Tradition
June 28, 2006
It often seems that tradition is in the eyes of the beholder.
A friend visited for a while with our large suburban congregation and suggested that what she discovered was a heritage of worship that was part town hall meeting, part local talent show, and part lecture series. Perhaps there are other congregations whose Ordo follows in a similar path.
As pastor of the congregation for a little over two years, I have been faced with a number of questions related to local tradition. Making appeals to the great traditions of the church and faith don’t carry much freight for people who mark tradition according to what their parents taught them or what the last great preacher suggested.
For large churches, change often comes slowly with much conversation – especially if change is rare and sometimes has been disastrous.
Bearing this in mind, we have created safe spaces for conversations about worship. The conversation was structured by a graduate student we engaged for the purpose of exploration in small group and one-on-one interviews. As you might imagine, our conversations about worship were all over the map. We discovered yearnings amongst some for dimensions of worship that we did not offer at the time our questions were asked.
In large measure, those expressed yearnings related to a sense of emotion and involvement that some felt was lacking in our more traditional church setting. So we decided to create some space for innovation. We are currently in the process of adding a new service of worship. The idea of adding an alternate worship service is nothing new. What is new (thus far) is the cooperative spirit being shared as we progress. This spirit is the outcome of much communication in many different forms. Since we began the process with an open conversation, the continuing development of new worship has become a shared conversation in meaning and problem-solving for the congregation.
A friend is joining us in a few weeks to offer a worship service that demonstrates for the congregation the way that we can add a “contemporary” feel while also rediscovering the riches of sacramental practice. I suppose this is a small move toward "emerging worship." Learning to dance in large churches is, as some have coined the phrase, like waltzing a gorilla – so small steps are alright.
One purpose of our “trial” worship service is to expand a conversation about experience, meaning, and tradition. One small thing we will do on that day is outlined in an idea you might try (listed in the ritual section - “Wade by the Water”). This is an example of the “small steps” I named above.
Ultimately, exploration of tradition in local context relates to the relational character of ministry. It’s been my experience that time and trust open pathways for conversation and innovation. It also has been my experience that larger numbers of people require larger amounts of time for conversation about any change.
When we create avenues for trust and conversation in congregations, then our boundaries for tradition and imagination begin to expand. As leaders, we create room for congregants to see their relationship to other believers in every time and place. If tradition is ultimately a kind of “handing down,” then one task of leadership is to join hand to hand through the gentle art of friendly conversation.