[Willie Green]

Woodstock-era Baby Boomer hippies are all a bunch of lazy, atheistic slobs.

[LadyPilgrim]

I wear something on my head EVERY Sunday. Today it was a little tweed straw hat by Liz Claiburne.

We are in a large Church, with lots of people. And we almost all dress up for Sunday.
These folks have watched our children grow up and we have watched theirs and they have seen me change hats every Sunday for almost 27 years.

In our Church, we dress traditional and still sing hymns instead of just praise songs.
We have a mixture.

Mr. Pilgrim wears a suit and so do most of the men there.
This is just how they dress. Not that someone who wants to wear something more casual can't feel comfortable.
But our Sunday night service is more casual, also on Wednesday nights.

We don't "dress down", at our particular gathering for Sunday Morning Services.

But 7 miles down street is one of our "baby Churches" and they are more casual and contempary. Our oldest son and his family go there. He and his wife are charter members of the Classical School Program and their children attend the school.
They are a lot more casual and sing a lot more contempary renditions of new and old hymns.

Surprizingly the bulk of that membership are very young families. Yuppy types. Generation X'ers, most are college educated.

There aren't too many 50 to 60 age folks. You can count them on your hands. But the largest part of them are starting families.
It's just the difference in generations, I guess.

Their "casual" is nice stuff! But still yet, they don't want to wear suits when they've worn them all week.

But my Sweet-Baby and I don't choose to go there. We like to sing hymns. And a few praise songs. Not the other way around. Also, we love our Pastors!

I didn't mean to carry on, but got started and couldn't quit. :-)

[Eala]

Wore one of my two best suits today - despite that fact that, as a "server," I would not be seen in it during the service.

[nmh]

We dress up every Sunday. It really doesn't matter to me what everyone else is doing. Call me old fashioned, but I believe you should dress as well as you can when you go to worship. It shows respect for the Judeo Christian God. After all that has been done for us, this is the least we can do for Him. Yet, others will dress to kill for their weddings or other big occasions. It amazes me the lack of effort to show any regard for God. Everything else is more important ... I suspect He'll have much to say on that too someday ... .

[Walkingfeather]

well I grew up in a VERY VERY conservative church.... we considered most conservative Baptists were going hell ... okay... we dressed up every service... sunday am pm wed.pm

When I got older I figured out that most of the unchurched did not have "church clothes" and I started to get a sense that it was more of a church costume since I didnt dress up any other day of the week. I believe most unchurched viewed the spit shine shoes and dress slacks as a barrier to approaching the Church.
I also believe those that dressed up now would have a unconsious piousness about them when those that "don't dress up for God" show up for church.
I have a question for you all ....
If you were invited to a party and thought the dress was casual and you get there and the dress is formal... how welcoming and comfortable are you going to feel?

So is Church services for the "saved" or the Unsaved...? Do you ever ask yourself what barriers you put up unconsciously to those that are seeking God?

[adiaireton8]

1. Aesthetic relativism is false. Not only are some things intrinsically beautiful, and other things intrinsically ugly, but some ways of dressing are intrinsically irreverant, and others are not.

2. Dressing up for church in order to impress other people with one’s looks is vain and wrong. So is dressing up to flaunt one’s wealth. But abuse does not nullify proper use. Just because there are wrong reasons to X does not mean that there are no right reasons to X.

3. For those who have no understanding of aesthetics and what is objectively communicated by the way one dresses when coming to God's presence, “Go to God in whatever suits you” is not good advice. It is much worse than telling a blind man to pick out his wedding outfit by simply choosing whatever feels best to him.

4. Since God wants us to be reverent and respectful in His presence, and since the way one dresses (and acts) when coming to God’s presence is either reverent and respectful or not, God does care how we are dressed when coming into His presence.

5. Just because Saddam dressed nicely does not mean that God does not care how we dress when coming into His presence; that’s a non sequitur. The way we dress (and act) when coming into God’s presence reflects something about our heart, even if only the recognition that God deserves to be approached in dress and manner that are reverent and respectful.

6. Anyone who thinks that coming to God’s presence in tank tops, tube tops, shorts, rags, pajamas, jeans, sneakers, halter tops, bikinis, thongs, etc. etc. is respectful and reverent needs to study aesthetics. People who come to God’s presence dressed irreverently are saying something with their manner of dress (i.e. God is not worthy of respect and reverence), even if they are thinking something else in their minds. Right intentions do not right actions make. It is not enough to have good intentions.

7. Just because health of the soul is more important than health of the body, it does not follow that how one dresses in God’s presence is unimportant. Not only does the soul affect the body, but the body affects the soul. This is why we kneel in prayer; it is not mere tradition. Kneeling actually helps prepare our souls for prayer. Likewise, coming to God’s presence dressed irreverently tends to put the soul in a less reverent state. The idea that our bodies (and their actions and their manner of cover and adornment) are irrelevant to the condition and activity of our souls is a kind of Platonically rooted Gnosticism, which the church has long recognized as heretical.

8. Trying to impress God is not the reason to dress respectfully and reverently in His presence. God, being omniscient, cannot be impressed by the way we dress, or by anything that we do. But God can be respected and revered by the way we dress.

[FeliciaCat]

Not me. I wore a pink strapless sundress and heels on Easter Sunday...and this was in gloomy, cloudy cold NYC! If spring wont come to me, then I will go spring! ;)

[biblewonk]

I know too many Christians who like to play dress-up but never read their bibles.

[stainlessbanner]

Some folks say that all the new bonnets and spring dresses are distracting, I say so are flipflops and cutoffs.

[bmwcyle]

I wear nice clothes but I will always hate wearing a tie.

[Sloth]

James 2:2-4 -- "For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings, in fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes, and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, 'You sit here in a good place,' and say to the poor man, 'You stand there,' or, 'Sit here at my footstool,' have you not shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?"

I Timothy 2:9-10 -- "In like manner also, that the women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with propriety and moderation, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly clothing, but, which is proper for women professing godliness, with good works."

[Dengar01]

I'm a worship leader at my church ELCA (lutheran). And I find that dressing up (shirt, tie, jacket) is distracting (for me personally) during the services that I help lead (contemporary). Now at traditional services I don't see that there is a problem with dressing up as it is more traditional. However, just because someone isn't dressed up doesn't have anything to do with where their heart is.

I dress up but in my style, as I am in my 20's, dressing up in a full suit is not for me.

[banyanroot]

I fail to see why it matters what we wear to church so long as it doesn't expose too much skin or isn't making some sort of statement like a shirt emblazoned with a marijuana leaf.

Fashion is a hugely successful marketing campaign. People get rid of perfectly good clothes because they are not in style. Just think - if a mere 1% of what we blow on stylish clothes was instead donated to programs that help out the families of our brave troops, millions of dollars would be far better spent.

Furthermore, I expect that rather than critiquing our attire, God looks in our hearts and where he may find some lacking crosses all boundaries of the fashion spectrum.

[Protagoras]

Woodstock-era Baby Boomer hippies are all a bunch of lazy, atheistic slobs.

Nice way to start a thread. A trolls dream.

BTW, how many atheists do you know who go to church?

[k2blader]

I believe it’s what you look like *inside* that God cares about.

Christians who judge others based on what they wear to church need to get their own hearts and attitudes right. They remind me of the Pharisees.

[Minuteman23]

I agree.

In my church this Sunday many of the teenagers---and even a few of the adults---were wearing jeans. That says something about (dis)respect.

[FITZ]

While Easter Sunday has traditionally been the day to show off your new spring finery,

But new spring finery, fashion shows etc aren't what Easter Sunday is all about. Who cares if you wear old jeans and a t-shirt to Easter services? It's what's inside that matters.

[CathyRyan]

In about the t 80's it changed from dressing up to just plain showing up.

[sphinx]

I am a Missouri Senate Lutheran married to a Roman Catholic. We generally attend Catholic services and I am one of the very few in a suit.

My position is that as long as the priest shows up in uniform, so will I.

A corollary is that if the priest ever decides it's not important enough to dress appropriately, I will decide it's not important enough to come.

[fortunecookie]

Woodstock-era Baby Boomer hippies are all a bunch of lazy, atheistic slobs.

LOL. Let me quote an EEM (female) acquaintance of mine, who was told to stop wearing short shorts and tank tops when she was 'serving': "No Priest is going to tell me how to dress. They're lucky I come at all. I'll wear what I want, I'm going to be comfortable, da--it." And she meant it. Our new pastor has looked the other way. Sadly, and not surprisingly, it has caught on and many people, judging by their very casual clothes, seem to feel this way even about Easter and Christmas and funerals.