Back in the sixties, one of the parishioners on leaving the auditorium expressed himself in no uncertain terms that he was really worked up because one of the young men had worn jeans to the church service. During that same time period, my son had it pointed out to him by the pastor that his hair had gotten quite long, and suggested to him that it might be time to visit the barbershop.
Contrast that with this. We had a guest pastor preach for us. He noted, before getting into the sermon, that it had been a long time since he had seen so many ties as he looked over the congregation. His church is located in California. Maybe that explains the difference.
But the real indication of the changing times occurred just a week or so ago. The young people of the church were in charge of the Sunday morning service. Everything except the sermon was in their charge. One of the young men was assigned the duty of the offering. It is our custom to have one of the deacons explain the purpose of the offering and then pray before the offering is taken. That was the job of this young man. He mounted the chancel and walked over to the lectern wearing shorts and sweat sox and sneakers. Mind you, this was in November when the weather is in the low 50’s. I leaned over to the lady that sits next to me and whispered that I thought his clothing was a little casual. She said she knew the family of the boy, and that he is very warm blooded. I wonder if there is anything in the Bible that addresses the matter of how one should dress for worship in church.
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We have very few ties in our church (mostly slacks and button-down/polo shirts, occasional jeans), but our (young -- just turned 30?) pastor is always suited up on sunday mornings. He tried a sweater and no tie once, and I think he took some heat for it.
My take is this: this is not something that is laid out hard and fast in scripture, but something that is truly culturally relativistic. Whatever the culturally accepted range around the norm is, any deviation beyond that will draw attention, and be distracting from worship. So the shorts-sneakers guy in your church was sending a message with his appearance. Whether he wanted to or not, he was speaking to the congregation with more than just his voice. So if the message that got sent was the message he wanted to send, and if the message that got sent was a correct and biblically appropriate message that needed to be sent, then good for him.
But I'm guessing he was either unaware that he was sending a message ("Wow, I've never noticed anybody else's clothes as standing out, and I never thought that such a thing could be distracting"), or perhaps even inconsiderate that he was being distracting ("I'm going to dress how I like to dress, and if that causes problems for others, well that would be their problem, not mine").
Either situation I think would warrant a conversation from a friend that he wouldn't feel threatened by.
I wasn't expecting a three point sermon in response! I think you are correct, I don't think the boy considered his attire unusual, and the adult leader of the group would have suggested someone else for the job if she was concerned about his appearance. I guess it is my problem.
I didn't include this in my post, but at the same time as your dad's hair was a subject for our pastor, the Calvin Concert Band was making a trip to California. Spoelhof, the then president of the college, gave them a send off speach. He pointed out that they were ambassadors of the school, the trip was more than a display of their musical ability. It was a PR event of no small consequence. Therefore, he laid down the rule that all the boys with long hair were to get it cut off if they wanted to join the band on the trip. Your dad got his hair cut!!!
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