There is an old joke that probably applies to many Christian traditions but I heard it of Baptists:
Q. How many Baptists does it take to change a light bulb? A. Change?!
The truth is change has always been part of the Christian faith, for our faith is enculturated. It has long adopted the cultural expressions of the people where the gospel takes root. There are traditions that have developed where this is frowned upon, but it’s not hard to read history and see changes taking place. This is where church history and church tradition are helpful.
As Protestants we recognize that Scripture is the only infallible source of faith and practice. This means our doctrine, our beliefs about God and his world, come from the Scriptures. This also means our practice, how we live our lives, comes from the Scriptures. Many Protestants misunderstand this, however. The key word is “infallible”: Scripture is the only infallible source of faith and practice. It is not the only source of faith and practice!
The Protestant Reformers often used the phrase “Scripture alone”. By this they meant only Scripture is infallible. They were reacting against the teaching that the church, and by this I mean what came to be known as the Roman Catholic Church, was also a source of infallible teaching. The Reformers rejected the idea the Roman church could declare in an infallible way what is true teaching. For example, it was in 1854 that the pope declared the so-called Immaculate Conception of Mary to be official dogma. This is the sort of claims the cry “Scripture alone” was meant to refute.
It was not meant to be a claim of “Scripture only“! Our doctrine comes to us infallibly from Scripture alone, but our understanding of that doctrine is informed by history and tradition. For example, at the Council of Nicea what has been believed everywhere, always, and by all Christians was clarified. The Council of Nicea did not make up Trinitarian theology. It clarified what Christians have always believed. The later Council of Chalcedon gave us the clarifying language of one God who exists eternally in three Persons yet remains one essence.
A significant area in which history and tradition are valuable is in the area of practice. While Scripture is our only infallible source of faith and practice, it is not a church manual. For example, we are to baptize converts in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. How? I mean the actual mechanics of baptism. What do we say when we baptize someone? What is the “correct” procedure? Clearly Scripture cannot be the only source of practice!
This is where church history and church tradition come into play. Throughout history there have been some amazing followers of Jesus who have thought through things and have come up with ways of worshiping Jesus. In the first few centuries of the church various church manuals were written to guide churches in their practices. I frequently mention the Didache, a first-century church manual. It includes instructions on how to perform baptism, how to celebrate the Eucharist, how and when to fast as a spiritual discipline, among other things.
Many of these early church manuals were regional. There were a variety of practices concerning baptism and communion and such. It was only after Constantine in the 300s that practices began to be enforced in a top-down manner as the church began to organize itself in a hierarchical manner, after the structure of the imperial Roman government. In the early church there was a lot of flexibility. What is very interesting, particularly in light of the later top-down control, is these documents were updated generation after generation. These early Christians recognized that where Scripture is silent on practice, we have freedom of conscience,
Reading and studying church history, while not infallible, is informative and helps us put up guard rails, so to speak. For example, in my recent sermon on the sacraments, I pointed out that while Scripture does not tell us directly that communion is for baptized believers, this is the universal practice of Christians throughout history. History—tradition—informs our understanding of the Scriptures and helps guide our practice.
You might be thinking, “Okay, J-T…this is all interesting stuff, but so what??” I’m glad you asked! It means that where Scripture is silent, we must remain open to change. Where Scripture speaks, we must obey! Paul tells us in Ephesians we must address one another in “psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs”. Do we sing these a cappella? Do we use instruments? Which instruments? Drums? Guitar? Piano? Organ? Lyre and tambourine?
While Scripture is and will remain the only infallible source of faith and practice, we must be open to change where Scripture is silent. In Scripture’s silence, church history informs us, but it does not control us. We have a contemporary music style. In 20 years should we have the exact same style? For many churches the answer is yes; once a church establishes “its style” that music style becomes how they’ve always done it, so why change? Music changes over time, for culture changes over time.
This also applies to the order of our worship service. We have a fairly standard structure we follow. We open with a couple songs and then a time of extended prayer. You could call this our “Liturgy of the People”, for we come together as the body of Christ to worship the Lord and to care for one another. Then we have the Scripture reading, the children’s story, and the sermon. You could call this our “Liturgy of the Word”, for we, together, seek to hear from the Lord through holy Scripture. Then we have baptisms and celebrate communion and recite the Creed together. You could call this our “Liturgy of Sacrament”. Is this how we will always do it? No! In fact, this isn’t how we’ve always done in it our brief thirteen-year history! We’ve made numerous changes to our worship services! We won’t change just to change because that would have no value. We must be willing to change where we need to change.
We must maintain this sort of flexibility, but there is one area we will remain utterly inflexible. Our worship always has been and always will be Trinitarian, centering on the Lord Jesus Christ. We worship one God who eternally exists in three Persons, who has revealed himself fully in the face of Jesus Christ.
I’ve shared the story of an elderly saint who was part of our body in our first couple years as a church. Having spent a lifetime in other churches, she suddenly exclaimed to me one day, “Have you ever noticed all our songs are about Jesus?!” They always will be! I’ve pointed out before that there are 10,080 minutes in a week and we spend about 100 of them worshiping Jesus together. This means we will not give up a single one of those precious minutes to honor a person other than our God in Trinity.
We love mothers, but when we gather on a Sunday and it happens to be a Mother’s Day, we will honor Jesus. We have 9,980 minutes in that week to honor mothers. The same is true of Father’s Day and Veterans’ Day and Independence Day and any other American holiday that may happen to fall on a Sunday. We will continue to observe Christmas and Easter and Advent and Pentecost and Lent because these focus our attention on the Lord Jesus.
Our sermons will, ultimately, point us to Christ. As Paul told the Corinthians, he had determined to know nothing among them except this: Jesus Christ and him crucified. Here at New City we preach Jesus and we will continue to preach Jesus. Every sermon should be preached in full awareness that communion will follow. If the sermon—even those that may be hard-hitting—does not point us to Christ and him crucified, it isn’t a Christian sermon. Even in our prayers for one another we pray, ultimately, for Christ to be revealed in our lives, whether we pray for a loved one with health issues or for a marriage that is struggling or for a believer who is walking a dark and lonely path.
In short, we have been, we are, and we will be a gospel-centered church. Everything we do and everything we say has as its ultimate aim the revelation of the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. The truth is, we’ve always done it this way—and we always will.