Greg Jones, who served as dean of Duke Divinity School from
1997 to 2010, recently spoke to the Ministries Council of the Cooperative
Baptist Fellowship. His presentation focused on “deep trends affecting
Christian institutions from the ‘digital revolution’ and the growing lack of
trust in institutions among Americans to ‘reconfiguring denominations and
emerging forms of congregating.’”
Michael Cheuk, chair of the Ministries Council, responded, “Very helpful to me was the concept of ‘traditioned
innovation.’ Traditioned innovation honors the past but is not imprisoned by
it. Neither does it innovate by making things up as we go along.”
Cheuk’s
comments remind us of the rich tradition of the church. When we study church history, we discover a
multitude of ways to worship, teach, fellowship, ministry, and witness. Some are complementary while others are
contradictory. Under the leadership of the Holy Spirit, God’s people have used
varied approaches to be on mission with God.
When we
try something new in the church, we are always building on the past. Our past experiences can both inform and
inhibit our progress. Wise leadership is
necessary to help a congregation honor the past while laying aside those
approaches which no longer work.
Early
in the last century, Baptists in the South embraced a discipleship movement
that began as “Baptist Young People’s Union” and evolved into “Training Union”
and then “Discipleship Training.” I have
not run into any churches lately that are still doing “Discipleship Training”
on Sunday nights but I still hear the lament, “Everything when downhill when we
lost ‘Training Union.’”
In
reality, a number of things have contributed to slippage in church attendance and
influence in recent years, not just the loss a particular program. There was a time when the denominational program
of “Discipleship Training” did not exist, but people were being discipled. The need for disciple development continues and
most church leaders have discovered that disciple formation has been happening in
many forms and varied methodologies for the past two thousand years.
Our
opportunity today is to tap into those rich resources and continue the task of
growing disciples in our churches. We
don’t suffer from a lack of possibilities.
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