I never expected to write an article on this topic, and I’m still not certain I should. But I’ve received sufficient questions from readers of the blog and listeners of the podcast to indicate I should tackle the issue.
Allow me three caveats before I go further. First, this post is about high-level issues of attire, not the specifics of fashion and dress. I am not qualified to write about the latter. I once tried to subscribe to GQ and was rejected as unqualified. Second, though I am writing about pastors, much of the content could be applied to other church staff. Third, I am only writing to males. I am not about to delve into issues about female attire.
With those caveats, I must disclose a clear bias of mine. I do not like neckties. They are too similar to a hanging noose for my comfort. With those issues cleared, let’s look at six thoughts about pastoral attire.
- Understand the demographic context. Most churches in South Florida and Southern California have different expectations about dress than some churches in Mississippi and Alabama. Find out how other pastors dress in the community. Find out how the men in your own congregation dress for worship services.
- Understand the church’s expectations. The expectations of churches in the same community typically vary. Because I speak all over the nation, my assistant always asks my host about the expectations of my attire. I would never want the way I dress to be a distraction or stumbling block.
- Understand changes in fashion. I have been fascinated to observe the changes toward a more informal dress in many churches. When I became a member of my church ten years ago, about 90 percent of the men attending wore ties. Now I suspect the number is below 10 percent. Such changes may be a signal to you as a pastor that you can dress a bit more informally.
- Lead change gradually. The pastor’s attire in a worship service can be a sacred cow for some church members. Don’t let the way you dress become a major divisive issue. For example, if you notice a more informal trend for dress in your church, you may want to move from wearing a tie all the time to leaving the tie off in the summer months. Gradual change can be better tolerated than radical and sudden change.
- Don’t put your preferences ahead of your love for others. The biblical principle of the stumbling block (See 1 Corinthians 8) means that we put our own rights on the backburner for consideration of others. It is not a sin to dress without a tie and coat, but it can be a problem for others. The matter becomes sin when our own preferences become our idol.
- Understand your members’ emotional attachment to certain forms of attire. I knew a pastor who was called to serve an established church in the South. Previous pastors had all worn suits and ties in the worship services. On his first Sunday, he wore jeans, an untucked shirt, and sandals. He had the shortest tenure of any pastor in the history of the church.
I welcome your input on this issue. Ladies, feel free to share about female attire for church staff as well. You are far more qualified than I to broach that topic.
Posted on July 13, 2015
With nearly 40 years of ministry experience, Thom Rainer has spent a lifetime committed to the growth and health of local churches across North America.
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247 Comments
I am currently a pastor’s wife in a church where on Sunday mornings you will see almost all manner of dress, suits and ties (which is what my husband wears), dresses/skirts, pants and polos, jeans and t-shirts and occasionally shorts. My husband will wear a suit and tie in the mornings and then more business casual for the other services. He has even been known to wear shorts or jeans to a youth or children’s casual function if that is appropriate.
Speaking to the ladies dress, I believe that they should dress modestly. No low cut fronts, or short skirts that would cause guys to be drawn more to looking at your body than paying attention to the sermon. Also, if ladies are going to be on stage speaking or singing, they need to remember that their skirts will appear shorter because a stage floor is normally eye level for the congregants who are seated. So in my opinion it is always better to err on the longer side.
I once heard a male speaker, who had been in the ministry for many years, say, “I choose to sit on the front row instead of the platform before I preach because if I wanted to see breasts, legs, and thighs I would order a chicken bucket from KFC.” Made a huge impact on me.
I don’t wear jeans and t-shirts like the “hip” preachers. 🙂 But I don’t wear the coat and tie (or robe) either. I try to dress casual while still wearing nice clothes. Mostly this will be khakis and casual looking button down shirt (I do wear a sweater vest in the winter because I like them). I look at it this way. My dress might be a problem for some in the congregation. On the other hand it could be helpful to a visitor who comes for the first time and wonders if he or she is dressed “properly”. Luckily I now serve a church that dresses casually and doesn’t expect me to be in suit and tie. So that leaves more of a possibility of people feeling more welcome in our church when they first come in if they don’t have the “perfect” attire. After all, much more important than what’s on the outside is what’s on the inside. I will do my best to make others feel welcome in our worship service and expect my members to make them feel welcome in the family.
Also, I’ve had more comments by people, especially younger people, about how I don’t look or act like a “preacher”. These are said as compliments, meaning I’m not their stereotypical preacher. Because of this, I’ve been able to minister to some that others might not have. But that’s because the way I dress and the way I act is not an act for show. It’s just me being transparent.
Thom, great conversation. Two thoughts. First, proper dress is always determined by context. Proper dress at a camp meeting is different than proper dress at a wedding. As you correctly note, proper dress in California is different than proper dress in Alabama. Second, regardless of dress style, a leader should always be dressed slightly better than those in the audience. If people in the audience wear jeans, the leader’s jeans should be slightly nicer.
Keep up the excellent posts.
Good to hear from you, Gary!
I knew from the get go this was going to be fun! I’m afraid that too many of us take ourselves and what we wear too seriously. Sure it needs to be in line with the culture of our church family and not the church down the street but what is said from those different clothes is all that is really important. Our small southern uneducated (some ones else’s word not mine) reaches everything clothing wise from suits to cutoffs and flipflops. Personally I wear a suit every Sunday am, take the coat and tie off for Sunday night and more casual on Wednesday. My clothing has never been an issue even though I am the only one who has even a tie on most of the time. Many times guest to our services have sought me out before the worship time to ask questions or just to get to know me because “obviously” I was the pastor, based on my dress. I have never thought a whole lot about what I wear except for the one time I really wanted to buy that all white suit but thought better of it or maybe my wife did. The thought of me preaching in shorts with my skinny white legs showing…well no one would have any idea what was said. So from an old guy, honor God, speak the truth and love the people. Everything else will fall into place. Now I run for cover to escape the jabs and taunts. Be gentle.
My wife deals with this the best… You remember the story of Jesus feeding 5,000. After they picked up the scraps, he told them to go home, change clothes and come back so He could share the Good News with them. Right!? I can’t find where the disciples were told to carry an extra suit for when they got an opportunity to preach. Seems to me, we have thrown out common sense with respect.
This topic hit very close to home for me. I’ve fairly recently joined staff at a church where the pastor feels strongly that the leadership on stage (pastor, worship leader, etc) should wear a coat and tie. (I’m the worship leader.) He agrees with all the commentors above about God deserving our best…yada, yada, yada.
We have a few senior adult members who still wear a coat and tie but for the most part we’re a casually dressed church. I’ve previously served at churches where attire for all was more casual, to help make all guests feel more comfortable. I realized quickly that there is no way I’ll be able to change the pastor’s mind, so I’ve chosen to simply do as he deems appropriate. I may not like it, but I’ve decided it’s better to follow his leadership, and swallow my ego and opinion on this matter. He can wear the coat and tie for God if he chooses, but I feel like there’s no way God is impressed with my attire. God knows me better than that. I wear my coat and tie for my pastor…
and that’s ok by me.
I appreciate the article and many of the comments. I have been a pastor in central Alabama for 27 years. My approach has been, in whatever attire, to be respectable and not try to set fashion statements in any direction.
I vary my attire greatly; I wear a suit some Sundays, a sport coat and dress shirt most Sundays, a nice polo shirt occasionally in summer and sweaters in winter. This is also the variety that I see among our men.
I would say to Pastors to use common sense, be reasonable in selecting your attire. I don’t think you ought to try to draw attention to yourself by trying to impress with fine clothes or draw attention by being super “cool.” If people know us more for what we wear than our heart for our Lord and our people, we’ve missed it.
The issue seems to be the fragmentation of American culture and our radical individualism. Homogeneous and traditional cultures have a category of appropriate dress for each important life occasion. Americans don’t have that any more, except in certain subcultures. There is still a general human sense that important occasions require special dress. The most militant casual dresser would probably be put off seeing someone wearing pajamas to a funeral or a bathing suit to a wedding. But he would have to admit, if consistent, that such attire is not immoral, just inappropriate. And if further pressed, he would have to admit that he has no common cultural basis for judging the pjs or bikini to be inappropriate. The second issue is our radical individualism which makes clothing choice exclusively about personal expression, rather than the pleasure of other people. Once again, there is still a general human sense that we dress for others on important occasions. When attending a funeral, most people seem to intuitively grasp that dress honors the deceased and the survivors. And when everyone is well-dressed at a wedding, it adds to the festiveness of the occasion for all the attendees. There is an aspect of neighborly love in this, but it cannot be made a moral requirement. So where does this leave us? There is certainly a category of appropriate dress for worship, but in our heterogeneous, individualistic American culture it is impossible to define. So it’s best not to talk about it at church and for suit-and-tie-wearing brother and blue-jean-wearing brother to sit on the pew side by side and worship the Lord in harmony.
God gave the priest instructions on what to wear in the temple. There was a different dress for the Holy of Holies. True the temple is gone, but God did instruct for the clothing to be special. It wasn’t the everyday clothing. Still looking for where in the Bible where it says it does not matter. I agree to much is put on the formal dress of the service, shouldn’t there be a desire to please God. We worry that outsiders would not feel comfortable, so we decided to dress casual. Sadly we seem to have downsize sin, with our relaxing dress code we have relaxed our outlook on sin, in order to make people comfortable. Yes Jesus wants all to come to him but He strongly rebuked the sinner, told them they had to turn from sin, repent and sin no more. Many turned away because His requirements were to hard and some did not want to give up their money. Jesus did not ease the standards, He drew the line and it should not be moved. Understand I am not saying we have to dress with a coat and tie. I don’t preach very often with them. My concern is the attitude we have. We think if we make it easy, fun, exciting, people will want to come and try it out. Most of the changes we make are to make it easier for us, or for others, to be more convenient. We will miss services for sports, family events, recreation and so on. We will give of what we have left over. (at least 85% do that) When do we pick up His Word and say, this is God’s principles for Worship, service, caring and we are going to follow His Word, not our desires. Yes we are living in a culture that is a “selfie” world… but we should not let that effect our Worship. I think of Jesus as He cleaned out the temple, the people’s culture brought the world’s ways into the church and Jesus did not like it… why should it be any different today? are we better than they were? I believe not…
Mr. Gabel,
I notice that you refer back to the OT priestly commands as a reason (justification?) for some sort of special, formal dress on the part of the “clergy”. I’m wondering where you believe the line should be drawn in regards to the priesthood as an example.
For instance, should preachers be anointed with oil? Go barefoot because the place where they are standing is holy ground? Be barred from serving because of some physical defect? Be done with service by age 50 as that seems to be the upper limits allowed for the priests? What about Melchizedek’s priesthood?
I’m not trying to be snippy. I really am trying to better understand your position. Where is the line drawn, and how do you make that distinction?
Personally, I see both sides of the argument. When I preach, I wear a suit, but no tie (I hate those things with a passion!). In my experience, no matter what way you go, it is going to be wrong with some people.
One time, there was a lady who visited the church who, before service even started, implied that I held a low view of Scripture simply because I wasn’t wearing a silk noose. On the other hand, I tried to get an old farmer to come to church once who refused because all he had to wear was overalls. (That excuse was a load of malarkey because I think everyone in the church knew him and all he ever wore was overalls, but I digress). I told him that so long as he had clothes on, we’d be good. The one never came back and the other has still never come.
I guess the points of my ramblings are these:
1. I have heard the Word of God faithfully proclaimed from people wearing robes, T-shirts, and everything in between. Cotton and silk don’t make or break a good sermon.
2. No matter what mode of dress a person goes with, it is going to make someone unhappy.
3. I too lament the waning place that church has in many peoples’ lives. I am also not a fan of the seeker-sensitive movement, as it shows itself in most churches. However, you seem to make the jump from more casual dress in church to winking at sin (“…with our relaxing dress code we have relaxed our outlook on sin…”). I think the one does not follow from the other.
4. Not really a point, but a couple of things that stood out to me with your example of the cleansing of the Temple. First, I don’t think Jesus’ problem was so much “bringing the world’s ways into the church” as it was the religious elite were setting up shop in the Temple which hindered the peoples’ worship (keeping it from being a “house of prayer”, while at the same time robbing the worshipers.
Second, until your post, I had always envisioned Jesus wearing the common clothing of the day when He cleansed the Temple. But now I am left envisioning the Lord in a suit and tie driving them out. lol
My Mom always insisted we take a look at a front view, back view and side view in front of a “full length” mirror before leaving the house and ask the question. . “.Does this glorify God?” I think that question settles about everything.
I think that the preacher should be neat, clean, and modest. As a teacher, I find that my students, many of whom come from poor families, appreciate when I show up looking like I have respect for them and my role. My father, who was an Episcopal priest, wore vestments during regular services, and a black suit with clerical collar for other duties. Toward the end of his career, he realized that toning things down when not wearing vestments made him more approachable. To this end, he happily wore colorful shirts made by Mom to accommodate the collar and coordinating khakis. People seemed to love it, while still feeling that he was there for them in his role. I agree that context is important, however. When I had to take my very ill infant son, Aaron, to the city children’s hospital for an MRI, Dad drove me in after officiating at a funeral. Still in black suit and clerical collar, he sat next to me with his arm around me as I sat tearfully nursing Aaron’s twin. People seemed more concerned about this scenario than their sick kiddoes!
In uganda it is not a big issue as long as you smart and clean because even some of us cant afford those attires, and on my side i feel as if it denies me freedom of putting on as i wish. Here is my question,a pastor in Uganda was ordained a Bishop and puts on collar is that biblical?
Nicholas Batzig has an article,”7 Areas of Unbiblical Conscience Binding,” on the website Feeding on Christ, which is related to this issue. The URL is: http://feedingonchrist.com/unbiblical-conscience-binding/