Dale Partridge - Why I Will Now Wear a Clerical Collar

00:00:00.000 Well, praise be to God, and I am so excited to take us through this sermon, which is unexpected

00:00:13.700 because we're in Romans 13, but I'm not preaching on Romans 13 today. I said that last week,

00:00:19.380 didn't I? We keep pushing back Romans 13, one through two. I'm preaching on pastoral

00:00:28.120 authority and dress today. And it's because I'm wearing a clerical collar today. And it is also

00:00:35.200 the first time that I've worn a clerical collar at church. And so I wanted to make sure that we

00:00:40.500 really understood the theological, historical, logical, practical reasoning behind that. And I

00:00:51.420 I think that it's one of those things that, in America, a clerical caller can give, you know, the modern Christian American the willies.

00:01:00.580 You know, it makes you feel like we're on our way to the Vatican.

00:01:03.220 And so I want to have a discussion about that.

00:01:07.900 Now, nobody in our congregation over the last month or so, as I've been talking about the clerical caller, has expressed any concerns to me, which was encouraging.

00:01:19.760 but again I recognize that even small changes you know a couple months ago we started kneeling

00:01:25.960 a couple weeks ago we started raising our hands during the doxology and sometimes those little

00:01:32.740 things can unsettle Christians because it might be shepherding them or moving them too quickly

00:01:39.500 toward a different experience of Christianity that we might be familiar with. Oscar Wilde once said

00:01:47.940 quote, a gentleman is someone who never insults another person unintentionally, end quote.

00:01:54.000 And I don't want any of these practices to insult the sensibilities, the spiritual sensibilities

00:02:00.480 of anybody in our congregation. And so my hope as a pastor is to take the congregation where Christ

00:02:08.960 is leading me. That's what an under shepherd does. An under shepherd is studying the word of God. 0.99

00:02:15.420 They're studying the doctrines of the gospel, and they're taking the congregations to where Christ is.

00:02:22.060 And my aim today is to provide a little bit of clarity around some of these practices, especially the clerical caller.

00:02:30.520 And I want to eliminate, well, I'll say this, I don't just want to eliminate misunderstanding.

00:02:35.620 I actually want to get you to the place that I'm at, which is I believe we should be advocating for more pastors to be wearing a clerical caller.

00:02:45.420 Now, imagine that you're on a sinking ship. 0.92

00:02:49.880 Just, it's cold, the boat's going down, and you, in the midst of the chaos, you see someone

00:02:55.760 in a uniform that wearing an orange life vest that says, rescue, emblazoned on the back

00:03:01.580 of it.

00:03:02.620 Instantly, what happens?

00:03:03.900 Well, you know who to turn to for help in that particular moment.

00:03:09.780 Their clothing declares their role, their duty, their responsibility.

00:03:16.100 Now, the same principle applies to a pastor that's wearing a clerical collar.

00:03:19.960 It's not about drawing attention to oneself.

00:03:23.480 It's about making it clear to those in need who is qualified, responsible, and ready to help.

00:03:32.660 That's what it does.

00:03:34.540 And as I mentioned a few weeks ago, if you were at our annual members meeting,

00:03:38.400 one of my friends, pastor up in the Northeast, but was originally from England,

00:03:46.920 the first time he wore his clerical collar, he was on a train.

00:03:51.680 And a woman came up to him and said,

00:03:55.760 Pastor, can you remind me why I should continue to live?

00:03:59.540 and this woman was truly on that metaphorical ship sinking she was falling she was entering

00:04:12.260 into tragedy and the lord used calvin my friend uh to save him or to save that young lady from

00:04:19.940 tragedy he prayed with her he affirmed her in the gospel of truth talked about jesus and the value

00:04:26.240 of her life. I also heard recently of another pastor who regularly visits assisted living homes

00:04:34.200 and many of the residents at the assisted living homes have Alzheimer's or dementia and he says

00:04:43.940 that they rarely remember him but when I'm wearing my clerical collar they always know a pastor is

00:04:50.880 speaking to them. And I thought that was a really beautiful testimony. The question I have for you

00:04:58.080 and I want to begin with today is, are pastors public servants? Are we considered public

00:05:05.540 servants? When I check out at the barbershop, the cashier always looks at me and she says,

00:05:12.200 are you a first responder, police, fire, military? That's what she does at the checkout, right? And I

00:05:16.720 said, yes, I am a first responder. I'm a pastor. She usually laughs at me and doesn't give me the

00:05:21.740 discount. But when I entered into ministry in 2017, I learned that when a tragedy strikes,

00:05:30.580 you get really three people that show up. You get police, paramedics, and pastors. That's who's at

00:05:38.320 a scene when tragedy strikes. I remember arriving at the hospital in Oregon. One of our members

00:05:45.460 had an emergency surgery for an ectopic pregnancy. And I went to the front desk and I told them that

00:05:51.600 I was their pastor and she asked for some form of verification. I happened to have a business card

00:05:57.100 on me, so I pulled that out and that was sufficient. But when I was in the waiting room, I remember

00:06:01.580 seeing another pastor come in from a Lutheran church and he was wearing a clerical collar.

00:06:08.000 And the woman at the front desk didn't ask for any verification. Well, why? Well, because his

00:06:14.140 uniform communicated the role that he was playing. So clothing is a powerful tool. It communicates

00:06:22.520 something very important. In fact, in Scripture, we have an entire theology around clothing.

00:06:30.220 There are books written on a theology of clothing. There's priestly garments in Exodus 28,

00:06:36.120 2-4. There's wearing black and sackcloth around mourning to communicate the internal state of

00:06:43.980 your soul. You can see that in Genesis 37, 34, Esther 4, 1, Jonah 3, 5 through 6. We have head

00:06:50.700 coverings, and some of you ladies affirm head coverings in 1 Corinthians 11, 2 through 16.

00:06:56.880 We have symbolic robes of righteousness that Christ gives us, his righteousness given to us

00:07:02.720 by faith. We see that in Isaiah 61, 10, Revelation 7, 13 through 14. So that's just a small micro

00:07:10.340 sample of the theology of clothing, but God uses clothing throughout the scriptures to communicate

00:07:18.320 certain truths, certain positions of authority, certain responsibilities, certain postures of

00:07:26.400 the soul. Now, when it comes to pastoral dress, I think there's a risk. And here's the risk.

00:07:32.920 Matthew 23, five through seven, Jesus says, quote, they do all their deeds to be seen by others

00:07:41.800 for they make their phylacteries broad. Now phylacteries are these like little strings

00:07:47.500 that would hold scrolls that are like the Old Testament, New Testament, the law. I wouldn't

00:07:52.760 have the New Testament, it would have the law, have the Old Testament, maybe in the Psalms, 0.88

00:07:56.700 and it would have the law of God and they would tie it onto their waist or their wrists or around

00:08:01.580 their neck, and it was a way for someone to identify a priest. Now, he's talking about doing

00:08:09.780 that broad. As the law became more burdensome to them, they would wear these big, ridiculous-looking 0.98

00:08:18.200 phylacteries to kind of draw attention to themselves. He goes on, Jesus goes on here to say, 0.90

00:08:24.380 it says, and make their fringes long, and they love the places of honor at feasts in the best

00:08:30.540 seats in the synagogue, in the greetings in the marketplaces, and being called rabbi by others,

00:08:37.080 end quote. Okay, just like you might have like a power-tripping cop that wants the uniform

00:08:47.280 just to abuse authority or to have that sense of authority over people, you also can get

00:08:53.140 power-hungry or attention-needy pastors who only will wear something like a clerical collar

00:09:01.500 in order to receive praise and attention. That's a real genuine temptation of anybody wearing any

00:09:10.560 uniform with authority. And Jesus is not condemning the use of the clothing to identify

00:09:20.020 a particular individual. He's warning against a prideful heart that can come behind it. He's

00:09:26.360 warning against also immodesty, where you're kind of leaning into extravagance. Now, for a moment,

00:09:35.820 I wanted to shift the discussion to clothing as a means of communicating authority,

00:09:42.880 especially in a casualized culture that we live in. I remember a friend of mine who

00:09:49.000 he's a police officer and he said 99% of authority on the job is communicated

00:09:56.880 by the uniform. It's not the gun, it's the clothing. And I thought that was really fascinating

00:10:03.140 and I think it's true. It's the uniform that communicates authority far more than the gun does.

00:10:09.740 Now, here's the question that's remaining at the core of the discussion today.

00:10:16.040 Why is it not odd to us?

00:10:18.880 Why is it not strange to us that police and fire and military and paramedics and doctors and judges and postal workers and airline pilots and even fast food employees can wear clothing that identifies their authority to the public?

00:10:38.840 but it feels odd to us when a pastor does the same.

00:10:43.100 That's the core question that I want to present to the church today.

00:10:48.960 Now, spiritually speaking, I don't believe that this is an accident,

00:10:53.080 that we would affirm every other category except for the church. 0.94

00:10:59.020 I believe it's part of a subtle strategy of the enemy

00:11:01.460 to strip away any visible identification of God's representatives in a broken world.

00:11:07.240 Fantastic work.

00:11:08.840 In terms of just eliminating any visual presence.

00:11:13.320 We actually see this in church buildings as well.

00:11:16.620 Okay, you can, if you can make a church not look like a church,

00:11:21.480 then it reduces the visible dominion of the kingdom of God in a particular city.

00:11:28.040 No one knows that we're a church in here.

00:11:30.140 We're inside of a college.

00:11:32.140 By God's grace, in the next decade, we'll build a church that looks like a church with a cross on the top of it.

00:11:37.160 And I'm tired of these buildings that look like, you know, glorified mini malls that have big giant glass here and big giant there.

00:11:45.340 And it looks essentially like any business could be in it.

00:11:48.180 And we're frustrated with that reality.

00:11:50.120 And we want to have these beautiful architecture that matches the beauty of the gospel.

00:11:55.660 You go to Utah for a second and you quickly know who has dominion.

00:12:00.220 Why?

00:12:01.220 Because there's Mormon temples and Mormon churches everywhere.

00:12:05.620 nowhere. Now, without visible identification, without that, the public has less opportunity

00:12:17.820 to seek help, spiritual help. It has fewer reminders of the kingdom of God, that it's

00:12:24.120 present and around us. And I believe this effort for kind of religious markers to fade

00:12:32.180 in society. They're kind of fading into obscurity. It's rooted in our culture's obsession with

00:12:40.180 egalitarianism and sameness. Let me explain this. Imagine walking into a museum, and this museum,

00:12:48.000 let's just say that it's relocating and moving from one building to another, and every masterpiece

00:12:53.800 has been kind of stripped of its frame. Every plaque has been removed. Every sculpture has

00:12:58.600 been taken off its pedestal all of the beautiful artifacts are taken out of their glass boxes and

00:13:03.480 they're kind of thrown into the corner and with a bunch of desks and chairs and office supplies

00:13:09.240 and they're all just sitting over there all of those beautiful artifacts that are just sitting

00:13:16.560 there the the beauty the significance of those artifacts and the sense of awe it's all gone

00:13:24.780 not because the art or the value of these things has changed.

00:13:28.980 Nothing's changed about them.

00:13:31.080 But the awe is all of a sudden gone

00:13:33.600 because essentially the context is changed.

00:13:41.880 The distinguishing marks of honor are removed.

00:13:44.700 The frames, the pedestals, the glass boxes are removed.

00:13:48.780 And that's what our society is doing to itself.

00:13:51.260 it's uh we're stripping away these key societal markers of honor and integrity and responsibility

00:14:00.960 and respect we're taking down monuments and removing distinctions and removing titles and

00:14:07.240 erasing traditions we're leveling everything just to kind of be the same the sirs and the

00:14:13.600 mams have gone away the titles of mr and mrs have disappeared dress codes have been eliminated

00:14:20.680 you know head coverings among women generally in the church are gone uniforms are gone school

00:14:28.340 uniforms are gone monuments are being pulled down everywhere in the standards of weddings

00:14:35.440 or funerals if you've been to them they've just been casualized just into nothingness liturgies

00:14:41.020 have been simplified sermons have been made shorter there's so many things that we've just

00:14:45.960 kind of flattened society to be just kind of this amalgam androgyny unisex mess and what's the cause

00:14:54.640 what's the root cause of this i believe that it stems from this deep sense of insecurity

00:15:03.920 and pride that can't embrace submission and honor and respect for positions of other people in

00:15:14.880 authority. And it's why we have resisting arrests have gone up astronomically over the last 25

00:15:20.980 years. There's just no respect for authority. They can't understand the idea of just submitting

00:15:27.360 to somebody else. And so to cope with our societal insecurities, we minimize positions

00:15:36.380 of authorities. We strip away these symbols of distinction in an effort to make us all feel

00:15:42.140 the same. That's, I think, really the underlying reality. So this desire for sameness that we have

00:15:50.860 has made us believe that casualism actually communicates closeness and love more than

00:15:57.820 formality. Oh, you know, hey, if I come over to your house and I'm wearing, you know, sweats and

00:16:04.160 a shirt that I clean my garage in, man, we're real close. You know, now we really like each other.

00:16:10.400 No.

00:16:12.000 No, it's actually disrespectful.

00:16:13.880 It shows, I don't care what you think at all.

00:16:18.920 In some perverted way, we have believed that stripping away formal distinctions proves how much we care for a person.

00:16:25.960 It does not.

00:16:27.080 No.

00:16:28.320 We somehow believe that informality is authentic.

00:16:32.200 Right?

00:16:32.520 That's our kind of rally cry of this generation.

00:16:35.120 You know, where's my, you know, barn wood, you know, set behind me?

00:16:42.860 Old wood, you know, it's authentic.

00:16:46.220 Okay, this is a lie.

00:16:49.580 True closeness isn't found in erasing distinctions.

00:16:54.580 It's not that you're your kid's friend.

00:16:57.560 That doesn't make you closer. 0.96

00:16:59.720 It makes you perverted.

00:17:01.140 No, the true closeness comes in embracing the authority structures and respecting them according to the word of God.

00:17:17.240 Without distinctions, we forget who to follow.

00:17:20.360 We forget who is responsible.

00:17:24.280 We forget who to honor, who to trust.

00:17:26.420 and we live in a society right now if you're not aware that has massive institutional distrust

00:17:32.980 we don't trust anything we don't trust any company we don't trust the medical system

00:17:39.240 we don't trust you know the church we've just lost massive trust and we're kind of

00:17:46.300 deconstructing everything it's this kind of decentralization this democratization this

00:17:52.400 kind of leveling down of all things. And it leaves us in this lost sea of sameness with no landmarks

00:18:01.420 to go to. Like very little structure. It's even hard for us to comprehend that because we've been

00:18:09.700 swimming in it for so long that we think it's normal. And so in order to restore this for our

00:18:15.780 Kids, it's going to take some work.

00:18:18.640 It's going to take restoring order from previous generations.

00:18:25.060 Paul says in Romans 13, 7, which maybe one day we'll get to,

00:18:29.360 says, pay to all who is owed to them.

00:18:32.980 Taxes to whom taxes are owed.

00:18:34.880 Respect to whom respect is owed.

00:18:37.180 Honor to whom honor is owed.

00:18:39.500 End quote.

00:18:40.880 Now, to answer more directly the question that I asked earlier,

00:18:45.780 I believe modern Protestants, especially, struggle with pastoral identification for three reasons.

00:18:52.920 First, as I said, a uniform communicates authority.

00:18:59.440 Christians, and society at large, have generally rejected the idea that a pastor has any real authority.

00:19:08.440 And I believe this is the result of a few reasons, and I want to talk about them.

00:19:12.820 First, I think it's the mass decentralization of the church.

00:19:16.640 This independent church is everywhere, and non-denominationalism is not helping anybody.

00:19:22.140 Okay, as you guys know, we're in the middle of joining the CREC.

00:19:25.960 It's a multi-year process.

00:19:27.960 We do not want to be an independent church.

00:19:30.600 The non-denominationalism creates this kind of sea of independent churches that are never connected together,

00:19:36.000 that have no authority, structure, or accountability, and I believe that's part of this problem.

00:19:42.360 In America, the role of a pastor is really kind of reduced to this passion position.

00:19:49.580 It's like a vocation that kind of can be interchangeable.

00:19:52.960 You might just start and do that for a season of your life, and then you leave.

00:19:56.840 I would say that a pastor in America has almost the same amount of respect as like a life coach.

00:20:03.280 It's embarrassing and sad.

00:20:04.800 some of you might have noticed uh in our constitution it says quote ordination is for

00:20:15.300 life end quote and we say that because romans 11 21 or 11 29 which i preached about not too

00:20:24.120 long ago it says for the gifts and the calling of god are irrevocable end quote

00:20:29.800 and so if you're ordained of god that's why also god warns don't be quick don't be hasty to lay

00:20:37.920 your hands on somebody if you're ordained of god you're a slave of god yes you may take a

00:20:47.180 sabbatical that's that's a real thing i think you could back with scripture but you're ordained for

00:20:51.000 life you will spend your entire life in ministry you want to see the people who were falsely ordained

00:20:57.600 it's the people who quit. The people who were in it for three years or five years or seven years

00:21:02.940 and quit. In fact I think I don't know what the stats are exactly but I know that a mass amount

00:21:08.680 of pastors quit within five years. Lots of false ordinations that are going on.

00:21:16.300 Now when you combine this kind of low view of pastoral calling with the kind of hyper

00:21:21.600 casualization of our culture you begin to understand how pastoral dress that communicates

00:21:26.100 authority can feel strange. Now, Ephesians 4, 11 through 12 says that God has appointed certain

00:21:36.920 individuals. Quote, and he himself, talking about Christ or God, gave some to be apostles,

00:21:44.960 some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints,

00:21:50.180 for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. That is beyond the

00:21:56.320 The ministry of the prophets and the apostles.

00:21:58.600 God has given the church pastors, teachers, and evangelists.

00:22:03.440 In fact, pastor-teachers is one word in the Greek, so it's really a pastor-teacher and evangelists.

00:22:10.540 He's given the church those particular individuals for your edification.

00:22:18.240 More than that, those people are ambassadors.

00:22:22.000 They're representatives.

00:22:23.200 They're officials.

00:22:23.820 They hold an office to represent Christ in the public square.

00:22:29.000 We have been granted in the pastorate a real pastoral or spiritual authority to speak on behalf of Christ,

00:22:37.480 to administer the sacraments, to assure people in their faith, to teach, to correct, to rebuke, to even excommunicate.

00:22:46.580 That is an authority that we have, again, what happens today is people just get upset.

00:22:51.300 They just leave the church.

00:22:52.380 They go to the church down the street.

00:22:53.820 There's no authority.

00:22:55.440 There's no respected boundaries.

00:22:57.880 You call the church over there and you tell them what's going on,

00:22:59.940 they go, ah, I don't care.

00:23:01.540 I'm glad we have another family at our church.

00:23:04.320 It's an absolute mess.

00:23:10.600 One of the pastoral epistles,

00:23:12.520 after Paul clarifies morality and gospel doctrine,

00:23:14.940 he tells Titus, quote,

00:23:18.200 Declare these things, exhort and rebuke with all authority.

00:23:22.620 Let no one disregard you, end quote.

00:23:25.820 Peter says to pastors, shepherd the flock of God that is among you,

00:23:30.440 exercising oversight, not under a compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you.

00:23:35.280 Not for shameful gain, but eagerly.

00:23:38.400 Not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock.

00:23:45.140 Acts 20, 28, Paul says to the pastors in Ephesus,

00:23:48.600 pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock

00:23:52.600 in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers

00:23:56.240 to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.

00:24:00.500 Hebrews 13, 17 says to Christians,

00:24:03.800 obey your leaders and submit to them, 0.87

00:24:07.740 for they are keeping watch over your souls

00:24:11.300 as those who will have to give an account.

00:24:14.880 Let them do so with joy and not with groaning.

00:24:19.500 1 Thessalonians 5, 12-13, Paul tells Christians how to view ministers, saying,

00:24:24.700 We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord,

00:24:32.660 and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work.

00:24:40.240 James 3.1 says,

00:24:41.260 Not many of you should be a teacher, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.

00:24:51.580 So in a real sense, a pastor is holy.

00:24:56.300 And by holy, I mean set apart for a particular work.

00:25:01.520 He is called.

00:25:04.100 He is equipped.

00:25:07.420 He is trained.

00:25:09.040 He is qualified. He is ordained. He is accountable.

00:25:15.360 And I would also say he is owned. He is owned.

00:25:20.180 2 Timothy 2, 24-25, Paul writes about Timothy's pastoral work.

00:25:28.020 And he says, quote,

00:25:29.200 And the Lord's slave, speaking to pastors or to Timothy about his pastoral work,

00:25:34.580 The Lord's slave must not be quarrelsome, but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness, end quote.

00:25:48.060 So pastors, according to Scripture, I think, well, one, we're all slaves of Christ.

00:25:53.940 But the Scriptures make a very clear argument that there is greater accountability for pastors.

00:26:00.240 And so we are slaves of Christ.

00:26:04.580 In fact, the very purpose of the clerical collar is to demonstrate slavery.

00:26:11.760 A Presbyterian pastor here in Arizona, down in Queen Creek, once said,

00:26:16.500 quote, the collar is not a sign of superiority, but of slavery.

00:26:21.720 And honestly, the collar isn't as much of a reminder for you as it is for me.

00:26:29.080 In fact, when I put this on this morning, it was such a helpful reminder.

00:26:34.580 that I am not my own. And that is a reminder that pastors need today, because pastors have become

00:26:42.320 charlatans, platformers. You know, it's a very real risk. It reminds me to not speak

00:26:53.320 for myself, but to speak on behalf of Christ.

00:26:57.580 now today i'm wearing a blue shirt today uh traditionally most clergy shirts are black

00:27:05.140 and they're black because they're symbolizing that you're dead that's the whole reason

00:27:10.740 for the black shirt and jacket and pants um and i don't know about you but i i find physical

00:27:21.160 reminders helpful you know some of you guys might have notes on your your you know your window or

00:27:26.260 your mirror in your bathroom. Some of you guys might have a particular piece of jewelry that

00:27:31.500 reminds you of something. Some of you might have a tattoo that reminds you of a particular truth

00:27:35.940 that you want to remember. That's what the clerical collar is. It's a powerful and useful tool

00:27:44.800 to express the holy authority of the pastoral office, but not just to the world, but to the

00:27:53.280 minister. To me, in this particular example. All right, the second reason why I believe Protestants

00:28:00.960 struggle with pastoral identification is because they think it looks Roman Catholic, okay?

00:28:11.200 Now, in the early church, pastors did not wear distinguishing attire, not clearly at least. But

00:28:17.900 several church fathers emphasized the importance of pastors wearing simple clothing. So the way

00:28:25.200 they would distinguish themselves is they would not look rich. Now, this was actually part of

00:28:32.100 kind of what led into the monastic movement, which is like you would try to be as poor as you could

00:28:38.260 in the poverty gospel. The poorer you are, the better you are because you can be like Christ 0.90

00:28:42.180 where you don't even have a house, you don't have anything. And that really led to the monastic 0.88

00:28:46.320 movement now in our casual culture even a suit even if it costs 250 bucks for a whole suit 0.97

00:28:55.520 can still make you look extravagant in our culture which is unfortunate we need to reverse that

00:29:00.900 so that you know wearing sweats to school as i see all these kids doing these days it's insane

00:29:05.800 but i think the principle of modesty remains valuable and pastors should aim for just like

00:29:15.160 uniform. Look at a police officer. It's not to look rich. It's to look functional. It should be

00:29:22.100 professional. It should be functional. It should be modest. You know, we don't need pastors, you

00:29:29.380 know, wearing $2,000 suits, $1,000 watches, $500 shoes. We don't need that. And by the way,

00:29:36.080 there are lots of pastors that do that. We also don't need big giant Roman hats or Eastern

00:29:42.360 orthodox hats and giant robes with chains and gold things

00:29:46.220 flying around everywhere. We don't need that either.

00:29:50.220 That's kind of what Jesus was talking about in Matthew 23.

00:29:53.480 It's, wow, how did you get that from the New Testament?

00:29:59.120 I understand that if you look at the Old Testament, you can see

00:30:02.540 and you can kind of make a correlation to the priesthood around

00:30:06.260 the ephod and the different elements of the pastoral dress

00:30:10.220 and the sash. I get that. But the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church

00:30:16.700 has gone even beyond what the Old Testament priests were wearing.

00:30:23.980 And so what we need is, again, functional attire that communicates office, it communicates

00:30:29.100 responsibility, it communicates authority. Now, as society gained complexity and size, as we grew

00:30:37.500 as a society, we needed more uniforms. There's actually a really great book that talks about

00:30:43.760 the development of uniforms. If you look back in like the Roman world, there wasn't a lot of

00:30:49.100 roles that required uniform outside of the military and magistrates.

00:30:53.380 But as society grows, it gets more complex. You know way more people and things blend together

00:31:00.860 and you need identification that helps and is useful it's a tool and during the 300s and 400s

00:31:09.840 pastors and teachers adopted what's called the pallium and this is kind of a cloak associated

00:31:13.740 with philosophers it had like a three-piece thing that you would have like a cross on

00:31:17.600 during the council of laodicea in 363 364 they actually issued a canon that required clergy to

00:31:29.380 wear modest and distinct clothing during worship services. After Constantine legalized Christianity

00:31:37.480 in Rome in the 4th century, early 4th century, clergy wore what was called an alb.

00:31:45.060 It's a white tunic. It symbolizes purity. It's kind of like a stole, you know, and you have this

00:31:52.640 stole that goes over your shoulders, around your head and neck, that was supposed to symbolize a

00:31:59.640 yoke. And you were like yoked to Christ. By the 6th century, most clergy would wear what's called

00:32:07.860 a cassock. If you've seen the movie The Matrix, Neo is wearing a cassock-looking thing. And

00:32:16.440 by that time, clerical garb had become fairly common in the 6th century, the 500s.

00:32:22.640 And the clerical collar, like the one that I'm wearing here,

00:32:27.460 it actually started under the Presbyterian church in the 1600s.

00:32:31.960 So we're taking a huge, long journey from the 500s to the 1500s,

00:32:36.420 a thousand years of change and shift that's going on here.

00:32:40.920 But they would wear what was called a cravat.

00:32:44.200 And a cravat was a neck scarf that would go under your collar.

00:32:51.240 Now, if you've seen any old paintings of a Reformed theologian like Charles Hodge or, you know, maybe Jonathan Edwards,

00:32:58.600 you're going to see their collar popped with a scarf around their neck.

00:33:02.600 And that wasn't something that everybody did. That was something that clergy did.

00:33:07.120 And on Sundays, those pastors would add to those collars what's called preaching tabs.

00:33:13.880 Now, again, these preaching tabs are two ribbons that hang down to the left and the right.

00:33:18.060 and academics wore them at that time and they would represent

00:33:22.060 Old Testament, New Testament or law and grace. So that was the

00:33:25.940 association there. They would often

00:33:29.880 preach in what is called vestments. Some, I would say most

00:33:34.080 you know, Orthodox Presbyterian churches, if you go to

00:33:37.920 like an OPC, Prescott Presbyterian, I don't know what Charlie preaches

00:33:41.940 in, but there are lots of men that wear vestments, a full black gown

00:33:45.740 It's called the Genevan robe.

00:33:48.500 You might see pictures of Martin Lloyd-Jones, the great doctor of theology.

00:33:52.980 He's wearing his Genevan robe when he preached in Europe.

00:33:59.620 And many of you guys have been to my house, and you've seen in my office on my wall,

00:34:03.100 I had the giant painting.

00:34:04.820 It's called Appointing Elders at a Scottish Kirk.

00:34:06.960 And it's a Presbyterian painting from the 1800s.

00:34:09.060 And it shows this old man who's an elder at the church.

00:34:12.480 and he's got his hands up and his robes flowing and he's got his preaching tabs on.

00:34:16.800 That was the common reality in the America that we lived in 100, 150 years ago.

00:34:26.280 Now, during the 1800s, the style for men to leave their collars up shifted

00:34:32.860 and the collars all of a sudden flopped down.

00:34:36.100 So the cravat was still wrapped there around the neck,

00:34:39.560 but they folded the collars down, leaving a little white piece in between the middle of

00:34:44.100 their collar. And that was the way that they would identify themselves as clergy. And that is how we

00:34:50.400 get the collar that we have today. Mine is essentially just a more developed expression

00:34:55.360 of the cravat. It's kind of emerged into a more functional reality. So what I want to say is that

00:35:04.080 clerical dress did not originate from Roman Catholicism by any means. Not by the Roman

00:35:08.920 catholicism that we think about today um nor was it this particular clerical collar an invention

00:35:15.340 of rome it was a total reformed presbyterian thing now clergy dress has been um a long-standing

00:35:25.780 tradition uh backed i think with biblical principles it's it's a you know i think a

00:35:32.160 modest adaptation. And I think it's, again, a helpful tool for public ministry. Now, the final

00:35:39.580 reason Protestants struggle with pastoral identification is because they can't find it

00:35:45.200 directly prescribed in Scripture. It's not in Scripture. So why are we doing it, right? That

00:35:52.340 is a very common thing and leads to a whole bunch of really weird things, okay? You might have been

00:35:59.540 a part of, you know, exclusive psalmody, no instruments group. It's a real group in the

00:36:07.580 church where they think singing the doxology is sinful because it doesn't say to sing things like

00:36:17.700 that. You're only allowed to sing hymns, which they would interpret as actually psalms. And you

00:36:24.900 can only sing psalms and you cannot use any instruments because it's not commanded in

00:36:28.940 scripture to use any instruments. The piano is sinful, right? So that is the kind of other end

00:36:34.980 of that spectrum. Now, there are two standards in the church. There's what's called the regulative

00:36:41.580 principle of worship, which states that we can only do what scripture prescribes. And then there's

00:36:48.740 the normative principle of worship, which says that we can do anything that scripture doesn't

00:36:55.900 condemn now i think both extremes are really dangerous okay one extreme is that you just end

00:37:02.940 up in a very strange legalistic we can only if it's not in there we can't do it which really

00:37:09.560 makes you struggle because the the church doesn't ever mention buildings or the scriptures don't

00:37:13.900 ever mention buildings or chairs or any of that stuff you can go down a very weird track the other

00:37:20.100 side is that well hey scripture doesn't condemn us from dancing around and and doing different

00:37:25.040 things in the worship service or wearing these big funny hats and so let's do that too so you

00:37:31.020 have two ditches on either side of these principles of worship now king's way i would say holds

00:37:37.620 generally more to a regulative principle of worship meaning that we want to anchor everything

00:37:41.580 we do in scripture or at least biblical principles i might not be able to give you a direct passage

00:37:46.880 of scripture that says do this but i can from the scriptures argue for the logic or the systematic

00:37:52.440 reality of why we do a particular practice.

00:37:58.060 Now, I want to give you two passages of Scripture, I think, that help us

00:38:00.600 through this. One is 1 Corinthians 6, verse

00:38:04.520 12, and it says, all things are lawful for me, but not all things are

00:38:08.480 helpful. Okay? Right there.

00:38:12.660 We can do actually all things. We won't be condemned

00:38:16.600 under the law for those things, but is it helpful?

00:38:20.200 Because there's a lot of things that we do in the church that aren't that helpful.

00:38:23.180 In fact, they're actually detracting from the gospel.

00:38:26.820 1 Corinthians 9, verse 19 and 22 says,

00:38:30.620 For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them.

00:38:36.840 I have become all things to all people, that by all means, I might save some.

00:38:43.160 Do you know that Timothy did not have to get circumcised as a full-grown man?

00:38:49.280 Do you know why he was?

00:38:52.200 Because he thought that by all, you know, I will become all things to all people that I might save some. 0.98

00:38:57.260 And that an uncircumcised man talking to a bunch of Jews might not actually be successful in his evangelistic efforts. 0.97

00:39:03.920 So he was willing to make a modification because all things are lawful. 0.97

00:39:07.800 And in fact, that thing was particularly helpful in that time period.

00:39:12.160 So, can we make modifications to ourselves if they're helpful and defensible by Scripture?

00:39:18.980 Yes. Yes.

00:39:24.000 And so, I believe the clerical caller is helpful.

00:39:28.900 In fact, I really hope you guys believe that it's helpful.

00:39:32.180 I believe it's rooted in Scripture.

00:39:34.280 I believe it's proven to be historically fruitful and effective.

00:39:41.720 I believe it communicates what it's intended to communicate, which is pastoral authority.

00:39:46.520 Now, we have all types of distortions, right? 1.00

00:39:49.240 You have the Roman Catholics that are out there wearing this. 0.88

00:39:51.680 You have Lutherans, which again, you know, are Reformed Protestants wearing it.

00:39:56.400 You have Presbyterians wearing it. 0.99

00:39:58.520 You have the Lesbitarians wearing it, right? 0.98

00:40:01.500 You have all types of weird things going on that are out there.

00:40:09.000 The frustrating part is the faithful pastors in America aren't wearing it.

00:40:12.820 so now you have the enemy making identifications of all of these other people and not actually

00:40:20.900 much of the reform protestant gospel focused clergy that exists in america and so i really

00:40:28.340 do think that this is something one because it was started by protestants we should actually be

00:40:34.800 fighting to get back and again not one of us would feel any uncomfort about this if we were just a

00:40:42.800 hundred years ago. And so restoring structure is very, very helpful for this generation.

00:40:52.820 We need to be reminded of basic truths. And at the end of the day,

00:41:00.660 it's not a question of whether I will be identified as something. It's how I will be

00:41:06.780 identified. There's no neutrality in me being identified. I'm going to be identified as

00:41:11.620 something. You are going to be identified as something. Wearing a suit and tie, again, I think

00:41:18.120 it's a respectable attire, but it associates me with the business and corporate world.

00:41:23.980 I remember walking in here and I see guests and I'd have to tell them that I'm the pastor.

00:41:30.080 That's weird. And because they can't identify me. Go into any other institution and that is never

00:41:37.400 going to be the case go to the military and try to for a second not know who you're talking to

00:41:43.760 if you know the military ranks first thing you do is go you're looking at their chest you're

00:41:48.580 looking at their arms like you're identifying quickly who they are what the rank is how you

00:41:52.980 should approach them all of that right there it's very helpful um now personally i also dislike

00:41:59.560 the church being associated with the business we're not a business we're a church

00:42:05.920 i don't like the senior pastor being viewed as the ceo i'm not a ceo i'm a pastor i have a

00:42:14.720 completely different calling than a businessman and again i believe the clerical caller helps

00:42:20.280 distinguish that in a world that has turned the church into a business

00:42:24.260 now one brief point as i close some of you might be wondering

00:42:30.220 where are the brakes on this thing?

00:42:35.080 Where are the brakes?

00:42:38.440 We've added kneeling, we've added raising our hands

00:42:40.840 and the doxology, you're now looking 0.90

00:42:42.860 like a Roman Catholic, feels like we're on our way to the Vatican, right?

00:42:47.680 Okay, think about these things. Where are the brakes? 0.89

00:42:53.100 Now,

00:42:53.580 I want to assure you, we are not

00:42:56.600 But there's a long gap between restoring Protestant Christianity in America and flopping into Rome.

00:43:07.440 We have just deconstructed a really beautiful structure of Protestant Christianity for so many decades now that even restoring back a little bit of order feels strange to us.

00:43:21.920 again you know the average christian walks in here and kneels down and sees me wearing a collar

00:43:28.680 they're going to go tell all of their baptist friends about this you know you come from alabama

00:43:32.800 you go wow that was that was something else no the reality is is that we have a lot of work to

00:43:39.420 do in the church and i promise you and assure you that everything we do at this church will be

00:43:46.940 within the bounds of the Westminster Confession

00:43:49.320 of Faith. And

00:43:51.120 everything that we've done so far

00:43:53.060 is within the bounds,

00:43:55.440 clearly within the Westminster Confession

00:43:57.480 and

00:43:58.260 is in the bounds of church history

00:44:01.500 of all the other churches that share

00:44:03.400 our confession.

00:44:05.260 And so by God's grace,

00:44:07.260 we will restore

00:44:09.180 order and beauty and

00:44:11.240 honor and structure

00:44:13.540 to our church

00:44:15.220 starting here, to our families, to our city, and by God's grace, we'll see something beautiful.

00:44:22.400 Amen? Amen. Let's pray. Father, we thank you, Lord, for the work that you're doing in the

00:44:30.180 restoration of your church, bringing order. Lord, we know that you are a God of order,

00:44:36.580 and we know that it's either Christ or chaos. And Lord, we ask that you would take these small

00:44:44.460 elements of our worship, and you would help reform us back to goodness and scripture and truth.

00:44:51.200 Lord, we pray that you would have our church to be an example to other churches, to other pastors,

00:44:57.300 to other congregations, that we might be faithful. Lord, but we also ask to keep us humble,

00:45:05.020 to keep us faithful, and that you would continue to fulfill your work in us and through us here

00:45:10.980 at Kingsway. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen.

Dale Partridge - January 23, 2025

Why I Will Now Wear a Clerical Collar

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