True tradition: Healthy growth and change, Part 3
It’s inescapable. All churches have traditions. There are Southern Baptist traditions, and there are groups and varieties within the Southern Baptists with their own brands of tradition. Individual churches develop their own distinct traditions.
Even newer churches have traditions – “the way we’ve always done it.” Churches develop traditions right from the founding of the church. Sometimes the traditions are inherited from a particular church planting model or from a sending church. Sometimes the traditions are developed by the church planter to set the tone and shepherd the church towards the planter’s vision.
Traditions are not necessarily a bad thing. They can help maintain the church’s unique identity and guard against vision creep. However, traditions can also be obstacles to healthy growth and change. Traditions may serve for a time, but at some point, they can hold your church back.
“Traditions are not necessarily a bad thing. They can help maintain the church’s unique identity and guard against vision creep. However, traditions can also be obstacles to healthy growth and change.”
I find it helpful to place traditions into four categories. How you respond to the tradition in your church is determined by the category of tradition.
Traditions against Scripture
First, there are traditions that run directly counter to Scripture. Jesus reacts very negatively to such traditions. He condemns the Jewish leaders, saying, “Abandoning the command of God, you hold on to human tradition…You nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down” (Mark 7:8,13a).
It is hard to think of an error that could upset Jesus more than maintaining traditions in his church that oppose his will. If your church is harboring such a tradition, it is important that you take time to examine the Scriptures thoroughly to be certain your assessment is accurate. Then, the church might need to hear teaching on the subject repeatedly before they are willing to make the necessary changes. Immediate, direct confrontation may not work out well, as it will merely make people defensive.
Traditions that are idols
Second, there are traditions that qualify as Nehushtans. You may be familiar with the idea of “golden calves” – traditions, items, ministries, etc. that are considered special, holy, and/or untouchable. I do not like the image of a “golden calf,” since we all know that golden calves are evil. I prefer the image of Nehushtan – the bronze serpent Moses made in the wilderness which became an idolatrous stumbling block (2 Kings 18:4). Another useful image is Isaac. He was the child of promise, and yet God asked Abraham to sacrifice him as a test (Genesis 22). Even traditions that began as something good can be elevated to an unhelpful or idolatrous level.
Almost every church seems to have a Nehushtan tradition. If there is such a tradition at your church, I think it is helpful to teach from the stories of Nehushtan and Isaac. Lay the groundwork carefully. Then, ask the church the question, “Do we have a Nehushtan/Isaac at our church?” It works best if a group of members or the church collectively comes to the realization of the Nehushtan without someone attacking the Nehushtan directly.
Before I discuss the remaining two categories of tradition, I want to mention another way – a judo technique for responding to traditions that need to be changed. Some churches are deeply committed to their traditions, and this commitment can be hard to shake.
However, a good response to such commitment is to simply agree. Affirm your commitment to tradition. You want the church to be a truly traditional church, but the traditions of this church are too recent – not traditional enough.
Much of traditional Baptist custom and practice goes back only fifty years, or at most a few hundred years. Just look at the dates of the hymns in your hymnal. On the scale of church history, our customs and practices can hardly be considered traditional.
“It is a good idea to call the church back to the traditions of the apostles, the prophets, and the biblical people of God.”
It is a good idea to call the church back to the traditions of the apostles, the prophets, and the biblical people of God. Some of these traditions are familiar, like baptism and the Lord’s Supper, but some biblical traditions can be shocking. Look at David’s example of worship in 2 Samuel 6 and 1 Chronicles 15-16. This example becomes the model for Old Testament worship. “Traditional” churches have a hard time swallowing verses like Psalm 33:3: “Sing a new song to him; play skillfully on the strings with a joyful shout.” The true, ancient traditions have much to say that will correct both “contemporary” and “traditional” churches.
Traditions that are harmless
Finally, there are the third and fourth categories of traditions: harmless traditions and hindrances. Some traditions are merely harmless (like the fact that the coffee table is always supplied with pastries from the same bakery), and if it ain’t broke, don’t needlessly make people mad by changing it.
Traditions that are hindrances
However, other traditions are a hindrance. They may not be directly counter to Scripture, and they may not be specially elevated and protected in the life of your church. Rather, these traditions just get in the way of what the church really ought to be doing.
The way to determine if a tradition is harmless or a hindrance is by evaluating it according to the mission of the church, and your church’s mission is the subject of the next installment in this article series.
Randall Curtis serves as the Rhode Island regional coordinator for the Baptist Churches of New England.
