No More Jeans at Church!

Posted by Scott Williams
13 Comments
May 28, 2008
Hmmmmm | The Church

I was having a conversation yesterday with another pastor and we somehow got on the topic of Church Attire and the current trend of dress, specifically for Pastors.  It seems a though the current look for  ”Contemporary Pastors,” for the lack of a better term is: expensive trendy jeans, trendy shirts un-tucked or half-tucked, the glasses, bald head… well you get the picture and the congregation generally tends to follow the trend of the pastor for the most part.

I recently noticed that Ed Young; who is one of the “Big Dawgs” of Creative Pastors in the country is now wearing suits.  Hmmm this got me to thinking that we may only be a few years from this current “Contemporary Look” moving towards the clean cool suits, french cuff shirts, tie or no tie, the glasses… again, you get the picture.   You are already seeing blazers/suit jackets as part of the repertoire, accompanied with the current casual jean look. 

Some of you may think that I’m kidding; however I am dead serious.  Just think about how your church and your pastor dressed about 7 years ago… I’m sure that it’s quite different than today.   Whether it’s intentional or not, I think Ed Young might just be on to something (They don’t call him Mr. Creative for nothing) and you better believe all of the “Creative Pastors” are taking note. 

Creative is defined as: Having the quality of something created rather than imitated; re-create.

Do you think the “Contemporary Church” dress/attire is going to re-create itself into suits?  Share your thoughts and opinions on this subject overall.

Don’t forget that “I Told You So!”  BigIsTheNewSmall

  • http://www.manymeadows.blogspot.com Robin Meadows

    Naw….at least I hope not! That’s one of the attractions of “contemporary church”..come dressed as you want.

    Besides, whatever would I wear? Dresses?? Been there, done that. Please, not again! LOL

  • http://www.jonathancliff.com Jonathan

    I’m still waiting for my church to start wearing jeans! Don’t change back to suits so fast…

  • Scott Williams

    Robin & Jonahan- I’m LOL for real! :-)

  • http://www.michaelhigh.com Mike High

    If I can be honest, I find it somewhat comical that so much attention is placed on the “look”. I would like to be a fly on the wall and hear, “We’d love to have you as our campus pastor, but to do so you need to start dressing like ________.” It has become a running joke now, “Nice campus pastor shirt you have on today.”

  • http://solshine7.blogspot.com SolShine7

    LOL. I never thought about it before but I’ve seen a lot of younger “contemporary pastors” dress like that (trendy jeans and button-up shirt).

    Personally, I’d like to see pastors dress in ethnic gear every once in a while. Whether it’s African, Indian, Scottish or something else. I just that different styles of clothes are cool.

    But when it all comes down to it, it really doesn’t matter what the pastor wears. It’s what he’s teaching and how he’s living that truly matters.

  • http://www.dustytakle.com Dusty

    My dad is a pastor who digs the jeans look. But, the other Sunday, he decided to wear a tie to “stir things up a bit.” Really? A tie gets the party started? At the end of the day, he knows like I do it’s about the message. The message in and of itself is good stuff.

  • http://www.madealive.blogspot.com Scott Rodgers

    I’m not sure it’s as much about setting the trend as it is in keeping up with the trend. Just keep up with the times. It’s pretty simple. If suits are in, I’m wearing a suit. If jeans are in, I’m wearing jeans. If spandex with bandanas around the leg and ratted hair are in, I’m there.

  • http://ichilly.typepad.com Chilly

    I’ll stick with my faded levis jeans and salvation army acquired t-shirt… I’m not pretty enough to dress like Ed Young.

  • http://paravane.wordpress.com/ jimmy paravane

    I buy all my church attire at Intelligent Designs, the new Contemporary Christian Consumer fashion outlet. They cater to the up and coming modern day parishioner. When you want to shop with an eye towards a personal style that speaks to your good taste AND your humility. Their goal is to be the place where Joel Osteen and his congregation can shop together. Their prices are comparable to Men’s Wearhouse.
    You’re going to like Godly style. They guarantee it.
    What? (grin)

  • ostate17

    I just want to know, scott, does this mean that you’ll be wearing a pimped-out (can i use that expression) suit every week now?

  • http://jameyjohnson.org jamey johnson

    If my wife and I go to all African-American church, we usually dress to the “nines” (this means SUITS for sure). An all white congregation usually dresses down a bit, unless, it’s a “grandpa-BUILDER” generation led church. I prefer dress pants. nice shirt, suit jacket (loose fit), however, I do like the jeans at times.

  • http://menonpurpose.com bert boan

    Jimmy: Intelligent Designs?!?! That is freaking High Larious. That is the obscure reference of the year. I like it, a lot! That is brilliant. You just went up two levels in the sly verbage column.

  • http://paravane.wordpress.com/ jimmy paravane

    bert, hya. I’m glad somebody got it. For awhile there, I was thinking about opening a franchise. (grin)

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