In today’s “God’s Economy,” I want to attack the sacred cow of dressing up for church. Probably like a lot of you, I grew up in a church culture that expected certain people to “dress up” for church—mainly those people who were either ministers, or were going to be serving in some sort of leadership/on-stage capacity. This pretty much meant suit and tie for the gents, and dresses and hose for the ladies.
In the early years of my church experience, there was even this culture of no pants for women and no shorts for guys. (My Mom has even told me a story many times how she was gardening outside and the pastor came by and discovered her wearing pants. He informed her she could no longer teach Sunday School if she continued to wear pants. How sad.)
I went to a college that required ties for the guys and dresses/skirts for the gals, and two of my previous workplaces had the same rules for employees. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against a school or an employer setting standards for dress at their establishment. I think this is a fine thing to do, and often prevents other problems later on down the road. I also understand the modesty issue, but that issue is not at issue here.
What I’m getting at is a false premise that has existed in church culture for a long time. Though this premise is on the decline, it still rears its ugly head now and again. You know you’ve heard it before, and I’ve seen it touted even recently in the blogosphere.
There’s this idea, a good one I might add, that we are to give the Lord our best at all times. There is a parallel idea, one not so good in my estimation, that “giving your best” also includes dressing up. If you are a spiritual, righteous person, you’ll show it by dressing up and looking good.
Now, for a lot of people, dressing up means the whole suit and tie/dress culture, and they get stuff stuck in their spiritual craw whenever they see someone who is in a leadership position in church wearing just a plain old t-shirt and jeans. In fact, they get nearly as angry over an open-collared shirt and a pair of khakis.
“What’s all the hubub, Bub?” I ask. Wouldn’t we rather the people who are in these leadership positions be giving their best rather than looking their best? Let’s admit it, dressing up is pretty much something we do to impress our fellow man. I don’t think God cares one bit (barring the modesty issue). It sounds very akin to Pharaseism to equate looking good with being good. In fact, this is where the false premise comes into play.
Look at modern culture. Who are the biggest groups of people who are still acting out the “Dress for Success” lifestyle? Corporate business and government. Now I ask you, do we really want our church leadership to equate themselves with either group?
All those Enron execs surely dressed up for their workday, so surely we want our leaders to look like them. Don’t forget all those wonderful government officials who are not corrupt in the least. I want my pastor to look just like them because that’s what a spiritual person looks like.
Ironically, its the same group of people who complain about leaders not dressing up who also complain that the church is beginning to look too much like corporate America. It is also the same group that complains the loudest about how horrible the government is on leading our country away from its spiritual roots. Make up your stinkin’ mind will ya!
Thankfully, I’m in a place now that lets me dress the way I feel comfortable. I hardly ever wear a tie, which is great because I’ve also started playing and leading music from behind a guitar since coming here. You ever try to wear a dress shirt and tie or even a suit will strumming away to a Chris Tomlin song? Not pleasant I assure you. I wear a suit about twice a year, during our seasonal musicals. For me, it is not just a dress up to look nice issue as much as it is my way of showing respect to my choir for all the work they’ve put into a musical. Their work is more than worth my extra effort of putting on the suit and sweating like a fat pig while wearing it.
What am I getting at? If it is true that we believe that God looks on the heart, then why would we be concerned about what folks look like? Again, I get dress codes and modesty and all that, and those are fine, but when it comes to spirituality, any mature Christian should be able to see and admit that dressing up is not a hallmark. In fact, it could be a disguise.
Wolf in sheep’s clothing anyone?
(P.S. As a side note, Mud Puppy had a somewhat related post recently on saying goodbye to dress socks. I applaud his move to dress like David Letterman.)
