Oliver Douglas and dress codes

Okay, thats fine from a worldly source. Do you have any Bible evidence that clothes make the man?

The Bible seems to indicate that the heart makes the man.

 

I don't wear long gowns, sandals and no socks...........Guess I am not biblical.

Cheers,

Jim

 

Respectfully, I completely disagree. I have been in classroom situations and corporate situations and religious situations that have clearly disproven this point.

What about the coprorate CEO friend of mine who runs a terrific company that is exploding and wears jeans, a t-shirt, casual shoes, etc to work everyday? Is he acting poorly? (BTW, he's great Christian leader in our church.)

I suppose this is a you plural...:thumbs:

Here's a list of other churches in the area and we would encourage you to check them out too. We don't want to be a hindrance to someone's walk and if a clothing issue is going to detract from their corporate worship there are plenty of other situations that might work better for them. We've done this (about other issues too) in the past and try to be encouraging to these families. This isn't an arrogance thing. We've just noticed that Christians are the only ones keeping score about this and that is usually a dead give away for our leadership that it isn't an absolute in our books.

 

Coming in to this discussion late, I thought I'd throw this story in.

At current church, I wear a suit and tie for Sunday mornings. I tend to take the tie off for Sunday evenings and wear everyday clothes for Wednesdays. The deacon chairman wears a shirt and tie. Every other man in the church, including the other deacons wears Wranglers and a plaid shirt.

We buried our eldest deacon (who had been out of the church living in a nursing home many years) last year. He had been a banker and was known for wearing a suit and tie everyday, even in the nursing home if they'd let him. All the deacons were pall bearers and two wore suites, the others wore Wranglers and plaid shirts.

The deacon chairman was bothered and brought it up at the deacon meeting. He felt (and I agreed) that they should have dressed up, out of respect for this man who had always dressed up. One of our more soft spoken deacons was very upset and said, "Yeah, well he made all his money off the backs of hardworking folks who never wore a suit!" Suddenly I realized that the suit might say very different things to very different people. A week later, I casually asked that deacon why a suit bothered him. He said, "When I see a man in a suit, I just see a man who's job is to take the money I work for." I told him that I wear a suit to preach and he said, "Yeah, but I know if I come to talk to you at home or during the week, you'll have on jeans."

I was surprised. I had always encountered the pro-suit argument and the pro-casual argument, but this was the first I had heard of the anti-suit argument. I had never imagined that a suit could mean a negative thing to someone. Now I realize that if I expect to convey something with my clothing, I best know what it is I'm conveying. It would be wrong for me to assume that a suit always means the best.

By the way, on Christmas eve our church celebrates a silent Lord's Supper. The church members come, one family at a time, throughout the evening and one deacon (they take turns each year) serves it to them. I greet them in the foyer. When I arrived to set up, I met our anti-suit deacon...he was wearing a suit (plaid shirt, no tie, but pants and a jacket). "What's this?" I asked. He said, "I realized that just as some think too much of a suit, I thought too much of not wearing a suit."

I think there's wisdom in that.

 

I'm with you preachinjesus. If dress is such a big deal then invite them to go somewhere else. Even if you dressed to their man made standards they still wouldn't be happy. The way one dresses is only at the top of the legalistic agenda that they have in store for the pastor and the rest of the church.

 

The thread is about apppropriate dress. It has everything to do with this thread. If the theology is too deep for you, please go to the clean humor section.

 

That is why it is good to be able to discern the difference between Biblical doctrine and opinion.

 

You dont. What it shows is a total lack of understanding of the issue.

 

So what happens when your offerings stop, your suit wears out, and you just have "beach wear and house clothes" to wear. Are you going to stop going to church?

 

You can be so wrong, but this one you got so right. You are a study in contrasts!

 

I can give you my experience on dressup/dressdown;
I have found in hospital visitation that in going down corridors or through entrances if I am dressed in tie, suit, shoes shined and well groomed people will hold doors open for you and usually acknowledge you including hospital staff. However on occasions when I dress casually in slacks open collar sport shirt and athletic shoes most people tend to ignore me and most of the time will let the door close right in my face

 

My first church was a little methodist church way back in the woods of the florida panhandle. It was so far back that there was no electricity in the building. No kidding. The heater was a gas space heater in the middle of the room, and for cooling they raised the windows and had those little hand fans with the wooden handles. They had a "picture" of Jesus and a short bible verse on them.

Anyway, two prominent members of that church were on the opposite ends of the economic classes. One was the Principle of the county high school and the other was a retired back-woods farmer that had lost everything to the economy and lived on social security.

The old farmer wore bib overalls (we call them "overhauls") to church and led the singing, the principle wore a nice suite and tie and was a lay preacher.

We could care less that the old farmer did not wear a suit. He was a man that truly lived in poverty. No one gave it a second thought.

But what if the principle had shown up in bib overalls or in "dungarees"? (that's what they used to call jeans). It would have been a scandal.

But now we would have to have a "special outreach" to old farmers, so everyone would have to wear bib overalls or else be branded a pharisee.

There's nothing wrong with expecting people who are able to dress up for church as long as we assure visitors that they are welcome and are patient with new members that have yet to understand why they should express the seriousness of assembled worship through what they wear.

 

J.D. your post is excellent..

That is why we should encourage people to be who they are through Christ. If someone likes suits and ties.. GREAT.. If someone likes jeans.. Great... Just be who you are. Trying to be like your neighbor to please others is hypocritical.

 

Tim, I don't think you could have missed the point in J.D.'s post any more than if you were trying to hit it with a squirt gun in a gale force wind.

 

Well... an old farmer praised God in overalls while a Teacher praised him in a suit.. and both accepted each other...

Dressing up to please men is hypocritical
Dressing down to please men is hypocritical...

Come now is the time to worship
Come, now is the time to give your all
Come, just as you are to worship....

God wants us just as we are... in overalls or suits.. He accepts both...

Nope, I didn't miss the point. You just got all wet with my squirt gun.