A lot of our class discussions seem to bring up a consistent theme. The traditions of some current churches are seemingly creating stagnant congregations. Because of this, church plants are trying to be innovative with the ways they gather, serve, worship, or any other part of a traditional ‘church’ you can think of. My question is this…is that tradition really all that bad?
I know that not all people like tradition. Not everyone is in to sitting, then standing, then sitting, then singing a hymn, then standing, then…you get the point. Not everyone is in to getting together, have a cup of coffee, opening with a fast song, praying, greeting, singing a contemplative song, watching a video…again, you get the point.
However, my stance is this. Tradition is great. Church plants can and should embrace some of these traditions. I’m not saying that all church plants need to keep some or even all of these traditions though. I’m just saying that there are a lot of great things about hymns. There are wonderful things about modern worship songs. There are people with amazing gifts on the drums, guitar, and other instruments. Just because some people have grown tired of these practices does not mean the Spirit doesn’t work through them or that people aren’t listening to what God has to say in this day in age.
Innovation and creativity are great. God wants us to use them in order to add life and excitement to our services and churches. BUT…look around. There is liturgy being used in some of today’s churches that has been used for years! There are people who love to sing “Awesome God” or “God of Wonders” and still get out of those songs more than they get out of any part of the service. Just because those things don’t impact and encourage everyone does not mean that they are not beautiful and life giving.
Embrace tradition and innovation. This will allow new churches to remain faithful to what has worked in the past and also be open to the ever-changing and dynamic Spirit of God.
Sean
Sean, not sure the issue (at least as discussed in class) is “Tradition,” but “Traditionalism.”
Great post, Sean! I agree with you that tradition is great. For me, tradition becomes dangerous when we forget that tradition has come from a process and instead just turn tradition into a rule.
There is much wisdom in drawing off of our forbears, but also allowing to continue forward. An excellent series of books that explore this is the “Ancient-Future” series by Robert Webber. In these books, Webber seeks to explore what the pre-Constantine church developed and what they were addressing in developing their traditions. The idea is to then explore how we further adapt our traditions to apply to the context of today.
But doing away with tradition is a bit like growing up in a family and then trying to disown everything about that family.