WOW WHAT A COMMITTEE THIS WAS!!‏

"At one of our Southern Baptist Universities I recently participated in a confab in which the question being considered was this: Name some things we do as churches that lean more toward the “traditions of men” than the authority of Scripture. I was surprised that no one wanted to begin the discussion. So I began for them. I said “well…how about Sunday night worship services?” I went on to question Wednesday night services, the 11:00 a.m. starting time on Sunday morning services and that opened the flood gates to a whole host of things that we do not because they have any scriptural basis but rather…well…because we’ve always done it that way in the past. Now I’m not saying that there is anything WRONG with any of these things. However the question on the table that day was Is it a tradition on men OR is it scriptural! With those as the only two choices you can see where my conclusion lay that day. I said simply that it would be easier to figure out what we do that IS scriptural than to name all the things we do that ARE the traditions of men! I’m not trying to start a “movement” to start or stop anything. I’m simply trying to get us as church people to analyze just what it is we’re defending when we defend! Just because we’ve always done it a certain way in the past doesn’t make something right OR wrong but neither does it place any of it above question or consideration. The traditions of men are not the most evil things in the world but they are also never (by the passage of time) elevated to the level of being scriptural either. If you want to know why the church loses more and more of its relevance as each year passes look no further than the infighting that goes on amongst us as we declare either that churches who no longer meet on Sunday night are evil OR that churches who DO (meet on Sunday night) are inherently more spiritual because they DO! To take the foolishness to one more level of laughability…we had a group of farmers at a former church of mine who wanted to move the service time on Wednesday night UP by 30 minutes so they could get out earlier and get to bed at a more appropriate time for “crack of dawn” risers like themselves. When it came to the floor for a vote I (as moderator) asked that ONLY those who actually attended Wednesday night service be allowed to vote because if you don’t so much as even come…what difference does it possibility make to YOU when we start!! You would have thought I made a motion to burn the Bible on the altar! When we want to make the rules OTHERS are forced to follow that WE have no intention or history of following ourselves that is Phariseeism at its height…and all in the name of promoting the traditions of men!! All I am saying is this. The “world” is watching as we defend the indefensible and like Don Quixote strike out at windmills and straw men. Then we want to complain when nobody takes us seriously. If you look closely you will discover as I AND the committee who studied this question that it’s easier to find what we DO that’s scriptural than it is to even TRY to find and name all the things we do that are the traditions of men! It’s not who’s right and who’s wrong…it’s about what is inherently scriptural and what is NOT!"