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As a youth pastor I am
often asked about dress standards—from teens, from parents, and from other
youth leaders. Do we have a dress standard? What is it? How do we enforce it?
Why do we have one? What about visitors? The questions and the reasoning
sometimes seem endless, and can actually be seriously distracting from the
central point of student ministry. To get straight to the point, this is a real
issue in youth ministry in the twenty-first century and many are looking for
balanced biblical answers.
In the next couple of
articles I would like to explore the subject of dress from a student ministry
perspective. If you are a parent, these articles will encourage you to consider
biblical principles for your children and your own home. If you are a youth
leader or pastor, this article will challenge you to reasonably define and
compassionately lead your group environment to be honoring to the Lord. Either
way, I hope we all decide to “raise the bar” for some very good, biblical
reasons. I believe the Bible is very clear—YES—God does care what we wear.
In Matthew 11:7–9 Jesus
is speaking about John the Baptist. And while the central context of this
passage is not about clothing, He draws a clear distinction between what a
godly man wears and what would be worn in a pagan environment. (The term soft clothing in this passage refers to common homosexual practices of the
day.) The Bible draws the same conclusion in Proverbs 7:10 where it says, “…the
attire of an harlot.” Point being—different types of people dress differently
and clothing certainly identifies us with a lifestyle. To put one point of these
verses in plain English: godly men don’t dress the same as effeminate men, and
godly ladies don’t dress like harlots.
Would you consider with
me your dress choices? Would you consider what you allow your teenager to wear
in a variety of contexts, and would you let those decisions be subject to God’s
will? If so, then I pray that these following considerations will challenge
your thinking and provoke serious consideration of this matter. I recently gave
our students and parents ten reasons why we have a student ministry dress
standard, and why I have a dress standard for my family. Let me share three of
them with you now and the rest over the next couple of articles.
1. To
please the Lord Jesus Christ and honor Him above all. So many of our dress decisions are purely based on pleasing self
and pleasing others. When you wake up and get dressed, for whom are you
dressing? First Corinthians 10:31 teaches, “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink,
or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.”
2. To submit to the biblical principle of modesty. This is more of an issue with ladies because men are “sight oriented.” If you have a home with only girls, you may not really get this! What some ladies or moms think is “cute” is very often provocative. Dad must be the authority in this area and moms should work to educate themselves on what their daughters “look like” through the eyes of young men. First Timothy 2:9 teaches, “In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel…”.
3. To
submit to the biblical principle of appropriateness and to identify with
godliness. Philippians 4:5 teaches, “Let your moderation be known unto all
men. The Lord is at hand.” The definition of moderation is appropriateness. While young men might
not have to struggle so much with modesty, they certainly should be taught what
is appropriate dress for various environments.
It seems our young people
are being taught that wearing their “ball-game” clothing to church is
appropriate. It simply isn’t. When it comes to dress, we should have a higher
respect for spiritual environments than we do for mowing the lawn. It’s the
same reason we dress better for weddings and funerals—because we respect the
people and the environment involved. Why should the Lord get less respect
than the dead?
We’ve just barely scratched the surface of this topic. I pray
that you will take these first three points and teach them to your teenagers,
your children, or your youth group. Teens want to know “why.” They won’t always
understand all of our rules, but this is one area where they are more than
capable of connecting the dots—if we present them reasonably and biblically.
Everybody knows that dress matters. It’s really just a matter of submitting our
selfish wills to God and living to please Him first. Thanks for reading. We
will continue the discussion in the next article!
BY CARY SCHMIDT – used with
permission
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