benefits of church tradition

Introduction, Part 2

This is the second post in our introductory series. The first post is here: What is Church Tradition?

We didn’t have a white Christmas this year. Last year, too, was sadly devoid of snow. After 37 non-white Christmases, I’m beginning to think that living in Florida just isn’t conducive to anything beyond “dreaming of a white Christmas,” as Bing so solemnly sang.

You’re especially unlikely to see snow in Florida in the month of June. If you come over to my house on the right day of that sweltering month, however, you just might get hit by a snowball.

That’s right: every June, my family and I put some ice in a blender, take it outside in the Florida heat, and throw it at each other. It’s a blast! There’s lots of laughing, chasing, missing, and getting hit. We’ve been doing it now for years, and obviously there’s no real point to it other than to have fun together as a family.

is that really what we mean by tradition?

The word tradition literally means something that is passed along. In the strictest sense, the word means an idea or action that is carried on or repeated over multiple generations, primarily for a non-practical reason. Brushing your teeth, for instance, might have been passed on to you from your parents and grandparents, and hopefully you’ll pass it on to your kids. But brushing your teeth isn’t a tradition; it’s just good hygiene.

On the other hand, my family’s annual June snowball fight, while completely devoid of hygienic value, has been going on for several years now, and perhaps it will continue for years, or even decades to come. But, strictly speaking, it’s not a tradition unless and until my kids grow up and do the same thing with their kids.¹

So tradition, in the sense we’re using it here, is something that is passed on through multiple generations, without practical benefit being the primary motivation.

what are the benefits of church tradition?

In my view, there are two main benefits to church tradition. First is that tradition connects and unites us as a church across both geography and time. This connection provides a richness to our faith that can be unparalleled. Second, tradition keeps us from error. Let's look at each of these benefits in some depth.

tradition connects us.

Any serious Christ-follower would agree that Christianity is not meant to be a solo activity. Yes, we have solitary times of prayer and reflection, but essential to a healthy spiritual faith is community and corporate worship. This is where, even in what we would call non-traditional churches, you are always going to find some kind of tradition or ritual. For instance, I don't know of a Christian tradition or denomination that does not sing songs as part of their corporate worship. Although the songs that you sing at your church may be different from the songs I sing at mine, if you go to the same church for long, you're going to start to hear some of the same songs over again and become familiar with them. This familiarity allows us to worship in unity, connecting us together as the body of Christ.

This unity is essential to Christian life, but we are not meant to be unified only with our single congregation. The body of Christ is not my church or your church alone, but the global church, acting as Christ within the world. Sadly, the global church is far from unified, and unfortunately, tradition can sometimes be the cause of that disunity (more on that next time).

However, tradition can also be at least a part of the solution. As an example, let's look at one simple tradition (which we'll take a much deeper look at later): The Lord's Prayer.

If you grew up in church, there's a good chance you know the Lord's Prayer. When his disciples asked him how they should pray, Jesus taught them this prayer. For the last two millennia, Christians have recited this prayer regularly, either in a liturgical language (Greek or Latin) or in their native language, both corporately and privately.

One of the things I love about saying this prayer in my personal prayer time is that it gives me a certain sense of unity with Christians around the world who might be saying it at that very moment, or said it earlier in the day, but it also unifies me with Christians over two thousand years who have said the prayer, not only kings and saints, but some twelfth-century Bulgarian farmer, whose name is lost to history. He and I are a part of the same body.

tradition guides us.

By observing tradition (not a blind regurgitation, but a thoughtful observance) we are strengthened in the fundamentals of Christian orthodoxy and orthopraxy (the right things to believe and the right things to do, respectively).

In II Thessalonians 2:15, Paul urges his readers to "stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us." He believed that the Gospel tradition that he had taught the Thessalonians was something worth holding onto. Paul knew that they couldn't stand firm on shifting sand; they needed something solid. That foundation was and is tradition.

A good example of a tradition today that helps to remind us of the Gospel message that we believe is reciting the creeds. (More on creeds very soon!) Many churches read one or more of the church creeds on Sundays or even in daily devotions. They remind us of the fundamentals of what we believe about the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and about the church and the hope that we have in Christ.

Communion is another great example. Jesus actually tells his Disciples "Do this in remembrance of me." (Luke 22:19) By participating in this ritual, this tradition, we remember him and his sacrifice for us. Paul puts it this way: "For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes." (1 Corinthians 11:26) We not only remember, we proclaim.

We see, then, how tradition guides us. But does it always guide us in the right direction? That's one of the things we'll talk about next.

1. Before you get mad at me for telling you that your cherished family "traditions" aren't traditions, I won't begrudge anyone using the word for something they've been doing as a family for several years, and, in fact, I would call our annual snowball fight a tradition. But in the sense we're using for this project, we need to think of traditions on much bigger timescales.