It should be very obvious that any church which is seriously
trying to follow Jesus as Lord will be continually modifying its practices. The Christians there will be constantly looking
at what they are doing to see what could be improved. When potential improvements are recognised,
they will be put into practice without delay.
Nothing could be more obvious, could it?
Those who prefer
traditions over God
Sadly, there can be no doubt that churches which properly attempt to
keep improving their practices are in a minority, I think a small minority. Instead, what so often happens is that
traditions develop and take hold among congregations and prevent them from fully
following the Lord. Either something
that was once the will of God continues to be practised after it should have been
let go. Or, even worse, something that
was never God’s will becomes entrenched and then goes on and on.
I would suggest that on the Day of Judgment large numbers of
Christians will be found to be at fault for the times when they had a choice
between loving God or a church tradition and they chose the tradition. To be fair, I am sure that there are many
believers who are not to blame in this respect.
But I am sure too that many others are not properly submitting
themselves to God in this area.
Positive traditions
Of course, Christian traditions are not always negative things. There is a great sense in which the church is
a traditional entity right to its heart.
The Christian faith has been handed on as a tradition down the
generations, most recently to those of us who are alive today. There is a real sense too in which the Bible
is a tradition that we have received from the church of the past. And statements of faith such as the Apostles’
Creed and the Nicene Creed are also good and helpful traditions.
Taking care with morally
neutral traditions
There is nothing wrong with the great traditions of Christianity. It is wrong, however, when much more
superficial things become ingrained as church traditions without proper
consideration.
One of the major characteristics of the societies we live in is
that they are constantly evolving. As people
who are living out a Christian witness within these societies (Matthew 5:14 -15; 1 Corinthians 5:9-10), we should be continually adapting
the way we do things in morally neutral matters. This will allow us to appear as relevant as
possible to people outside the Christian community. And at times it will also help believers themselves
to grow more quickly in the faith.
This, however, doesn’t always happen, and traditions often become
entrenched. Christians of all ages can
be guilty of refusing to let go of church traditions, but especially it tends
to be those of an older generation. All
too often mature believers, who should be setting an example to the younger
ones of Christ-like selflessness, can be seen doing precisely the opposite. Older Christians frequently cling on to
traditions simply because they personally like them, having become familiar
with them over many years. This is a
shameful way to behave.
Traditions putting
people off the Christian faith
Sometimes when Christians selfishly cling on to traditions, it can
have serious consequences. I know
something about this personally. As a
child I was very put off the Christian faith by all the old-fashioned stuff I
couldn’t understand that I saw in the churches I had any connection with. As a result I walked away from the faith
until I was 17. If I had been presented
with something Christian that I could relate to when I was a boy, I wonder how
my life might have been so much better when I was growing up. For me, old-fashioned church traditions had a
very negative impact.
Someone might want to say in response to this that people are very
different. They could point out that
some are actually attracted to the Christian faith by old-fashioned traditions,
and that I mustn’t use just my own experiences to generalise.
It is true that some people are indeed drawn to the faith by
old-fashioned traditions. Nevertheless,
I am certain that many more are put off by such traditions than are attracted. I am sure that many of the non-Christian children
when I was growing up had a similar attitude to Christianity to me for similar
reasons. I am also sure that many of the
young people today who drift away from God do so in part because of
old-fashioned traditions which make it seem as if the faith is not really
relevant for them.
That is not to say that churches should aim at all costs to
accommodate themselves to the societies in which they live. I am talking only about morally neutral
issues. Christians will inevitably have
to swim against the tide of the moral values of the cultures they live in, and
there must be no compromise on that. But
it is a terrible tragedy when people are put off the salvation that is in
Christ because Christians are selfishly clinging to traditions.
Some examples of
unhelpful traditions
There are various old-fashioned traditions that cause problems.
Translations of the Bible that use out-of-date language should be
discarded for a start. It is ironic that
those who insist on using the 400-year-old King James Version are acting so
against the spirit of the Reformation that spawned that version. One of the key concerns of the reformers was
to get Scripture into the language that people use. But the KJV’s early 17th century English is
obviously anything but that today. Using
old-fashioned language for Bible translations can encourage people to see the
Christian faith as something less than relevant for the present time.
Nor is this the only problem with using the KJV. The English language has evolved a lot over
the last 400 years. Many words and turns
of phrase in the early 17th century meant something quite different from what
they mean today. And this often leads to
confusion and misinterpretation.
Something else that is ironic about insisting on using the KJV is
that this stubborn attitude is so different from the humble attitude of the
translators of this version themselves. They
in no way regarded their translation as something definitive. Rather, they viewed the KJV as a translation that
improved upon what had come before and would surely be further improved upon in
the future.
Another unhelpful old-fashioned tradition is speaking the Lord’s Prayer
in out-of-date language. This too is
more than a little ironic. Jesus gave
this prayer to His followers as an example of how to pray to God their Father. Yet what child addresses their father in old-fashioned
language? I would suggest that this is a
tradition which has gone on not just decades longer than it should have, but
for centuries longer!
Using old-fashioned musical instruments or old-fashioned furniture
is likewise almost always unhelpful. Furthermore,
modern technology is changing things all the time, and as far as finances allow
it, churches should also reflect that change in terms of how they conduct
themselves.
Nor is it just old-fashioned things that can become unhelpful
traditions. Often a church just has certain
ways of doing things that for one reason or another could be improved upon. Yet all too frequently these traditions are
allowed to go on and on.
Holding traditions
loosely
When Christians hold on to unhelpful traditions, it is because
they have become comfortable with them and are unwilling to accept the slight
feeling of disorientation that usually accompanies change.
Instead of taking this selfish attitude, however, the Christians
in every church should hold all that is not of first importance loosely. And then, as soon as they realise that a
tradition could be improved upon, it should be dropped or modified at once.
Of course, even Christians who try to act in this way will often
disagree about what would be a helpful improvement. Nevertheless, as a first step every believer
should make a conscious effort to hold morally neutral traditions loosely while
looking to see how their church could be improved. And the more Christians in a church there are
who take this step, the more unity there will probably be about decisions as
well.
Responding to
stubbornness
Although Christians should hold morally neutral traditions
loosely, in any given church there will probably be some who give no indication
that they are trying to do this. This brings
us to a very important question. What
should the leaders of a church do if they have decided that it would be good to
discard a tradition, but there is a minority of the congregation who are
strongly opposed to that change? Should
they push the change through regardless?
Or should they avoid causing trouble by keeping things as they are?
This is an area where there is no option but to earnestly seek the
face of the Lord and His leading. If the
change is not all that important, it will probably often be better to avoid offending
people and keep the unhelpful tradition.
On the other hand, however, there are times when upsetting people is a
price worth paying to see a church move forward. There are even occasions when causing a
division is a ‘lesser evil’ than failing to push through badly needed changes. Sometimes, following the wishes of a stubborn
and vocal minority is simply not the right thing to do.
Trying to make changes
If you see something in your church that you think could be
improved upon, try to do something about it.
Even if you are not a leader, don’t let that discourage you.
There is a need to be very careful here, however.
First, be open to the possibility that your idea for improvement
might be a mistake. Young Christians, in
age and/or length of time as a believer, need to be especially cautious in this
respect.
Second, make sure that you act only in love. Never be bitter towards those who reject your
idea, and never talk unkindly about them behind their back. Don’t let anyone feel that you are breathing
down their neck. And always respect the
authority of your leaders.
Try to persuade various people, especially leaders, that your idea
for improvement is a good one. And if
you believe that the idea is important enough to persevere with even after first
being rejected, don’t give up. Be
patient in prayer, and gently and lovingly persist in making your suggestion.
See also:
