How to dress for church meetings?

After reading a post (and comments) over at Nine Moons, I was reminded with something more relevant in my life. I attend a weekly church meeting in which some present wear Sunday clothes and others present wear jeans and t-shirts.

Should weekday church meeting attendees dress as they would for Sunday church meetings, or should dress options be completely open ended?

63 thoughts on “How to dress for church meetings?

  1. You seem to think I’m advocating an attitude that says, “That’s just the Prophet’s opinion, so I can disregard it.” Not one whit. I think it was important to follow Paul’s counsel in his time, just as I think it’s important to follow President Hinckley’s counsel today.

  2. Allow me to quote versus 5 and 7 from D&C 89

    That inasmuch as any man drinketh wine or strong drink among you, behold it is not good, neither meet in the sight of your Father, only in assembling yourselves together to offer up your sacraments before him.

    And, again, strong drinks are not for the belly, but for the washing of your bodies.

    Both versus taken together are interpreted to be a ban on any consumption of alcohol.

    I have been asked numerous times why the church continues to toe this line when medical science irrefutably proves that red wine in the amounts mentioned by me is extremely beneficial. The answer is an easy one: The Word of Wisdom is “adapted to the capacity of the weak and the weakest of all saints, who are or can be called saints.” (verse 3) In regards to alcohol consumption, the weakest of all saints would be the recovering alcoholic (in regard to alcohol that is). The best way to protect the recovering alcoholic (or the “perspective” alcoholic) is to simply have everyone abstain from all alcohol.

    In post #48 I merely used this Word of Wisdom example to illustrate what can easily happen when a person decides to start selectively obeying the word of God.

    Do I believe that the Word of Wisdom needs “updating”? No. Do I believe that scripture in general needs “updating” to fit with today’s society? No, quite the opposite. Personally, reading scripture is like reading old Conference talks . . . I often find it hard to believe that what I am reading was not written specifically for this moment in time or specifically for me.

    I just realized that this has all strayed far afield from the original post’s question:

    When it comes to meetings, we should dress appropriately.

    Church sports = church meetings = Don’t wear Sunday best!

    Ward activities = church meetings = wear clothes appropriate to the activity

    Formal meetings (Pres meetings, bishopric meetings, similar) = church meetings = Sunday best (if at the church, although I dress that way regardless of location for these unless the labor we’re performing is a hands on activity like roofing). That being said, I would much rather have the HPGL walk into the office covered in sweat and in his work clothes to report that the Jones’ roof has been repaired than to meet with a group of “well dressed” men who never lift a finger. The same is true of all the ward’s auxiliary and priesthood leaders or any ward member for that matter.

  3. Both versus taken together are interpreted to be a ban on any consumption of alcohol.

    Exactly. That’s it. No mention of whether wine is healthy or unhealthy

    I have been asked numerous times why the church continues to toe this line when medical science irrefutably proves that red wine in the amounts mentioned by me is extremely beneficial. The answer is an easy one: The Word of Wisdom is “adapted to the capacity of the weak and the weakest of all saints, who are or can be called saints.”

    The answer is even easier than that. The Lord never said we are to abstain from wine because its unhealthy. He simply said don’t take it.

  4. O.K. I haven’t had the time to read this whole thing; however, I would like to add my perspective.
    I am glad that our church has high standards. Letting our standards slide would be a mistake.

    If there is a question as to the proper attire for the meeting, come in church attire. My take: if you are having a church meeting with a member of the stake presidency or above, certainly dress in church attire unless it has been stated otherwise, and to be safe, I would do the same for the bishopric unless it is an impromptu situation that would prevent.

    I will guarantee that the Lord cares how you dress. Of course it goes without saying that he understands each individual situation, and that doesn’t mean he loves anyone less. Wouldn’t it be wrong for us to think less of anyone for their dress or to care for them less?

    In some of the accounts I’ve read when the Lord has appeared and his dress was described, he was dressed in a suit.

  5. Q: what kind of clothes does Heavenly Father wear?

    A: any kind Heavenly Mother tells him to wear.

  6. Ah. A sexist joke. The best kind. And here I thought recent conversation on here was getting too intellectual for our own good.

  7. Thanks.

    It’s a brand new baby joke.

    I feel like a published joke writer now.

    I think my wife found it a bit blasphemous though.

  8. Whoa, Kim, aren’t you being too harsh? Lots of men dress to please their wives. I don’t think that quite amounts to sexism.

  9. “If there is a question as to the proper attire for the meeting, come in church attire. My take: if you are having a church meeting with a member of the stake presidency or above, certainly dress in church attire unless it has been stated otherwise, and to be safe, I would do the same for the bishopric unless it is an impromptu situation that would prevent.”

    Ah, what a wonderful double standard.

    Garry, what makes one priesthood leader more worthy of ‘proper dress’ than another? Why is an elders quorum president ‘less important’ than a stake president?

  10. “Q: what kind of clothes does Heavenly Father wear?

    A: any kind Heavenly Mother tells him to wear.”

    Which one? Dressing to please your wife is hard when you have more than one wife. Maybe that’s why he sticks to the white robe.

  11. ltbugaf

    He wasn’t referring to the dressing to please, but rather what she tells him to wear, as if men only wear what their wives tell them to wear.

    I would never tell Kim what to wear, I might express my opinion, but he has much better fashion sense than I do.

    Kim just doesn’t like sexism on any side of the category, even joking. But he doesn’t hold it against anyone.

  12. “Garry, what makes one priesthood leader more worthy of ‘proper dress’ than another? Why is an elders quorum president ‘less important’ than a stake president?”

    You make a good point, you, of course, have to use your judgement. I don’t think it’s a matter of one being more worthy than the other. It’s just that generally as we get more local, the situations change.

    As for why an elders quorum president is less important than a stake president; I’m not in the elders quorum. Works for me.

  13. OH MY. I waded through all the comments here AND over at Nine Moons. I guess for me as long as I am clean and modest I think I’m fine. I do wear dresses/skirts to all Sunday functions or any meeting that will be held in the chapel. Other meetings I have dressed in slacks, sometimes jeans. It is my belief that we do shift our attitude when we change our clothing. The key thing for me is not what I wear but who I’m wearing it for. If I’m dressing up to impress or please my fellow ward members or even my leadership I’m missing the mark. If I dress my best out of respect for my Savior, that’s fine. I had a beehive teacher many moons ago teach me to first dress my thoughts and then let my wardrobe follow. Still works for me.

Comments are closed.