Liturgy In the Local Community 3

The Foundation of Your Tradition

In the last Liturgy In the Local Community post I discussed why an ancient-future perspective on theology and an ecumenical outlook are important for the local church to consider.  The local church should not only bring an ecumenical ancient-future outlook to their worship but also reflection on the positives, negatives, and realities of their tradition.

It would be misleading to think that an ancient-future church can happen in a vacuum, and even more naïve to ever think a non-denominational church is tradition-less or foundation-less.  All churches have traditions and foundations—some wear it as a badge of honor, others live with it, and still others pretend they don’t.  But all churches come out of a tradition, even if it is a tradition of having no traditions (i.e., the free church tradition share many common distinctives and traits that form a core of what they identify with as “free churches”).  

We should not be scared of the far reaching totality and diversity of church history.  In the same way, we should not be scared of our own denominational and sectarian traditions.  We need to respect the traditions we come out of and how they have shaped the theology and practice of the local church.  These traditions took shape for a reason, and recovering the identity of your own tradition will enable the local faith community to find their identity in the great river of Tradition.

This discussion is the third part of a five part series that has included Liturgy In the Local Community and The Recovery of Historical Theology.