We would rather lock ourselves up in our theological fortresses and refuse to lower the drawbridge. It says we’re not concerned with entering a conversation (with the past) about our beliefs. And thinking we can completely disassociate ourselves from any expression of a particular tradition is not only naive, but arrogant. To reject tradition as an unimportant part of Christian life is to place ourselves outside of accountability. The Danger of Bypassing Your Emotions Tradition Creates Accountability in our Theological Conversations This doesn’t mean we automatically accept everything we’re handed, but it gives us a basis of understanding to start from and dig into. We would not have many of the doctrines, creeds and core truths we hold to be foundational if it weren’t for tradition. Tradition offers us the beautiful practice of passing things down. In so many respects, the things we value theologically, spiritually and emotionally come to us from one tradition or another. While the idea of this notion is pleasant, it’s not entirely accurate. If we’re honest, we like to believe that our ideas of truth and doctrine are born from an objective reading of Scripture. One of the more important roles tradition plays in the life of the Christian is in giving us a fuller understanding of exactly where our beliefs come from. Tradition Helps Us Understand the Historical Trajectory of Truth Tradition, regardless of which tradition you associate with, offers important practices and theology to help grow our understanding of truth, accountability and the dynamic beauty of the coming Kingdom of God.Īs I’ve grown in my understanding, I’ve found several reasons to embrace, not reject, tradition. Tradition isn’t just an interesting piece of history that Christians can learn from, it can be a building block in a mature expression of faith in Christ. I then began to see my view of tradition as a problem. I discovered that the fundamentalist movement, though it was greatly flawed, held as true and important many of the same truths I hold true and important-things like the inerrancy of God’s Word and the importance of combatting cultural lies that can misrepresent and distort the Christian faith. That all changed when I researched the fundamentalist movement of 20th century America, the same tradition that gave birth to the church I grew up in. “Traditional Christianity” became a functional synonym for “legalistic Christianity.”
From that point forward, I began to superimpose my distaste for legalism and moralism onto my understanding of tradition. Based on that experience, I didn’t believe God was a Father as much as a disciplinarian. The particular church I grew up in was morally overbearing, communicatively dry and spiritually confusing. Until I arrived at seminary, that experience defined my perspectives toward anything “traditional.” In many ways, it comes from a hatred toward legalism and moralism that we’ve associated with our church experiences. We’ve gotten to the point in modern Christian practice where the word “traditional” has become almost an expletive.
Many people in the modern church think traditional methods are irrelevant methods.
#Embrace tradition how to#
‘Traditional’ Isn’t an Expletiveįor many, the word “traditional” is something you don’t say if you’re discussing how to organize a worship service, put together a sermon series or reach the lost. A great number of us are beginning to re-evaluate the role of tradition in the Christian life-and that’s a very good thing. Of course, this isn’t true of all young adult Christians. Even if we might not say it, some of us believe tradition is destructive. It often seems like movements of “traditional” Christianity are viewed backward, out-of-touch, irrelevant and ineffective sub-cultures.
If you’ve grown up anywhere near currents of Christian life that contain young adults, you likely know what I’m talking about. One particular manifestation of this tendency is the rejection of tradition in the Christian life. More often than not, we younger Christians tend to define ourselves by what we’re against rather than what we’re for.
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