When Tradition is a Too Small Cage…and a Fence

fusion-of-horizons via Compfight

Jonathan Storment wrote a fabulous article on the functions of tradition and the ways it can sometimes lead to senseless division among us. We’re really tired of division over things that don’t really matter. Aren’t you? Let’s keep the center the center, and offer grace where we differ.

From Jonathan’s blog post:

We church people don’t change well. And this, In fact,  can be one of our strengths. I get that we don’t need to marry ourselves to the spirit of the day, but I do think we need to pay deeper attention to our tradition. And we must learn how to bring it to bear on the culture and time that we are living in.

Because every tradition, at one point, was a break with the status quo. Every tradition started off with trying to do something new and fresh and compelling. And over time, what was once revolutionary becomes static and codified.