The air-conditioning in the theatre wasn’t functioning great the last two nights, and boy was that a lesson in how fast dehydration can fog the mental faculties! When I went on stage for the first scene I felt fine: zippy, alert and “ret to go.” But after a few minutes under the hot lights wearing loads of heavy clothes, I found that I just could not access my thoughts and words as quickly as usual. Nothing the audience could pick up on, but certainly something that distracted me.
I thought about those of you preaching in hot churches while wearing robes — same thing. Hence, THIS POST, “How to Survive Scorching Sundays.”
1. Give yourself plenty of time to get ready. After you bathe, you want to give yourself enough time to really get dry before getting dressed. This will make a difference in how cool you stay the rest of the day. I like to shower, dry off, and then hang out in front of a low fan for awhile to get really dry and cool.
2. Move slowly and with intention. Don’t waste energy running around getting things together that you could have done in the cooler evening. Go from point A to point B without fuss or diversion, focusing on the essentials. Where do you need to go? What do you need to get? Do those things and nothing else. A 90 degree morning in a hot little church building is not the time you want to be rifling through files in the church office or fixing the copier before the service. Move calmly, speak calmly, and do what’s necessary and no more than that.
3. Don’t pretend you don’t have a body. Carry a clean white hankie. Dab your face and neck as necessary, even in the pulpit. Trying to ignore the perspiration streaming from your forehead isn’t fair to you and to all the people who are watching it stream down your face (distracting!). Mop it discreetly and carry on. You’re a human being in a sweaty human body like everyone else.
3. Wear natural fiber clothing that doesn’t constrict. This isn’t an excuse to rock the frumpy ministerial muumuu (ladies) or wrinkly Hawaiian shir (gents), so don’t let me hear of you wearing Frumpy Flowing Garb and blaming it on the heat. I still shudder when I remember a seminary worship service with a worship leader wearing what looked to be a Mexican pareo. It was like she got up from the beach, took a right at the cabana, and wound up accidentally wandering into a church where someone put a guitar in her hands and said, “You! Lead this service!”
4. I hear that panty liners work great as impromptu sweat shields for armpits and under the bra. Get the unscented kind. I haven’t tried this, but if you have we hope you’ll chime in in the comments and let us know how to work this. Do you actually attach the tape part to your skin?
5. Keep a towel in your study and do a quick towel-dry of your hair and person before coffee hour. Extend your hand to chronic huggers to indicate that you’d rather share a warm hand-shake than an embrace. If you’re the chronic hugger, consider that most people might like a break from hugging in August. Of course you don’t want to deprive anyone in need of a hug of one, just consider whose needs you’re meeting when you open your arms. Unless you’re absolutely sure that those folks welcome that hug, please refrain.
6. Drink cucumber water for the electrolytes, or throw half a cuke into your morning smoothie. Eat watermelon, which also has great electrolytes in it.
7. Although summer Sundays are often less formal than other seasons, PLEASE do not think this is a time to throw all decorum out the (open) window. Less formal means that people come to church earlier, and they wear shorts and sing one less hymn, and maybe attendance is low and people don’t want as heavy a sermon as usual. It doesn’t mean that the pastor kids around or makes “HEYYYY, hot enough for you?” remarks by way of Opening Words, and it doesn’t mean adopting a chummy, insider’s tone just because there are 12 people in the pews. Make the service shorter, the homily a bit lighter, and the tone more intimate, by all means. But intimate does not mean sloppy or garrulous or chummy — none of which are appropriate tones to take when worshiping the sovereign Lord of all seasons.
Was that stern and New England Puritanical enough for you?
Good, then.
Get a good night’s sleep, dearies. The sultry morning awaits you. Meet it well, shoulders back and iced coffee imbibed and shoes laced and shirts ironed.
Gold Bond Powder may not be God’s way of showing that He wants us to survive hot weather, but it will do in the meantime. (Apply after step #1 above.)
LOL you don’t put the tape on your skin- you stick the liner on the armpit of your shirt ( cutting it in half is often recommended) to contain the sweat.
There are some good tips in this issue of the Hairpin:
http://thehairpin.com/2012/08/ask-a-clean-person-still-with-the-armpits#more
Keep drinking during the service! I read once that you lose 8 oz of water preaching on a normal day, so imagine what you lose on a hot summer day. I have also found if I keep hydrated I often don’t need that mid-afternoon “preacher’s nap.”
These have been a lifesaver to me. I’m considerably south of you, and find that I feel much more refreshed if I can use these and switch them out during the day.
http://pambras.com/
Thank You for your blog commetns that speak on sweating.. The Lord Blessed me with not one Invention for ladies but Four, As “quiet Dreamer” mentioned our web site. Please ladies read futher about how Gods Blessings changed this simple home maker/mom’s life for ever under “about us”.
We don’t recommend panty liner tape on skin we recommend soft cotton liners. Thank You Peacebang and God Bless
Even in the south, where we have air-conditioning, I wear a sleeveless cotton clergy shirt under my cassock-alb, and no pantyhose ever. And for heaven’s sake, leave off the chasuble. If anyone notices, tell them you thought not wearing it would be more reverent than fainting dead away at the altar. Or flinging it off in the middle of the service, as I was compelled to do once.
@Sarah – Amen to not wearing a chausable. I am a lay person and can sit in the congregation in a sleeveless top. I really don’t think that God minds and while a chausable is meaningful fainting is horrible.
Absolutely. No fainting! It distracts the worshipers. 😉
Gold Bond Powder is awesome!
I have two services on Sundays, even in the summer. I wear a short sleeve or sleeveless clergy shirt under my alb, with stole and no chausable. I completely concur with my colleagues…I have two tissues in my service book and will pull them out and use them if needed during the service of the word. Once we move to the liturgy of the eucharist, we begin with handwashing with a large ceramic basin and lovely white facecloths. One is kept in reserve so the server (should I be blessed with one) or myself can mop my brow as is necessary. I think it’s important that the congregation know we are human, and *blush* we do sweat.
Oh! leaders who open worship with a weeather report is one of my major pet peeves…
I am in love with my Moisture Wicking clergy shirts. They look great and the hold up to major sweat great. Last Sunday 25% of the congregation commented on the sweat that was streaming down my face before worship. But I’m happy to say that no part of my shirt ever changed color. No part of my shirt ever clung in a wet mess to my body. My shirt was a Thing To Behold. I love my moisture wicking clergy shirt: http://shop.stitchesofayr.com/Womens-Pro-Cool-Moisture-Wicking-Clerical-Shirt-wproc.htm
So funny, under my arms is NOT where I sweat the worst. Head, face, neck. . .and I have handkerchiefs all over the place (go to the men’s department of your favorite mall store and get them there) because tissues just disintegrate! Same with papertowels — nothing says “ugh” better than pieces of white dotting your face when you offer the peace of Christ! THe summer make-up routine is generally a light bronzer (to “even” the skin out a bit), a nice eye (with very little mascera. . .even the waterproof does not hold up!) and a lip. Hair? Often in a clip, at the very least away from my face. I do use (and recommend) Body Glide for those areas that might be prone to chaffing. . . runners use it (and I am NOT a runner) and so even if the band of the bra is soaking wet, it won’t create that certain irritation! So glad the heat is suppose to finally break for us in the midwest this weekend! May you all be sweat free. . .mostly. . .