Why I Wear A Minister’s Uniform
By Pastor Jeffrey J. Meyers
I have begun to wear the recognized uniform of my calling—the
white tab-collared shirt—with more frequency these days. Some of you may have
never seen me wear the pastor’s collar. You are more likely to now that I have
become convinced that I need to wear a ministerial uniform around town during
the week. Many of the same arguments I used
seven years ago to defend the use of the pastoral robe
in worship apply here as well. I will not, however, be wearing my collar for
the Sunday services. The robe is sufficient for the worship service. You all
know that I am a pastor. The collar is for my weekday ministry. It will serve
to identify me as a minister in the community. For me there is one overriding reason
for wearing a collar: it can open doors for evangelism
and ministry in the community that I would
otherwise miss. I am convinced this is true. Whenever I have worn my collar in the
past, I have always been surprised at the results. I want the congregation to
be comfortable with this practice. That is why I’m writing this little essay.
†
Once you think over the reasons and hear about the
results, I think you will understand and accept the uniform as a helpful way
for us to have more visibility in our community. “Hold your horses,” someone
may say. “If you need a collar to do ministry then you’ve got a problem. You
should be identified as a Christian minister simply by your life and words.”
I’ve actually had someone (not a member of this congregation) say this to me. I
do think that there’s more than a little truth in such a statement. Surely a
collar alone does not make one a minister. But I don’t think it’s really that
simple.
†
The real question is not whether I need one,
but will wearing a uniform help me better perform my ministry in the
community. I certainly don’t need a collar to do ministry. I will never claim
that it is necessary. Rather, I think it is beneficial. The same
holds true for other professions. A waiter or EMT specialist doesn’t need a
uniform, but it sure helps. And if it is
helpful for waiters, policeman, doctors, even UPS
drivers to be readily identifiable by their uniform, shouldn’t the same hold true
for pastors and ministers?
Furthermore, I don’t deny that a collar alone is
worthless. There must be godly living and speaking if there is to be any real
ministerial service to others. To be sure, some ministers may wear a collar out
of haughtiness and self-promotion. Some may even misinterpret my decision to
wear the pastoral collar as arrogance—a kind of spiritual one-up-manship. I’m
a minister and you’re not. Look at me! But I know
my own motivations. I fully expect that a few will call me pompous and elitist.
But that is not the effect that wearing the uniform of a pastor has on me. It
affects me in just the opposite way. The actor Laurence Olivier once said that
he could not become a character until he had decided upon the right nose.
Clothes do the same thing for us. A moment’s reflection will show that the kind
of clothes you wear affects the way you behave. There’s a powerful short story
by Ray Bradbury called “The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit” in which six down-and-out
men.
†
This brief paper is not an in-depth theological
explanation and defense. If anyone wants to read about this further, I will be
happy to recommend some references. Unfortunately, the historical information on
pastoral dress must be gleaned from a variety of sources. There is no one book
or article that adequately deals with this subject. experience a miraculous
transformation in their attitude and behavior when they wear a brand-new white
suit around town for an evening.
When I wear a collar I am continually reminded of
my accountability as a minister of the Gospel. In a word, I speak and behave
differently. I have a constant reminder that I am a slave of Jesus Christ. With
all due respect to those ministers who don’t wear a collar, I find dressing
like a
over my voice box will remind me of the need for
sanctified, life-giving speech. While I’m out in the community, I must take Paul’s
charge to Pastor Timothy with the utmost seriousness: “Watch your life and
doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both
yourself and your hearers” (1 Tim. 4:6).
Think about the office of the pastor and what kind
of work he should be doing. The pastor is not a businessman. He is not
the CEO of the ecclesiastical corporation with its headquarters at the
intersection of Sappington and Eddie & Park. I always feel a little
uncomfortable in a starched shirt, suit and tie. It tends to contribute toward
a very real problem in our PCA churches. We tend to attract upper-middle class
people. People in these economic strata are comfortable around a pastor
whose uniform is a suit and tie. Poorer people,
however, often find it hard to relate to a pastor who dresses like and acts
like a banker or businessman. I often sense that what I wear erects unfortunate
barriers in certain situations. Talking to a poorer man or woman wearing a Polo
shirt doesn’t make sense.
I think it’s important for us to reflect on how our
pastors are dressed. Just because a congregation doesn’t have their pastor wear
a robe on Sunday or a collar on the weekdays doesn’t mean that they escape the
idea of a uniform. In the modern Evangelical subculture pastors are expected to
dress conservatively. This usually means a blue or dark suit, a white
starched shirt, a conservative necktie, etc. As I
have already pointed out, the problem is that this attire is the typical weekday
uniform of a lawyer or middle to upper management businessman. Unfortunately,
it has become de facto the American Evangelical clerical garb. I think
this “uniform” often communicates precisely the wrong message in our
churches and the communities in which we minister.
Our pastors too often seek to conform to the patterns and symbols of authority
prevalent in American middle class culture. It is simply not possible to escape
the symbolism of clothing. When a minister wears a collar, however, it helps
him and the people he comes in contact with remember that his authority comes from
Christ and his Church. In the Bible clothing and calling are often connected; a
person’s calling or office—together with whatever authority is connected with
the office—is often visually symbolized by the clothing the man wears (Gen.
9:20-27; 37: 3-11, 23; 39:1-13; 41:1-44; all of the references in Exodus and
Leviticus to the clothing of the priests; 1 Sam. 2:19; 15:27;18:4; 24:4, 5, 11,
14; Ezra 9:3-5; Esther 8:15; Isa. 22:21; Jonah 3:6; Matt. 22:11ff.; 27:31; Mark
16:5; Luke 15:22; Rev. 1:13; 4:4;6:11; 19:13, 16). The purpose of the pastoral
collar is to cover
the man and accent his God-ordained office or
calling.
We need to remember that people need to be able to
place some kind of secondary confidence in the office of the pastor and elder.
Our primary confidence, of course, is in God and his Word! But God
mediates his presence and authority through his officers in the church. They
have a secondary, delegated authority. An outward sign of that authority and
office helps people. This is not hard to prove. You may have heard of
the
J.D. Power & Associates study on the importance
of uniforms in the workplace. They found that customers prefer to deal with
sales associates, service people, etc. who are in uniform.
Think about doctors, nurses, judges, and policemen.
People want them to wear something distinctive that reminds them of their
expertise or calling. We are helped when our doctor wears a white uniform. The
uniform assists us in remembering that we can place some confidence in him.
This
is his calling. The uniform reminds us of his
training and commitment. The same ought to be true with our pastors. Biblical
teaching as a whole links clothing and calling. You are what you wear or you
wear what you are. Just as judges, physicians, policemen, and auto mechanics
wear clothing that befits their calling, so should the pastor, especially when
he is available to minister to people in the community. When a pastor wears
distinctive garments around town it testifies to his office as a special
servant of Christ. The white collar has been associated with the iron collar of
a slave. The minister is the bondslave of Jesus Christ. The symbolic
clothing serves to hide the personality, social
class, or economic status of the man and highlight his special calling.
The pastor represents and ministers Christ to the
world. The pastor does not act for himself, but for Jesus Christ. A judge or a
policeman wears a uniform because he does not act for himself. He is under
orders. He represents the law and government of the county, city, or state
in which he serves. In the same way, a minister represents the law and
government of another kingdom—the clothing he wears testifies to this. He also
is under orders, as Paul reminds young pastor Timothy: You therefore must
endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No one engaged in warfare
entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted
him as a soldier. And also if anyone competes in athletics, he is not crowned
unless he competes according
to the rules. The hard-working farmer must be first
to partake of the crops. Consider what I say, and may the Lord give you
understanding in all things (2 Timothy 2:3-7, NKJV).
The pastor’s authority, therefore, does not derive
from his economic or social status (expensive suits and starched shirts). It
does not derive from his natural charisma (impressive hair or flashing dark
eyes). It most certainly does not derive from the fact that he looks and acts
like other leaders in the world (business suits), even though this is what
happens too often in
symbolize the presence of a congregation of
believers in the community, so also the visible presence of the pastor in his “uniform”
at the grocery store, post office, cleaners, mall, bookstore, etc. makes the
ministry visible and more readily available to those outside of the church. It
creates opportunities to speak to and serve people in the community.
Many of our Christians forefathers would not have understood
the need for such a essay as this. Before the democratization of American
culture, ministers commonly wore uniforms that set them apart from other
callings.
†
This was the accepted practice. In many parts of
the world, this is
still true. There is no need to explain why a
minister should wear his uniform around town. Since the time of the Reformation
there were, of course, questions about exactly what kind of clothing Protestant
ministers should wear, but there was not a great deal of controversy about the
fact that they should wear something visibly different. Puritan ministers
objected to Episcopal vestments in the sanctuary, for example. But even they
themselves wore some sort of robe to lead in the assembly on Sunday and
clerical clothing during the week around town to identify them as pastors. It
may have been something as simple as the “Geneva bands.” If you’ve seen
portraits of 17th and 18th century ministers (like George Whitefield or
Jonathan Edwards), then you’ve seen the two
strips of white cloth that hang from the front of
the collar. It seems like every other Banner of Truth magazine displays
on its cover a portrait of a 17th, 18th, or 19th
century minister wearing pastoral tabs. It is clear from paintings of Presbyterian
clergy of an earlier era (e.g., John Witherspoon in the late 1700's or
Archibald Alexander Hodge in the mid-1800's) that clerical garb was considered
normal. At one point in Dr. Calhoun’s American Presbyterian Sunday School class
earlier this year, after he had been displaying various pictures of 18th
century Presbyterian ministers on the overhead projector, someone in the
congregation raised their hand. “I
can’t help but notice that all of these
Presbyterian ministers wore some sort of distinctive clothing. Did Presbyterian
pastors wear ministerial clothing and collars back then? If so, when did this
practice change?” Dr. Calhoun answered the question in the affirmative and
briefly explained that the practice of wearing pastoral uniforms became
problematic in the 19th century with the increasing democratization of the church.
Of course, Protestant ministers did, over time, choose clothing that
distinguished them from Roman Catholic priests. In our context, I think this
would mean avoiding the black and white-collared shirt. I will be wearing
either a white, blue, or gray colored shirt with a small white tab over the
front of my throat.
The objection cited at the beginning of this essay
implied that it was unnatural for a minister to be identified in any other way
than by his life and speech. Is this helpful? How a minister is identified is a
little more complex than how Christians with other callings are known to be
believers. Around my neighborhood, people know that I’m the pastor. I am using
“democratization” in a negative sense. Egalitarian sociopolitical movements at
the opening of the 19th century radically affected American culture.
Traditional notions of authority and leadership in society and church were
attacked as “undemocratic.” One of the most fascinating and instructive
accounts of this period is Nathan O. Hatch’s The Democratization of American
Christianity (New Haven,CN: Yale University Press, 1989).
The Presbyterian church up on Sappington and Eddie
& Park. I have had a few opportunities to talk with people based on that general
knowledge. They came to me with questions or favors. They did so because they
knew I was a minister. A similar kind of thing ought to happen to all
Christians in their neighborhoods. People should know that you are a believer. But
you will have to tell them. They will not be able to discern
that you are a genuine believer in the Lord Jesus
Christ by observing your activities around your home. Even if you offer your
help and service to various neighbors, you are nothing more than a nice guy (or
maybe even a Mormon!) unless you make it known somehow that you are a
Christian. With those we have contact with on a regular basis this works just
fine.
We will have opportunities to share Christ with our
relatives, our neighbors, and our workmates if they know we are Christians and
see that we live according to the example of Jesus Christ.
All of this is great and true for me as well. But I
have added responsibilities. There are people at the Post Office, the restaurant,
the bank, the video store, Barnes & Noble, etc. that will never be able to
guess that I am a Christian or a minister by the way I act or talk. Not unless
I’m obnoxiously going around announcing the fact to everyone I meet. But if I
wear a collar, then everyone who sees me knows that I am a pastor.
They may not discern what kind of minister I am,
whether liberal or conservative, Lutheran or Reformed, but they can recognize
the distinctively Christian clothing of a pastor. (As I mentioned earlier, they
should know that I’m not a Roman Catholic priest, since I will not normally
wear a black shirt with the collar.) But what, you may ask, will that
accomplish? Well, with some people it may mean nothing. For others it will evoke
hatred and spite. But there are those who may be curious
and want to ask me who I am. There are others who
are in need and will ask me for help. Some may have questions about difficult
situations they are facing. I anticipate one day walking into Schnucks or
Barnes & Noble and having people actually recognize me. “That’s the pastor
of the church on the corner of Sappington and Eddie & Park.” That kind of visibility
and familiarity cannot hurt the church, can it? I suspect that it will greatly
increase my (and our) ability to evangelize people in this area.
Let me tell you few true stories to illustrate what
I have been saying. The first comes from Rev. Don Stone, pastor of Lehigh
Valley Presbyterian Church (PCA) in
has opened doors for him. One of my favorite
examples happened in a restaurant at one of our PCA General Assemblies.
Unfortunately, most men in our denomination do not wear ministerial uniforms.
Instead, as I noted earlier, we have adopted the attire of businessmen and
bankers (blue suits, starched shirts, red ties, etc.). On this particular
evening a
group of PCA ministers went to dinner together. Don
Stone was among them. He was the only one wearing his collar. They all sat
together at a large table for dinner at Steak & Ale. When they looked
around the restaurant they recognized a large number of fellow PCA ministers at
other tables in the restaurant. Again, Don was the only one with a collar.
When the waiter had made his way around most of the
table he stopped next to Don and asked him what kind of minister he was. After
Don explained, then the young man said that he had just started attending a
church and had some questions. They had a brief conversation and the waiter
left with the orders from their table. Later in the evening the
waiter returned and asked to speak with Pastor
Stone briefly. The young waiter told Don that he was having problems with his
co-workers and manager at the restaurant. They wanted him to do things that he
didn’t feel were morally acceptable and were harassing him because of his
Christian faith. Don gave him some encouragement and advice and told the man he
would pray for him. After they had all finished their dinners
and were ready to leave, the waiter returned yet
again. This time he was visibly agitated and told Don that just now he was facing
the kind of difficulties he described earlier. Discretely he got down on his
knees next to the table and Don prayed for the man. All the other ministers at
the table were amazed at what had just happened. Don asked them if they had
ever had something like that happen to them. They all said, “No.” He
then told them that this kind of thing happened regularly
because he wore his collar and was readily identifiable as a minister of the
Gospel. If Don hadn’t been at the table wearing his uniform that night the
young waiter may never have received any spiritual service from any of the
other ministers at the table because he would never even have known that they were
ministers. They were all dressed like business men.
Another similar story. This one from one of our
former seminary students, Rev. Jeff Steel. Jeff is the pastor of John Knox
Presbyterian Church (PCA) in
my office floor sobbing, confessing her sins and
wanting me to pray for her because she had been wasting away her life and knew
that she was living sinfully. I hugged her and prayed for her and her baby (her
boyfriend was wondering what in the
world was going on) and we departed. While I was downtown paying her bill, an
African-American lady was sitting on the sidewalk with a box of clothes because
her electric had been turned off. She owned a small thrift store in town and
has been there for 23 years. Her husband recently died and she was trying to
make some money to pay for his funeral. She was
waiting for a silly inspection before she could get her electric turned back
on. She saw me walk out and asked me where I was a minister. After I told her,
she said, “If you'll come get me, I'll go to your church. I don't have a ride,
but I'll go with anyone who will come get me.” My deacon was standing and
watching all of this in amazement. The only reason we even talked was because I
had on my collar and she recognized me as a minister. We exchanged numbers and
then departed.
Then we stopped at the
computer to a church and wondered if we could use
it. I told her that we are beginning a mercy training program to help people in
the community learn how to do resumes and teach them some simple computer
skills so that they could become more employable. I will never go out around
town without wearing my pastoral uniform. This story alone is proof that
ministers ought to be wearing them! People look for the church and her
ministers and can’t find us!
Rev. Burke Shade is another pastor who has been
wearing his pastor’s collar for about a year now. Burke is the pastor of Cornerstone
Reformed Church (CRE) in
student hangouts. I've been going to a Middle
Eastern gyro place for about a year and a half now. A Muslim owns the
restaurant. For the first year I witnessed to no one while eating there with
students. But then, after I started wearing my collar, students would all of a
sudden ask to join in on my discussions with whomever I was eating with! All
sorts of students would join ask to sit down, friendly types, angry types, etc.
We would have great discussions. I would almost always have an opportunity to
tell them of the Gospel are call them back to the church of their baptism or
youth. Even the owner and cook started treating me differently. Interestingly
enough, just two weeks ago, as I was preparing to leave, the owner asked me if
I was a pastor. I said that I was. Then he said, “I've never understood this
Christian thing of how God can become man. God is not man!” For the next
fifteen minutes, nobody came into the restaurant. So, in front of the visitor
to our church that I was eating with, I got to witness to this Muslim about the
Trinity, God's grace,
Jesus, the need for repentance from sin, and call
him to faith. This was all comfortably done in a relaxed atmosphere, because he
asked! And I had never witnessed to a Muslim before!
Another pastor says, “Being a pastor who travels, I
am always amazed when total strangers stop me to ask questions and discuss
their lives. They see my clerical collar and approach me as I board the
airplane, check into the hotel, or sit down to my meal; and they pour out their
souls, confiding to me their hopes, fears, and even their sins. On my travels
the pastoral collar has drawn its share of angry protests against
Christianity, but it has also provided wonderful
opportunities to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ.” Still another pastor tells
of an opportunity that would never have arisen without his being readily
identifiable as a
minister.
If I ever had any real doubts about dressing the
way I do, they were dispelled forever one spring day in
who were in the hall as I passed by. When I
returned to my room after lunch, I found the following note on the night stand
(and I offer it exactly as it was written): “Good morning again. My name is
____ ____ you're
housekeeper. If I may take a minute of you're time,
I need you're advice and blessing. I'm having my first child and haven't been
to church in a while cause of work. And I've sinned since this pregnancy by
drinking. Just sometimes I slip. Is their some kind of blessing or scriptures
you could share with me to clean my sinns and have an healthy baby and life. If
you come to an suggestion, I'm on the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd floors all day. Thank
you, _____ _____.” I searched until I found her, and sitting beside a vacuum cleaner
on an unmade bed, we read Scriptures and prayed
together. I don't know what ultimately happened to
her and her baby, but I know that I was blessed just by being there for her.
She would never have left the note if I had been wearing a suit and tie. All of
humanity relates to signs and symbols. On the Fourth of July, hats come off,
hands are placed over hearts, and some even shed a tear as the flag of the
New, God communicated by signs and symbols. Words
were not enough. Why should the church give up the realm of symbolism and
ritual to the State or the business world. It often seems as though Evangelical
Christians in
minister of the Gospel. Think of that. Think of
what such a visible presence might accomplish!
The pastoral uniform will set me apart from people
in the community; but that is because it is helpful for everyone to know the
office I hold, that they might benefit from it. The collar says, in effect,
“Here is one who speaks God’s Word. Here is the ambassador of Jesus Christ
among you.” I don’t know of a more effective way to make this known. I suppose
I
could make an announcement to that effect every
time I entered a building or ran into a group of people. But that would be obnoxious,
to say the least. Choosing not to pick from various neckties and business
suits, but rather deciding on a daily basis to wear the pastoral collar, I am
choosing to wear the uniform of the office of pastor. I say, “I am not ashamed
of the Gospel” with my mouth as well as with my apparel. Uniforms are worn to
identify the bearer as one who has been authorized to do a particular job. Thus
a ticket collector at the movie theater wears a uniform to identify himself as
a person having authority to demand tickets or collect money. The train or bus driver
wears a uniform to show that he has the authorization and training to drive the
train or bus. In a similar way, the pastoral collar will identify me as one
authorized to declare
the good news of Jesus Christ and to serve in his
Name those who need spiritual assistance.
If you would like more information about
Presbyterian Church, please write or call us at
http://www.prpc-stl.org/auto_images/1044287579Whyuniform.pdf