Style Issues

I woke up today and knew I had a potentially difficult choice to make. There was a funeral at church today and I was looking at my closet trying to decide what to wear. And there it was, the collared shirt I had purchased before I had made the trek out East. I did buy the royal blue shirt in an effort to put a bit of my own style in the shirt. But that still didn't quite make it "my style."

When it comes to collared shirts, style is more than just the cut of the clothing and the color. It's about pastoral style. What does a collared shirt stand for? Part of it is authority. I think a collared shirt is a way to identify pastors or in my case, pastor wannabes. I have no idea why anyone would wear one otherwise. They're incredibly uncomfortable and not exactly fashionable.

Collared shirts also a symbol of high church, of the "old guard" (not meaning you need to be old to enjoy wearing one, I have plenty of friends my age who like wearing them). They're classical and something you'd expect to see in an old, gothic cathedral as opposed to a suburban mega church.

And the question came to me today, should I wear the collar or not? And it's a tough question for me. Wearing a collar can be nice because it is a symbol of authority and it's less likely that I'll get mistaken for an 18 year old. But at the same time, I also think the collar can turn some people off. And while I have great respect for high church and traditional services, I'm more of the contemporary, low church person myself. Who is someone my age more likely to approach, a person with a collar or a person without? I don't know. But I do know one thing, I have to be true to my own style. I need to be authentic. If I wear the collar only because I have to, I think that's both doing damage to my "image" and to the perceptions of the collar. But if I don't wear the collar even though I feel called to, that's not right either.

So, what did I do today? I wore the collar. It just felt like the right thing to wear. Is it my style? Maybe only on days with funerals. But being a pastor is a part of my identity and a collar, whether worn or not, comes with that identity. As I grow into this role, my pastoral style may change and I may find myself wearing my collar more. Or maybe I won't wear it at all. That is yet to be determined. I just hope I can be at a church that lets lets me be the one who determines my pastoral style.