I grew up in a traditional, liturgical church for the first 12-ish years of my life. When I joined a more contemporary church I met many individuals who had plenty to say about the evils and potential pitfalls of traditional worship. I always got a lot out of the traditional form of worship, so this always rubbed me wrong. Fast forward 15-20 years later (or about 5-6 years ago) and I was sitting in a church council meeting with someone who kept referring to BGBC's traditional worship service as "a real problem in our church". I remember looking at this young lady and saying, "could we stop referring to the way some people worship as a problem?" Just because it was seen as "old" or "traditional" didn't mean it was automatically bad.
There is this visceral reaction many people have against traditional forms of worship and religion. In many church circles, the word "religion" is almost treated like profanity and isn't to be spoken among polite company. In a sermon I gave around a year ago, I mentioned the beauty and purpose of what I called "pure religion"; the type of symbolism and ritual that prophets and Christ himself called us to observe or demonstrated through their own lives. What is the Lord's Supper if not a form of tradition and ritual?
It's hard to argue that the Bible doesn't call us to some level of tradition and ritual.
They found written in the Law, which the Lord had commanded through Moses, that the Israelites were to live in temporary shelters during the festival of the seventh month [...] Day after day, from the first day to the last, Ezra read from the Book of the Law of God. They celebrated the festival for seven days, and on the eighth day, in accordance with the regulation, there was an assembly. (Nehemiah 8:14,18)
As Ezra was settling into bringing a culture of worship and devotion back to Jerusalem, there was a role for ritual and religion to play. The "Law" gave instruction for the people of Israel and the people of Israel were obedient to their calling. The questions wasn't whether to observe tradition and ritual or not; it was what constitutes "good religion".
As a new church, trying to break the bonds of "that's how we've always done things", it's tempting to totally throw tradition and religion to the wind with reckless abandon. There are certainly aspects of religion in the scriptures (for example, communion which we referenced previously) that any church, regardless of how traditional or modern, should observe. There are other traditions and rituals that are not found in the Bible and should not hold us back from exploring new expressions of faith, worship, and Bible study (such as specific types of locations, formats, or schedules). The people of Israel held closely to the scriptures and the religious practices that had been given to them from Moses and from God's Law. Here in 2020, our standard for what religion and tradition is non-negotiable should be the same.
As we look to what a church could be, we have an opportunity to look at the expressions of faith we see in the Bible and to re-capture those things that may be overlooked in our current model. What about churches with a passion for self-sacrifice to help those around them? What about churches that emphasized opening up their homes? What about churches that emphasized the actions and faiths of individuals and don't judge the merit of an individual's church membership by how many committees they served on or their knowledge of Robert's Rules of Order?
Without going on for too much longer, we see a model of the "religion" of the early church in Acts 2:42. It essentially says that we are to (1) devote ourselves to teachings (discipleship), (2) fellowship, (3) service/charity, and (4) communion/remembering the sacrifice of Christ. There is your model for religion. If our religious practice does those 4 things, I'd say we're on good footing to reflect something that pleases God. If we're not, it's time to make a change.
DAILY PRAYER A Prayer for Pure Religion
God, we pray that you would accept the religion we practice as something chiefly concerned with you and you only. Do not let us be tempted to cater to what we feel others expect of us or some false notion that just because something is tradition means it's inherently good. At the same time, open our eyes and do not let us be blinded to acts of religion that are good and holy in your eyes. Help us to experience church in a new way which reinvigorates how Christ instructed us to meet and fellowship together. Let everything we do be an expression of faith that would please you and give you Glory. Amen.
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