What the minister wears while performing his official duties is more important than many of us might imagine. When I came to Arizona in 2013, this congregation was used to having its pastor wear a suit, a nice suit, every Sunday. I did not own a suit like that, nor did I think that wearing one would help change the culture. So I preached my first sermon in a button-down shirt and tie, not a bow tie, and without a jacket. Several months later, I took off the tie and simply preached in a button-down. I preached one Sunday with the shirt untucked, which made me uncomfortable. As reformation proceeded in the congregation, the changes were reflected—perhaps too subtly for many to realize—in what I wore on Sunday.
After two years, we bought hymnals for the church, began using a modest but explicitly Reformed liturgy for the service, and I put back on a tie. As the worship became more consistently biblical, I wore a jacket with the tie. But I did not think then, and I certainly do not believe now, that the pastor should dress like a businessman. I am not the CEO of this organization. I am not running a company. I am a minister of Jesus Christ, a slave representing the kingdom of heaven, called to pray, teach, and care for this flock. So after a lot of thinking, studying, praying, and conversation, and with the Session’s blessing, in December of 2016, I took off the jacket and put on a preaching robe for the first time.
Presbyterian Churches do not have a dress code for their ministers. But though there is not a formal standard, it is unlikely you will see a Presbyterian minister wearing skinny jeans and flip-flops in the Lord’s Day service. In many Reformed denominations, the minister usually wears a jacket and tie on Sundays. Some might preach without a tie, but the jacket and tie are the unofficial uniform. Relatively few ministers wear a Genevan robe regularly, though they used to be very common in Presbyterian churches. Only three or four of the thirty churches in our presbytery use the robe regularly.
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