Why I Wear a Clerical Collar

I am often asked, “Why do you wear a clerical collar?” The question is worth answering, particularly in an age when clerical attire has become increasingly uncommon.

The simplest answer is this: I wear the clerical collar as a visible expression of the vocation to which Christ has called me and as a reminder that my life and ministry are given in service to Him and His Church.

The clerical collar finds its significance in what it represents. Holy Scripture establishes the pastoral office and defines its character through the proclamation of the Gospel, the administration of the Sacraments, and the shepherding of God’s people. The collar serves as an outward sign of that vocation. At the same time, pastor and parishioner stand together before God as sinners justified solely by grace through faith in Jesus Christ (Romans 3:23–24; Ephesians 2:8–9). The dignity of the pastoral office therefore rests entirely in Christ and in the ministry He has entrusted to His Church.

The Church has long employed outward signs to identify those entrusted with particular vocations of service. For me, the clerical collar functions in precisely this way. It is an outward reminder of a far greater theological reality, namely, that Christ has entrusted His Church with the ministry of His Word, and pastors are called to serve publicly within that ministry.

St. Paul writes, “This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God” (1 Corinthians 4:1). Those words provide an important theology of pastoral identity.

The pastor’s identity is found in being a servant of Christ and a steward of what belongs to Christ.

His calling is therefore shaped by faithful service, theological stewardship, and responsibility before the Lord who has entrusted him with the care of His people.

This is at the heart of the Lutheran understanding of the Office of the Holy Ministry. The Augsburg Confession teaches that God instituted the ministry of teaching the Gospel and administering the Sacraments so that people might receive the faith through which God justifies the sinner (Augsburg Confession V). Thus, pastoral ministry derives its meaning and authority from Christ’s gracious desire that His Gospel be publicly proclaimed and His gifts faithfully delivered to His people.

The collar therefore reminds me that the ministry entrusted to me belongs first and finally to Christ.

The Word is Christ’s. The Sacraments are Christ’s. The Church is Christ’s. And the people whom I am called to serve belong to Christ.

It also provides a visible witness in the public square. When I wear the collar in a hospital, restaurant, coffee shop, or grocery store, people immediately recognize that I am a clergyman. At times that recognition leads to questions about faith. At other times someone asks for prayer, shares a burden, confesses a fear, or simply needs someone to listen. In those moments, the collar has accomplished something remarkably simple, namely, it has made the pastoral office recognizable and the pastor available to those who may be seeking spiritual care.

St. Paul describes those entrusted with the Gospel as “ambassadors for Christ,” through whom God makes His appeal (2 Corinthians 5:20). My call through the Church establishes this sacred vocation, while the collar serves as a public sign of the ministry to which I have been called.

There is also a necessary humility in wearing it. The collar continually reminds me that ordination is a summons to service. Jesus defines greatness in His kingdom through self-giving: “Whoever would be great among you must be your servant” (Mark 10:43). The pastoral office therefore carries both sacred responsibility and accountability, that is, the solemn calling to preach the Word faithfully, administer Christ’s gifts rightly, shepherd His people lovingly, and remain under the authority of the very Word one has been called to proclaim (2 Timothy 4:1–2; 1 Peter 5:2–4).

That reminder carries particular significance for me in this present season of my ministry. I am currently prayerfully seeking a call to serve a particular congregation. While my vocation to the pastoral ministry has been received through Christ’s Church, that vocation takes on a beautifully concrete expression when a pastor is called to live among, preach to, teach, shepherd, and administer the Sacraments to a particular community of God’s people.

The pastoral office is never merely an abstraction; it is rather embodied in the ordinary and sacred work of caring for real people in a particular place.

For this reason, wearing the collar during this season has also become an exercise in humility and prayer. It reminds me that I cannot manufacture a call for myself, nor can I ultimately determine where my gifts will best serve Christ’s Church. I can prayerfully discern, faithfully prepare, remain available, and trust the Lord of the Church to provide clarity in His time. There is freedom in remembering that the Church belongs to Christ and that I, too, remain under His gracious direction.

And so, as I write these words, I would also humbly ask for the prayers of God’s people. Pray that the Lord would grant clarity and wisdom as I discern where He would have me serve. Pray for the congregation to which I may someday be called, even though I may not yet know its name. Pray that my desires would remain subordinate to Christ’s will and that, wherever I am called, I would enter that congregation ready to love, listen, teach, preach, administer Christ’s gifts, and faithfully shepherd the people entrusted to my care.

Perhaps this is another reason the collar remains meaningful to me. It represents an office I treasure deeply while reminding me that the office belongs to Christ. The pastor is a steward, the congregation is Christ’s flock, and the call to serve remains an expression of His gracious care for His Church.

The collar, then, is as much a reminder to pray as it is a sign of vocation: “Lord Jesus, where would You have me serve Your people, and grant me the humility and faithfulness to go where You call.”

This conviction was tested and, in many respects, deepened for me during my recent experience in Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE). Over the summer, I was afforded the opportunity to complete my first unit of CPE, where I ministered and learned alongside people representing a variety of theological traditions, spiritual perspectives, and approaches to pastoral care.

One important lesson I learned was that the visible signs of Christian ministry are not experienced uniformly. For some, seeing a chaplain in a clerical collar communicates safety, availability, prayer, and the presence of the Church. For others, particularly those whose experiences with clergy or religious institutions have been painful, the same collar may evoke apprehension, distrust, or even painful memories from their past. This became especially personal when, near the conclusion of our unit, a member of my cohort shared that both my pastoral manner of speaking and my clerical collar had at times been triggering for her.

I took that disclosure seriously. Pastoral ministry requires the humility to listen carefully to how our presence is received by another person, especially when caring for someone who is vulnerable, suffering, or carrying wounds associated with religion. St. Paul’s exhortation to speak “the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15) reminds me that Christian faithfulness and Christian charity properly belong together. Likewise, his description of ministry as becoming “all things to all people” for the sake of the Gospel (1 Corinthians 9:22–23) calls the pastor toward thoughtful self-awareness in the exercise of his vocation.

Yet that experience also helped clarify something important for me, namely, that pastoral sensitivity and pastoral identity need not stand in opposition to one another. Compassionately attending to another person’s experience does not require me to become indistinguishable as a Lutheran pastor. Rather, it calls me to inhabit that vocation with greater humility, wisdom, gentleness, and love for the one whom I serve.

The collar may communicate different things to different people, but its meaning for me remains grounded in the vocation it represents. It calls me back to the One whose ministry I have been entrusted to serve. And when the collar itself becomes the occasion for discomfort or conversation, that, too, can be an invitation to listen—to learn another person’s story before presuming to speak into it.

Perhaps one of the deeper lessons CPE impressed upon me is that pastoral presence involves both the courage to be authentically present as one called by Christ and the humility to recognize the person standing before me as someone worthy of being heard, understood, and loved by our shared humanity.

So why do I wear a clerical collar?

Because it reminds both me and, perhaps, those whom I encounter that Christ remains present and active through the ministry He has entrusted to His Church. His Gospel is still being proclaimed to the nations as Christ has commanded (Matthew 28:18-20; Mark 16:15; Luke 24:46-47; John 20:21; Acts 1:8). His forgiveness is still being announced. His people are still being gathered around Word and Sacrament. And pastors are still being sent to serve in His holy name.

The collar itself is simple cloth. Its significance, however, lies in the vocation it represents.

And every time I fasten it around my neck, I am reminded anew: I have been called to proclaim the great name of my Lord Jesus Christ.

Please pray for your pastors. Pray for those discerning a call to the Holy Ministry. And, during this particular season, I humbly ask that you pray for me as well, that Christ would make clear where He would have me serve and that He would grant me the grace to receive that call with humility, courage, and everlasting joy in the Holy Spirit.

May Christ continue to grant His Church faithful servants who preach His Word with courage, administer His gifts with fidelity, and shepherd His people with humility and love.

Soli Deo Gloria.