I just left church and was so disappointed in the appearance of those running the service. It was youth Sunday; the minister had on jeans and thus, so did everyone else. Now there are two schools of thought on this attire in a sanctuary.
One thought is that in order to be effective at reaching youth, you have to meet them at their level. Now this doesn’t just apply to church, you often see it happen in schools too. Teachers dress like the kids with jeans and cool sneakers. But if you work in a school and/or visit one, you will often hear the “casually dressed” teacher reprimanding the kids and fighting to get their attention. Okay, I’m showing my bias already.
Now, the second school of thought is mine. Shocker! If you want kids to develop as responsible adults, they should have a good understanding of what is expected of them and thus, they have to “see it to be it”. I think that when adults try to dress like kids in certain environments:
a) It reduces the authority and effectiveness of the adult, as already noted above in the teacher example.
b) It minimizes the importance of the event, making it more casual than it should be. For example, I was at a funeral awhile back and a woman and her child came in with jeans (and she even had on a backless shirt). It seemed so disrespectful and inappropriate. It was a funeral not a picnic.
c) It prevents our youth from knowing what appropriate attire is for different occasions. I have employers who talk to me about kids who come to interview in jeans. We have now given them a false sense of appropriateness for their attire. Of course, if you only see adults in jeans, you will think that you can wear jeans anywhere – church, funerals, weddings, and even, interviews! Remember when you were a kid? You knew what occasions would require you to put on the good slacks and button-down shirt or wear a dress. And honestly, we all know that, we actually conduct ourselves based on our attire. Our youth usually have better behavior when their attire is not their everyday dress. They know that the event is special and it will require them to be on their best behavior when they have to dress “up” for it. And dressing “up” for it, often means imitating the look of the adults.
So that’s my two cents. What do you think? Please comment below.
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