@Nehemiah6
I went to church for a little while to a church in Indonesia, where some individuals IMO, overemphasized dress and in a wrong. The deacons even had matching clothing made out of the same cloth for taking up the diaconate offering once a month or however often it was. Those who played music on stage had to wear white, long-sleeved shirts or blouses, and if I recall black slacks or skirts. Preachers typically wore ties, jackets, etc., probably suits most of the time.
The church was in a network of churches that really trained the musicians well. A friend told me a story about a man who joined the music team. He pulled a cart around looking for garbage to collect. Pemulung do that, typically to sell the plastic for recycling. Someone had thrown out a trumpet or clarinet, and he had learned to play it well. He may have just become a Christian--- I don't recall-- put he went to church and wanted to join the music team. When he went to the meeting, he decided not to join because he could not afford to buy a white, long-sleeved shirt. Now the happy ending to the story was that the other team members found out and bought him the uniform he needed to perform.
But my thoughts on this was why have a requirement like that that would hinder the poor from ministering? I looked around and saw all kinds of poverty in that country. I spoke with a driver about how common a meal chicken was (it is in Indonesia) who said he couldn't afford to eat meat every day. Sometimes, his family would eat eggs. That's not starving, but it is different from the lifestyle I was used to in the US, and some people have it much worse than that.
I don't know where you can get new slacks in the US for $18. I suspect you cold get them for just under that in Indonesia, which does have a textile industry, and that Bangladesh, Indian, and Vietnamese (thinking of clothing export countries) would have similar prices. That is an awful lot of money for some people. Minimum wage in Indonesia the last I looked it up was somewhere around $200 a month, maybe less, and that may have been in the big city.
I think churches should avoid practices that weed out the poor and only attract the middle class or wealthier, especially if they are in a geographic area where there are a lot of poor. Part of that may include dressing down. A culture of allowing people to wear 'street clothes' to church is a good thing. In the 1930's, the US had a culture of dressing up with three-piece suits. Nowadays, a lot of high school and college students do not own a suit, and may not even own dress shoes.
I see nothing in scripture that indicates that God prefers suits to sweatshirts. Which is holier, a 100% cotton t-shirt, or a poly-cotton blend? Which would a Hebrew be allowed to wear in the Old Testament?
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