“You can’t wear that to church!”
So many individuals, especially teenagers and youngsters, have heard that statement from their well-meaning parents or grandparents for probably so long as the church has existed. But should it matter what we wear to a church service? And for that matter, should the pastor or church leadership have the authority to set a regular for dress for his congregation?
As with so many questions in life – it depends.
Like it or not, many churches do give the pastor, elders, or deacons the authority to make decisions like what the remaining of the leadership, volunteers, and even membership wears, how they cut their hair, what type of facial hair they’ll have, and even what hobbies or habits they’re allowed to have. Other churches may give their staff or ministry directors the authority to set a dress code. For example, once I was a young person my pastor made the rule that with a view to be on the platform (teaching, singing, or praying) I needed to wear a necktie. I even have known other churches to make their choir wear robes or deacons wear suits.
To take it a step further, some churches or denominations set standards for dress for church service and life. For example, many Independent Baptist and Mennonite churches often set the rule that ladies must only wear ankle or floor-length dresses and even no makeup.
So why would a pastor, church leader, or denominational leader set a dress code for his or her people? Here are 4 potential reasons (if the last one describes your church, it is best to probably get away!) why a church would have rules for the way their membership (not visitors, after all) is purported to dress.
4 Reasons for a Church Dress Code
1. Practicality
The first reason why a pastor or church leader might set a dress code for his church is for practical reasons. While this won’t apply to the entire church, some pastors want everyone on the platform to look a certain way for unity, consistency, simplicity, and modesty. Because although God does take a look at our hearts (1 Samuel 16:7), humans can only see what’s on the skin – including how someone is dressed. Church leaders often must make decisions over this topic to fight against pride, distraction, rise up, disrespect, and even lack of safety.
For example, if the entire singers are wearing fall colours, the choir is wearing the identical color robes, or the pastors are wearing gray suits, they are going to immediately have a unified look. Another example can be everyone on the platform staying away from stripes and white shirts for a greater look on camera. Also, a Kids Director might want his or her volunteers to wear more stretchy clothing due to how lively they’ll must be with the youngsters, or a Nursery Director may tell his or her volunteers to not have any type of necklaces or lanyards hanging down because babies may grab them.
2. Holiness
A second reason a pastor might set a regular for dress in his church is for holiness (or no less than their concept of holiness). Some churches read how Paul told women to “adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire” (1 Timothy 2:9, ESV) and choose that ladies mustn’t wear jewelry, certain sorts of hairstyles, clothing that attracts attention to themselves, clothing that reveals an excessive amount of skin (especially legs, stomach, or chest).
Along the identical lines as holiness, some churches promote a certain way of dressing because they need to be obviously different or “separate” from the world. In their minds, the clothing they wear obeys Scripture in 1 Thessalonians 4:7 when it says to be “set apart as holy.” So, once they set a dress code for his or her church, they are attempting to assist out their membership by pushing them further into holiness.
3. Culture
A pastor may additionally set a dress code for his church for cultural reasons. This is probably not applicable in a number of the more eclectic areas of America (or on the earth typically), where cultures have “melted” together and blurred the lines of cultural appropriateness. But in other areas of the country which are predominatly hispanic, african, native american, or extremely rural or urban a pastor might set a regular of dress for his leadership and even membership in an effort to be culturally relevant, accepted, and never distracting. For example, a pastor may resolve that he’s going to push against formal clothing (suits, ties, nice dresses, etc.) in order that nobody will ever feel “underdressed.” Or, at a church near a military base, a pastor may ask his members to decorate in a way that might be seen as “respectful” to the military personnel at his church.
In my experience, the more common environment where a pastor or church leader would set a dress code for cultural reasons can be in other countries with one or two dominant cultures. For example, my Christian brothers would never consider wearing shorts and a tank top to church services, and my Christian sisters would never show up in jeans without their heads covered. Similarly, my friends who were missionaries to Zimbabwe purchased and wore culturally appropriate clothing for themselves and their children for once they worshiped along with their church family overseas.
4. Control
A fourth (and all-too-common, I’m afraid) reason that a pastor might implement a dress code for his church is because he simply desires to exercise control over his membership. A pastor who would do that might be also claiming that she or he “hears from God” and is giving specific instructions to the people in his church about the way to use their money, the way to spend their time, and even what God wants from them in a way that is just not biblical or healthy. When a church follows a pastor like this, it has morphed into more of a cult that lives to serve its human leader than a church that worships its Creator.
Should a Pastor Enforce a Dress Code?
So, should a pastor implement a dress code? If it’s with good reason, it is just not contrary to Scriptural guidelines. He is deciding with the counsel and accountability of other church leaders. The answer is “yes” in lots of situations in the identical way that it could be “yes” for thus many other meetings, activities, and events in life which have similar the reason why a dress code must be enforced. If the pastor has good practical reasons for his situation, then a dress code should probably be appropriate for those conditions. If the church subscribes to certain beliefs about holiness, then not having a dress code in keeping with those beliefs can be going against his own convictions about Scripture. If the church is attempting to fit right into a certain section of its culture, it could be culturally insensitive and even disrespectful to not have a dress code that matches that culture.
However, if the pastor is acting as a dictator or cult leader wanting to manage his people in response to his own opinions, then clearly the reply is “no,” he mustn’t be allowed to implement his dress code – even though it is as much as his congregation and other leaders to find out that because they’re those that allow him to have authority in the primary place. No matter what a pastor says, the “church constructing” doesn’t demand that we wear a certain form of clothing, New Testament believers usually are not specifically told what to wear, and no more biblical prophets are giving latest revelations on this or some other topic.
Instead, if we (from the pastor to the member) are motivated by mutual respect, modesty, a desire for holiness, and a passion to please God, then a “dress code” is not going to be an issue. And to go against it thoroughly is perhaps illustrative of a rebellious spirit – which is an entire other topic.
A significant caveat to this, though, is that a church’s or pastor’s dress code is just not to be required for any visitors or guests attending a church service unless what they’re wearing is so distracting that it keeps the remaining of the congregation from being attentive. But if a visitor or guest does should be confronted and their clothing addressed, the leadership must be careful to do it privately, lovingly, and empathetically – ensuring to clarify the reasoning behind the dress code.
Photo Credit: ©Unsplash/Sandro Gonzalez
