I’ve never been very concerned about fashion. People don’t look to ministers to discover the latest trends when it comes to clothing. For the most part, I’ve sort of worn the same kinds of clothes those around me have worn. I haven’t been one who needed to shop in the fancy stores and I don’t give much attention to brands when it comes to clothing. Being short, I favored cowboy boots for a long time. They were the common footwear in the town where I grew up and once I became old enough to buy my own clothes, I usually had a pair of boots that added a half inch or so to my height. I used to wear Levis because they came in a size that I could wear right out of the store. Most pants have to have the legs shortened before I can wear them. However, over the years, Levis have changed their sizing and the quality of the jeans is nowhere as good as once was the case. A couple of years ago I tore through the knee of a pair of Levis the first time I wore them. To add insult to injury, I can no longer find my size in the men’s department at the store. I know wear a boy’s size 16 instead of a men’s size. I’m not smaller than I used to be, either.

The dress code for a minister has always been a bit different in different places. But for all of my career, I wore a dress shirt and a tie on Sunday. Most of the time I had a good suit for Sundays and in recent years I have had several. In the last couple of decades of my ministry I allowed myself to wear colored shirts with my suits and I wore sport jackets with dress slacks more often than I wore suits. Still, I kept a suit for weddings and funerals and other special occasions.

I’m definitely old school now. Younger ministers who are serving the congregations I have participated in don’t dress up very much. I can remember the days when I wore a dress shirt and a tie every day for work, but even I wasn’t doing that in the last years before I retired. Still, there were plenty of occasions where I wanted to dress in a professional manner and I kept my suits and dress shirts clean and ready to go in my closet.

Having worked with youth groups, I had no shortage of t-shirts. I had t-shirts from youth events and fund-raising efforts and dozens upon dozens of “a-thons” where you got a t-shirt for registering. I used to have a t-shirt from every United Church of Christ National Youth Event from the time of my ordination through the early 2000s. When I retired, I had a t-shirt from every Front Porch Coalition “Out of the Darkness” walk from the beginning of that organization. I used to have a half dozen t-shirts from various UCC national capital funds drives. I wore t-shirts and jeans on my days off and vacations for most of my life. A few years back an episode with skin cancer encouraged me to back off of short sleeve shirts. I cleared out quite a few of my t-shirts, but there were plenty of long-sleeved shirts to keep a drawer filled.

Our rental home is the first place we have lived that has a walk-in closet. It is fairly large and has a lot of hanger space as well as room for a large chest of drawers and plenty of shelves for shoes and hats and other items. Every day I walk into that closet and choose the clothes that I will wear. And every day I look at my suits hanging there. I haven’t put on a suit since I retired. A lot of that is the result of the pandemic. I haven’t been inspired to dress up to watch a worship service online. I plan to dress up for church when we are able to resume in-person worship, but I know I’ll stand out from the congregation. There aren’t many people who dress up for church any more. A few years ago I visited a colleague who retired a few years before we did and he told me that he was one of only two men in his congregation who wore a suit and tie to worship every week. Then the other man died and now he is the only one. He continues to wear the suit and tie in honor of his friend who did so for all of his life. Of course he is worshiping online these days, and I haven’t asked him if he puts on his suit. I know the answer.

I think that business is very slim for traditional men’s suit shops. Nobody wears that kind of clothes any more. I’ve seen clergy who wear clerical collars with work shirts and denim shirts and all kinds of shirts. Recently I watched an online preacher who had the tab for a clerical collar in his shirt pocket while he preached. He hadn’t even bothered to put it on. Casual clothes on ministers, bankers, doctors, lawyers and others has become very acceptable.

Also in that walk in closet are several clerical robes and stoles that I suspect won’t be getting any use in the years to come.

Meanwhile, I’ve settled in to work shirts and cargo pants everyday. If I’m out at the farm, which is fairly regularly, I can put on my muck boots and toss a couple of bales or walk through the pasture with my grandchildren. I have extra pockets to keep my plastic bag with my clean face masks handy. I can keep my keys and pocket knife and even my phone in my pockets and have them with me when I need them. The other day I hauled a trailer load of hay to the farm. I’ve been finding hay in the pockets of my sweatshirt ever since. In the summer when we are putting up wood for the winter my pockets will be full of wood chips from the chainsaw.

And when we can go back to church, I suspect I’ll get dressed up on Sundays even when I’m the only one. Then again, I’m pretty sure it would bother no one if I came in a work shirt and cargo pants.