here’s our congregation’s Facebook page. We’ve been using that more than Twitter, but I suspect that will grow too.

The response to the pictures on Facebook were surprising to me in another way too, though. People (mainly people who know me outside of church–childhood and college friends)  seemed really surprised I would do this. But it didn’t seem like such a big deal to me at the time. And so I pondered that discrepancy.

I take no blame for the halo in this picture. And the handbell tables are obscuring the red cowboy boots.

And the more I looked at the picture, the more I realized I have changed. I’m not sure a year ago I would have dressed up like a Disney Princess in such a public manner.

I’ve always been an extrovert, but I’ve not always been comfortable or confident when the cameras were pointed my direction.  I certainly would not have allowed tags of myself in those photos or used them on my blog.

People don’t always believe me when I say that. Apparently the fact that I get up in a pulpit and preach each week is mistaken for confidence. But public speaking is just what I do. It hasn’t always indicated comfort with public attention. (Am I an enigma wrapped in a paradox? Perhaps.)

My word for the year was Adventure. Maybe this just another piece of me being adventurous. Will continue to ponder.

But I’m more comfortable in my own skin these days. Maybe others don’t see that when they see a grown woman in a Disney Princess costume, but I do. And I’m thankful for it.