Shortly after the inauguration of our new President, I heard an interview with Andrew Card, upset about the less stringent dress code that Obama would have in the oval office. He explained that a more formal dress code contributed to a sense of honor for the President of the United States.
And yet the same day, I received an invitation in the mail to a local Church. āCome as you areā was their mantra. Implying of course that you donāt have to dress nicely to come. Not that any other Churches in the area have a written dress code, but maybe other churches have a higher sense of reverence for the corporate worship of God, the creator of the universe, and the one who has provided our only hope for salvation.
It is customary in the public schools to send a note home requesting that children come to school on standardized testing days, dressed up. Studies have shown that when the kids come dressed nicely, they take the test more seriously, and therefore score higher.
And yet , how we dress at church is more evidence of how the radical informality of our culture that has crept into the church. The fact that Church is more about āmeā, what I get out of it, that I am comfortable, and much less about the Worship of our Lord and Savior. What so many churches have lost is a reverence for the worship of our God, and this is just one small evidence.
Just something to think about. . .
Update from Shane: Sorry to barge in on Coleenās post, but some of you who subscribe to this blog may read it with RSS readers that do not show the author. Iām sure you will be relieved to learn that no I do not wear dresses :). Just a reminder that while I am the primary contributor to Caffeinated Thoughts we are a multi-contributor blog. So if a post seems like something I wouldnāt write, make sure you go to post and look at the byline because perhaps I didnāt.
Coleen, I appreciate the amount of discussion this topic brought. Thanks!
2nd Update: Linked over at A Sweet Fragrance.