Worship Leaders – What You Wear Is Important

As a pastor I am not only the primary worship leader of our congregation, but I am also the lead worshiper. Sure, I set the spiritual direction for our services, plan the details, and preach the sermon. But I also engage in worship during the service just like every one else. I sing, I listen, I pray, and I follow the leadership of others. Hence, I am the worship-leader and the lead-worshiper.

As a worshiper I can testify that one of the great blessings of a church service is undistracted worship. And one of the great hindrances to a church service is distracted worship. One of the greatest distractions to worship can be the way Christians dress, especially those who are most visible to the church body. Leaders’ apparel can either facilitate worship or hinder worship. So this post is targeted mainly for the leaders of Redeemer Church so that we can continue in undistracted worship of our Savior. * How we dress outside of church gatherings is equally important, but I will restrict this post to dealing with the worship services. These four principles should help you in your clothing choice for Sunday mornings:

• Humility – As a worship leader, your job is to point people to God. Through your leadership, you are essentially instructing people, “Look to God. Cast your eyes upon the Lord. Worship Him.” But when you adorn yourself in a way that people’s eyes are captivated by your dress you are telling them, “Look to me. Cast your eyes upon me. Give me attention.” The humble leader does not want to steal any attention or glory from the Lord by distracting His children from worshiping Him.  Ask yourself the question, “Am I pointing people to myself or Christ?”
• Modesty – Have you ever attended a worship service where you had to close your eyes through the singing portion of the service, not because you were worshiping at an intense level but because you were tempted to sin whenever your eyes looked toward the stage? Some of you surely have had that experience. The last thing a spiritual leader should ever do is tempt another believer to sin during the most important worship hour of the week. Modesty in the way we dress is crucial. Ask yourself, “Is my apparel modest?”
• Excellence – From Genesis to Revelation, one key principle of worship is that we are to give God our very best in everything. Spiritual leaders should dress in a way that honors our excellent God. But we must not confuse excellence with “formality” and “expensive.” Formality and expense are not primary in a leader’s clothing decision. Excellence is. Excellence is the possession and display of a high standard of quality. The mentality of excellence is this: “I want to give God my best today in what I wear.”
• Example – The people you lead learn from you. They learn from what you say, how you sing, and what you wear. God has sovereignly placed you in a position of leadership so that His people can follow your example. When you consider your apparel for Sunday mornings you should keep in mind that others will be aware of your dress and in some way be personally impacted by it. So one of the questions you can ask yourself is this: “Am I setting a good example for others to follow with my apparel?”

Humility, Modesty, Excellence, & Example are principles for God-glorifying apparel. I trust they will help you in your clothing choices when you lead others in worship.

by Ryan Limbaugh