Every Christian denomination/congregation has its own tradition. Tradition is good. In tradition we see the faith of our Christian fathers. Even though they have passed away, their faith is alive in the tradition that they have passed on to us.
However, tradition becomes a problem when you place it above faith and above the word of God. We see a lot of churches today with rich traditions proving that their fathers had strong faith but you do not see faith and the word of God in those churches. The only faith you see is that of their fathers. The sad part is the people in those churches are alive but their faith is dead.
Here is an important principle that Paul has laid out for us in 1 Cor. 9:20-23:
“To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God's law but am under Christ's law), so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel that I may share in its blessings.”
The principle to derive from this verse is that we have to be willing to keep adapting our tradition depending on who it is we are trying to reach out. The purpose of Christ should reign on top of all our traditions. It sounds like Paul does not have his own tradition but keeps adapting it to the the needs of the people he is reaching out.
A good example for my point is the music style of worship. Many churches today have a music style even they themselves find boring. The sad part is that they are not willing to change it because of the unnecessarily high value they place on tradition.
Make sure your tradition is not counter-evangelistic,
The Cyber Evangelist |