When novelty trumps tradition
How do we reach our culture with the Gospel message? For many Christians, making the Good News relevant to our culture means focusing increasingly on our experience of God, and less on tradition and church history.
In an article at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries, Stuart McAllister argues that Christian tradition–with its emphasis on Bible study and the pursuit of truth–is vital to our faith, and must not be set aside in the pressure to be novel and relevant in our evangelism and discipleship. What might we be losing when we turn our backs on our faith tradition?
I am not suggesting all things modern, or post-modern, are bad. I am asking us to take a look at the underlying values or transformational factors that we may be unaware of, and which may inadvertently be smuggled in. As Marshall McLuhan suggested in the 1960s, “The medium is the message.” The question we need to ask then is what medium might corrupt, distract, or deform the message?
Read the whole article, and consider what McAllister’s words of caution might mean for your church worship or personal spiritual life.
