I just wasted 15 minutes reading a comment thread on another website dealing with what I think is the most ridiculous discussion that I hear regarding Christianity and church. The discussion was on what is the proper clothing for people to wear on Sunday morning.
It is sad that this is such a divisive issue for some people. Some folks insisted that people should wear the best clothes they have because it shows respect and pleases God. Others insisted just as forcefully that "dressing up" keeps some "unchurched" people from feeling comfortable. The tone and triviality of the discussion has motivated me to share some thoughts on it here.
1) God is much more concerned with the posture of your heart in worship at church than He is about what you are wearing.
2) If you dress up for church, do it for the right reason. If you just want to be seen or show off your nice things you aren't doing anybody any favors much less pleasing the Lord. I admit that I generally dress for church the same way I would for court (remember I'm a lawyer by trade). My reasons for this are: a) I want to model to my family the same amount of respect for God's institution as I show for those of man; b) I have found in my life that my dress does affect my attitude. When I am dressed up my mind feels more alert than when I'm in jeans. I want to be at my best when I'm at church most especially when I am teaching and this helps me to perform better; and c) I personally just like wearing a suit. Notice that none of those reasons are directly Scriptural or have to do with making me more worthy than anybody else. They are all matters of personal conviction and preference. To make any more of it than that is to be a self-righteous jerk.
3) If you dress down for church, do it for the right reason. If you just want to be different from old, stuffy hypocrites in "traditional" churches or if you just want to brag about how hip and counter-cultural you are then you aren't pleasing the Lord either. That said, I do believe there is something to be said for intentionally creating a culture in a church and that the cookie cutter culture churches have employed for a long time in America does not fit some people as well as others. There's nothing wrong with having a contemporary worship culture any more than there is with eating chocolate ice cream. Vanilla just isn't everybody's favorite and I get that. It is great to give people a choice.
4) It doesn't matter how you are dressed if the Gospel is not proclaimed and the Holy Spirit is not present. Friends, if people are leaving your church because some folks are over dressed or some folks are under dressed, chances are you don't have a clothing problem, you have a spiritual problem. My experience is that when people in a congregation experience the life changing message of Christ and interact with a spirit filled body of Believers, it doesn't matter if they are wearing tuxedos or sweat pants. If we believe the Gospel can overcome the power of sin and death, then surely the color and design of some swaths of fabric shouldn't pose that much of a problem.
So I got that off my chest...now I can get back to studying for midterms.
What happened to "God's ways are not our ways"? What happened to the simplicity that Jesus preached. I would hardly imagine that a lawyer's attire is suitable to Jesus' idea of simplicity, or anything that is typically worn to church these days, for that matter. I would think that church should reflect the simplistic nature that Jesus preached, fashion should be the very last thing on anyone's mind.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment. I explained the reasons behind my personal practice above. I'm sure that some people will disagree with me and that's perfectly ok in my book. Unless someone is dressed in an immodest way that distracts from worship then I'm not going to argue the matter with anyone.
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