I have about seven suits that I used to rotate through, wearing one per week - on Sunday. For a reason that I still don't understand, I put on a suit every Sunday without fail as I served as a salaried pastor. The people of the church never once told me or even asked me to wear a suit. I just did it because that was what I has seen my entire life. In every church I have ever been a part of the person preaching always wore a suit.The suit is a device of semi-torture. The reason is that the tie puts pressure on the throat. This would be no big deal if we didn't have to breathe.
I'm happy to report that my suits are now collecting dust. I haven't put one on in over a month. Unless the Lord provides me with a suit-requiring job, these suits may just hang there until I have to vacuum them off. My hope is that I won't have to wear another one until someone's wedding requires it.
As we have gathered with other believers in our home I have been happy to wear comfortable clothing. One time I even (gasp) left my shirt untucked.
If you enjoy wearing suits, then by all means do so. If not, then don't. As for me and my house, we're done with suits. I'd rather be able to breathe better and enjoy the gathering.
9 comments:
Eric,
Suits are a good example of how we let traditions rule what we do as followers of Christ.
I remember when I began not wear a coat in the pulpit. I had a few comments about "not honoring the Lord".
Regarding dress and tradition, your article brings to mind a couple of incidents:
About thirty years ago an Australian Baptist church, in a beach suburb, called a progressive young pastor, who advertised the Sunday service amongst the surfing community.
Can you imagine the comments when wet, salty surfies walked from the surf and sat on their towels on the polished pews?
On the opposite side of the same city, the very affluent Bible belt, a rather smelly hippy came to the very full, very large church.
Finding no seat, he went to the front, crossed his legs and sat on the floor. An elderly deacon rose from his back seat and walked to the front.
The congregation,relieved at seeing this, already holding its collective breath, was expecting the deacon to escort the hippie out the door. Instead the elderly man, with much difficulty, sat on the floor, beside the smelly young fellow,staying there for the duration of the service.
John,
I can still hear myself saying, "Just wear your best to church regardless of what your best is." Sigh. When will we finally learn that God cares nothing about the outside. We must focus on the cleanliness of our insides.
Eric,
Nothing spiritual in this comment, but just an FYI: get some cedar moth-away packets. I don't wear suits very often either, and I've discovered that moths love nothing more than an idle suit. If you fully intend never to wear one again, take them to Goodwill. Once they find their way to the suits, they're hard to get rid of. :)
MJD
Mike,
Thanks for the advice. I may give some away if I don't need them for my next job. The ironic thing is that my suits are actually fairly comfortable except for the tie aspect.
I'm glad that more and more churches seem to be moving away from an expectation that the pastor(s) has to wear a suit.
I don't wear a suit...
I do have a standard black one for those appropriate times when one is needed but that is the only time I wear it (e.g., weddings, etc, or maybe a fancy dinner for fun).
-Brian
Brian,
You are a wise man. I wish I had gone suitless long ago.
Baptist vestments? So much for the robes of Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. :)
Steve,
The funny thing about this is that I was the one perpetuating it as opposed to the other people of the church. However, if I had begun to not wear suits (especially on Sunday mornings) I'm not sure what the response would have been. Hmmm...
I've never preached in a suit, nor been asked to. I wore a suit coat to the service once because it was cold...and in Texas we don't own real coats. But it was too hot to keep it on inside the building.
The weird thing is that I've done pulpit supply at lots of first baptist churches, the supposedly legalistic kind. Turns out everybody there pretty much reads and obeys their bible all the time.
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