Tradition and Change

I was in my old parish in Knoxville, Tennessee, where they love me still.  They forgot all my bad qualities.  All the adult faces, parents, grandparent types, I remember.  We change slowly in facial look when we get older.  The change I saw was in the children.  They are adults now, nurses, teachers and such.  They have changed so much.  They have matured.  They were nurtured, loved and supported by parents and community.  As young adults, they still come to church.

The church is like this.  Part of the church is  tradition, that changes ever so slowly.  This part nurtures other younger parts of the Body of Christ, so that these younger parts can grow and become the new tradition someday.  If we keep a good balance, tradition and openness to change, we will be fine as church.  Nostalgia has no place in this process.  It is narrow and fear-based.  The young people I met learned from their parents and grandparents, but do not want to live like them.  Party telephone and rotary lines, had their place.  We call it history.  It belongs in the past.