Unwritten, yet commonly understood rules/standards/beliefs that your church has?

[Biblical Anabaptist]

But is it a WRITTEN or UNWRITTEN rule, that's the important question!

In my case it was unwritten

[Josh]

Some guy in Australia who admired Easterns republished an article in his newsletter about the importance of buttoning all the buttons on one’s plain coat, based on a principle that “if something useful is there, it should be used”.

[Soloist]

Some guy in Australia who admired Easterns republished an article in his newsletter about the importance of buttoning all the buttons on one’s plain coat, based on a principle that “if something useful is there, it should be used”.

I understand not all of them, it works better sitting if the bottom one isn’t done, I understand not the top one, but I really don’t understand only the top one…

[Sudsy]

Some guy in Australia who admired Easterns republished an article in his newsletter about the importance of buttoning all the buttons on one’s plain coat, based on a principle that “if something useful is there, it should be used”.

I understand not all of them, it works better sitting if the bottom one isn’t done, I understand not the top one, but I really don’t understand only the top one…

Perhaps it is being non-conforming to what most 'worldly' people do. Part of the 'come out from among them' practise ?

[Josh]

Some guy in Australia who admired Easterns republished an article in his newsletter about the importance of buttoning all the buttons on one’s plain coat, based on a principle that “if something useful is there, it should be used”.

I understand not all of them, it works better sitting if the bottom one isn’t done, I understand not the top one, but I really don’t understand only the top one…

Someone made a rule that people needed to button the top button. The rule never went away but people quit buttoning the rest of them. Nowadays it’s a bit of an OOM custom.

[Biblical Anabaptist]

Some guy in Australia who admired Easterns republished an article in his newsletter about the importance of buttoning all the buttons on one’s plain coat, based on a principle that “if something useful is there, it should be used”.

I understand not all of them, it works better sitting if the bottom one isn’t done, I understand not the top one, but I really don’t understand only the top one…

You could button more, but at least the top one needed to be buttoned. Where I attended formerly a lot of folks only buttoned the bottom 1-3 buttons on a straight-cut suit.

[Ernie]

Where I attended formerly a lot of folks only buttoned the bottom 1-3 buttons on a straight-cut suit.

That practice is what led to lay-down lapel coats. Ever unfold the collar of a laydown-lapel coat and see what it looks like?

[NedFlanders]

Some guy in Australia who admired Easterns republished an article in his newsletter about the importance of buttoning all the buttons on one’s plain coat, based on a principle that “if something useful is there, it should be used”.

I understand not all of them, it works better sitting if the bottom one isn’t done, I understand not the top one, but I really don’t understand only the top one…

I noticed a while ago our minister was the only one buttoning the top one while everyone else left them all unbuttoned. What I noticed is that all unbuttoned looks unkept, sloppy, trendy, and undisciplined to me. I felt convicted to button the top one to be decent and orderly. But that is my own opinion - others can see it differently.

[Josh]

In Holdeman circles people wear ordinary suit coats and generally don’t button them. However, wearing a suit coat generally means one buttons their top shirt button.

This is entirely customary and nobody is “required” to wear a suit. A preacher may get up preach in khaki pants, a dark coloured shirt, and not have the top button buttoned.

[MaxPC]

Some guy in Australia who admired Easterns republished an article in his newsletter about the importance of buttoning all the buttons on one’s plain coat, based on a principle that “if something useful is there, it should be used”.

It has always interested me in how groups with a corporate identity continue those “little traditions” as a part of that identity. I see it all the time among monastic communities and religious institutes in Catholic World. My conjecture is that these little traditions help the group’s sense of purpose and identity.