There are some churches that I know that are getting out of hand with their modesty. It keeps happening gradually and in a borderline fashion. Every 6 years it seems like they keep raising the bar by a margin. How do you correct the entire church when you have:
1) Non-Believers
2) Baby Christians
3) Long-term Christians
All three groups are doing it. Pastors are afraid to address because of consequences or maybe they are struggling themselves with temptation. This is not an outreach event being held out in public; that is understandable. This is house of God that is being defiled. I know some Catholic buildings provide the people with a paper-like robe when they arrive immodestly. What is the appropriate approach in correcting an entire church sliding into immodesty?
Personally, I don't think the meeting of believers to worship God and be taught from His Word is the place to encourage the attendance or the participation of those who do not love God. As I said in another thread, the Alpha or Christianity Explored courses are far more appropriate means of giving a curious unbeliever an introduction to the Christian faith. If, however, an unbeliever is determined to sit among believers as they worship and are taught, he/she ought to be required to respect the biblical injunctions concerning modesty that are given to believers.
I have been working out now in gyms for over 30 years. Many gyms where I have worked out have fairly stringent guidelines governing not only dress but conduct. In several gyms I attended you weren't permitted to swear, or make loud noises when lifting. You also weren't allowed to slam or drop the weights or leave them lying about after using them. If you were observed doing any of these things, a clerk would arrive to ask you to leave. You couldn't even get onto the gym floor if your dress was "inappropriate" (no shirt, too revealing, no athletic shoes, clothes smelled, etc.). None of these gyms lacked for clientele even though their standards were strict. Their codes of conduct and dress were actually a selling point for most people!
How is it that a gym can require a certain kind of dress and conduct of its users and no one bats an eye, but a church service, which is to be reflective of God's holiness, purity, and profundity, is expected to tolerate whatever dress and behaviour comes through the door?
I have had unsaved friends who have said that they don't attend church because they feel the services are irreverent and make too many compromises with secular culture. Even the unsaved recognize the corruption that has gripped the Church while Christians continue to bend over backward to make a sinner comfortable rather than convicted!
The way to retrieve the Church from its downward slide into secularism is quite simple: refuse to allow the World any representation within the Church.
2 Corinthians 6:14-18
14 Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?
15 And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever?
16 And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will dwell in them And walk among them. I will be their God, And they shall be My people."
17 Therefore "Come out from among them And be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, And I will receive you."
18 "I will be a Father to you, And you shall be My sons and daughters, Says the Lord Almighty."
Selah.
