“You can’t wear that to church!”
So many people, especially teenagers and children, have heard that statement from their well-meaning parents or grandparents for probably as 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 standard 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 rest of the leadership, volunteers, or even membership wears, how they cut their hair, what kind of facial hair they can have, and even what hobbies or habits they are allowed to have. Other churches may give their staff or ministry directors the authority to set a dress code. For example, when I was a teenager my pastor made the rule that in order to be on the platform (teaching, singing, or praying) I had to wear a necktie. I 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 women 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 their people? Here are four potential reasons (if the last one describes your church, you should probably get away!) why a church would have rules for how their membership (not visitors, of course) is supposed 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 might not apply to the whole church, some pastors want everyone on the platform to look a certain way for unity, consistency, simplicity, and modesty. Because although God does look at our hearts (1 Samuel 16:7), humans can only see what is on the outside - including how someone is dressed. Church leaders often have to make decisions over this topic to fight against pride, distraction, rebellion, disrespect, and even lack of safety.
For example, if all of the singers are wearing fall colors, the choir is wearing the same color robes, or the pastors are wearing gray suits, they will immediately have a unified look. Another example would be everyone on the platform staying away from stripes and white shirts for a better look on camera. Also, a Kids Director may want his or her volunteers to wear more stretchy clothing because of how active they’ll have to be with the kids, or a Nursery Director may tell his or her volunteers not to have any kind of necklaces or lanyards hanging down because babies may grab them.
2. Holiness
A second reason a pastor might set a standard for dress in his church is for holiness (or at least 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 decide that women should not wear jewelry, certain kinds of hairstyles, clothing that draws attention to themselves, clothing that reveals too much skin (especially legs, stomach, or chest).
Along the same lines as holiness, some churches promote a certain way of dressing because they want 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, when they set a dress code for their church, they are trying to help out their membership by pushing them further into holiness.
3. Culture
A pastor may also set a dress code for his church for cultural reasons. This may not be applicable in some of the more eclectic areas of America (or in the world in general), where cultures have "melted" together and blurred the lines of cultural appropriateness. But in other areas of the country that are predominatly hispanic, african, native american, or extremely rural or urban a pastor might set a standard of dress for his leadership and even membership in an effort to be culturally relevant, accepted, and not distracting. For example, a pastor may decide that he is going to push against formal clothing (suits, ties, nice dresses, etc.) so that no one will ever feel "underdressed." Or, at a church near a military base, a pastor may ask his members to dress in a way that would 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 would be in other countries with one or two dominant cultures. For example, my Christian brothers would never think of 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 when they worshiped together with their church family overseas.
4. Control
A fourth (and all-too-common, I am afraid) reason that a pastor might enforce a dress code for his church is because he simply wants to exercise control over his membership. A pastor who would do this is probably also claiming that he or she "hears from God" and is giving specific instructions to the people in his church about how to use their money, how to spend their time, and even what God wants from them in a way that is 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 enforce a dress code? If it is with good reason, it is not contrary to Scriptural guidelines. He is deciding with the counsel and accountability of other church leaders. The answer is "yes" in many situations in the same way that it would be "yes" for so many other meetings, activities, and events in life that have similar reasons why a dress code needs to 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 line with those beliefs would be going against his own convictions about Scripture. If the church is trying to fit into a certain section of its culture, it may be culturally insensitive or even disrespectful not to have a dress code that fits that culture.
However, if the pastor is acting as a dictator or cult leader wanting to control his people according to his own opinions, then clearly the answer is "no," he should not be allowed to enforce his dress code - although it is up to his congregation and other leaders to determine that because they are the ones that allow him to have authority in the first place. No matter what a pastor says, the "church building" does not demand that we wear a certain type of clothing, New Testament believers are not specifically told what to wear, and no more biblical prophets are giving new revelations on this or any 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" will not be a problem. And to go against it very well might be illustrative of a rebellious spirit - which is a whole other topic.
A major caveat to this, though, is that a church's or pastor's dress code is not to be required for any visitors or guests attending a church service unless what they are wearing is so distracting that it keeps the rest of the congregation from paying attention. But if a visitor or guest does need to be confronted and their clothing addressed, the leadership should be careful to do it privately, lovingly, and empathetically - making sure to explain the reasoning behind the dress code.
Photo Credit: ©Unsplash/Sandro Gonzalez
