From a pastor-friend:

I have some problem with the idea of dress codes.

It assumes that we “know” what is appropriate dress It assumes that if somebody is dressed “less” than platform standard they are inferior. What about exposed midriff and a ring in your belly button?

Some Stories.

1. I’ll call him Bill and I met him at my time at [a middle-class church]. He was scruffy, his jeans were worn through at the knees, his hair was long and greasy. Bill was a great musician and had played in pubs, so I put him on “the platform” leading a music group. Tuesday pastoral meeting it was frowned upon by all pastors for having scruffy Bill up on “the platform.” I kept putting Bill on the platform and the same response every pastoral meeting. Gradually Bill changed. he got a new pair of jeans, his hair improved. Bill knew every Christian muso in town and we worked up some fabulous nights. He went on to do a B Theol at theological college and as a deacon in his church now organizes the Saturday services. Be careful you don’t guideline out the Holy Spirit.

2. Remember the Norma Tullo days. My wife used to wear mini dresses that were extremely short, in fact a long.long long way above the knee… back in the 60’s. . Fashions come and go, the sun rises the next day. Don’t think she’d get on the platform today.

It was an evangelistic rally and my wife invited a single mum from the next street to the church. She came to the meeting and came once more at night. When she asked her to come to church she declined. She explained that she didn’t have a dress. You see she came in a neat pants suit but she noticed that the women only wore dresses and then she noticed second time around they came in a different dress from the morning. She never came again. Did she notice the male pastors in business blue pin stripe suits? I don’t know.

3. I worked for a couple of years in a third world country. A mission there was run by Mid-West Indiana Wesleyan Methodists. All the missionaries had long trousers and long sleeve shirts and made the national pastors dress the same. This was Christian and godly. We also were a mission and Christians working a sawmill wore shorts and boots. Transfer that into your church. Be careful that you don’t blend culture and Christianity. I never really did discover what was sexual about knees and elbows.

4. My friend from San Diego was a Nazarene missionary (they are very conservative with their holiness teaching) worked in a very remote area of the country. The more remote in this country the less clothes national tend to wear. So in his mission the young women wore nothing but a pugh pugh, a little bark string affair over the pubic area. and went bare breasted. He had been in the bush for so long when he made an audio visual for deputation he included some slides of these young women. His first showing was before 2000 Nazarenes in the US. All went well until the bare breasted women appeared and he said you could cut the air with a knife. He realized he had been in the bush too long.

5. Last story. When he arrived at our town he was in his 70’s a schizophrenic and with some mental retardation. He had been kicked out of the church 20 years before. At communion various members took turn to distribute the bread and wine. So we had him take his turn. He never missed a beat and it went perfectly. Be careful who you leave off the platform.

Fashion and clothes are cultural things we do. We need to be careful not to limit the work of the Holy Spirit because we have a different view on fashion and clothes.