TODAY’S “COOL” CLERGY

Ministers should be held, and hold themselves, to higher standards than those expected of the people to whom they minister. Ministers of the Gospel are not newborns in Christ, just introduced to the “milk of the Word,” and just learning the “first principles” of the Word of God (1 Cor. 3:1-3; Heb. 5:12-14). They are men qualified by their being “apt to teach” and who are assumed to be “skillful in the word of righteousness” and in “rightly dividing the word of truth.” (Heb. 5:13; 2 Tim. 2:15; 4:2; 2:24).

It has never been more critically important than it is today that credibility be assigned to, and respect had for, pastors and their work. Sadly, this is not always the case. In 1985 67% of Americans surveyed expressed a high degree of trust and respect for pastors. Before then it was even higher. Since then, this percentage has fallen to 38%. Probably, the reason why the public doesn’t take pastors and their work as seriously as it should is because pastors don’t appear to take themselves or their work as seriously as they should. 

Not all, but far too many pastors bring a spirit of lightness to their ministry in and out of the pulpit; a lightness that God condemns and that is spiritually counterproductive. God has said, “Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! … Behold, I am against them that … cause my people to err by their lies, and by their lightness … therefore they shall not profit this people at all saith the Lord” (Jer. 23:1, 32). Just one of the ways pastors bring a spirit of lightness to the ministry is by the way they dress.

The modern trend of pastors is towards casualness bordering on sloppiness under the guise of being “relatable.”  Pastors seem to be fixated on being relatable to the lost world and making everything about the church relevant to the lost world. It’s disturbing to see pastors, young and not-so-young, accommodating this trend by adopting a quasi-worldly lifestyle for themselves and for the churches they pastor.

The first evidence of the downgrading of a ministry can usually be seen in how pastors begin to dress; gradually replacing suits and neckties with casual wear, in the pulpit and throughout the week as they go about their pastoral duties. (It’s too bad that men of God in the past, and some today, lack the astuteness of modern pastors who seem to equate wearing a suit and tie with “suffering for Christ sake“).

Paul said, “I magnify mine office” (Rom. 11:13). Pastors now seem determined to minimize theirs. Paul wanted to do everything he could to underscore in his mind and in the mind of others, how serious and important everything connected with God and the Gospel of Jesus Christ is. How pastors conduct and clothe themselves is part of how they magnify their office.

Pastors are “ambassadors for Christ,” “holding forth the Word of Life” on behalf of Him who is the "Head of the church" and "the “King of kings” (2 Cor. 5;20; Phil. 2:16; 1 Tim. 6:15). Their manner of dress ought to differ significantly from that of someone standing on a porch delivering Uber Eats.