Ok, so I thought I would kick off this blog with a fairly moderate topic.
If you're like me, you were raised with the mentality that when you go to church, you need to look your best because that's how you should look when you present yourself to Jesus.
Even as a child I never understood this. If Jesus and God are with us all the time, what does it matter what I look like when I go to church?? He sees me when I'm naked in the shower, when I'm toolin' around the house in my skivvies, so why do I need to dress up to the nines in order to meet him at church? I think this practice is just plain wrong and merely feeds our own tendencies to pose with each other at church. Clean up and put on our happy face so no one will know what's really going on in our lives.
And even worse, because of this attitude towards dress code, when someone doesn't blend into our suits and ties, dresses and skirts, they REALLY stand out. It's bad enough when someone who has been through much more than we could imagine ourselves going through walks into a church to find love and acceptance and only finds judgment and rejection, but what makes it worse is WHY they experience that. If we are truly following Christ's example, we would actively embrace these people because whether they fit our "profile" of what a person should dress like or not, that person is important to God and that's all we need to know in order to welcome them in warmly.
So, I encourage us all to get over ourselves and look past our own lives, especially when we go to church, so that we may have the eyes to see those people that God may be bringing into our lives to minister to.
3 comments:
Can't find anywhere I would disagree other than to say we should always be presentable to others. Another way to view this is the adage (or was it St. Paul that said this), "when in Rome do as the Romans." In other words, what is expected of us and should we conform to those expectations? If the church is not to our suitability, is it time to relocate?
Of course, motive is always at question in these matters. We need to consider and heed James 2:2-4:
2 For if there come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring, in goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor man in vile raiment;
3 And ye have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him, Sit thou here in a good place; and say to the poor, Stand thou there, or sit here under my footstool:
4 Are ye not then partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts? (KJV)
I believe, Tim, this addresses what you were stating. I don't see anything scripturally where it discusses dress code in our assemblies, except where God talks about the Feast days where he specifies dress for the occasion.
I so agree. I love to dress up and loved to dress up my kids growing up going to church. I did not however grow up in any church, so did not have that mentality about church dress code.
God does not care how we look. He does not care if our clothes are ironed or clean, or anything of the sort.
However, on a different note, I agree with Carroll, in that we should always be presentable to others. But Tim is also right that it puts us in a position to pose a t church with others. I have seen first hand in friends and in family where it is easier to shove things under the carpet than to accept that we are all flawed and will never be perfect until Christ comes back. That is not to say that we should not at least strive to be perfect.
Again, this is Mel, not Scott
I have to draw on my childhood church experiences here for a tic:
You would think that going to a Roman Catholic Church on a Saturday dressed in jeans, a worn t-shirt, and beat up sneaks would garner a few whispers. Well, it didn't. Not once, not ever. Nobody cared, and the priest shook my hand like everybody else, came and chatted with me before Mass, and I had plenty of friends who dressed the same way. What mattered was that I was there, I was learning and I was active in the Body of Christ.
On Sabbath mornings at my other parent's church, however, I had to be stuffed into an uncomfortable dress--no pants. Seriously, for a tomboy like me that's torture. Even today if I wear a dress, someone asks "who died?" But I digress. At this particular congregation there also attended a woman who also liked to buck tradition and wore what church members called 'atrocious' and 'inappropriate'. What was so abhorrent about her dress? Her skirt was 'too short' (2 inches above the knee) and her legs were still covered by dark tights. On more than one occasion I caught members talking about her dress but completely ignoring the fact that she loved to attend ALL the functions and talk about God. She always wanted to talk about what she had learned in the materials she'd read or go to Bible classes or learn new recipes from fellowship meetings.
Eventually, she couldn't tolerate people trying to change her and she left.
I agree we should be presentable when we attend church, but presentable to God. My opinion is God takes me as I am so you should too. Last I checked Jesus was okay to be seen with prostitutes. What if Jesus was here today? I think he'd be down with miniskirts and fishnets--why? Because at least Modern Day Mary Magdelene isn't concerned about the details and is focused on receiving grace not new threads.
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