Jim Harnish / Visiting the Hoosier State

 

I grabbed my little digicam and snapped this picture of Jim Harnish during lunch today. We were meeting with Indiana's bishop, and the pastors of Indiana's 15 largest United Methodist Churches. We encouraged each other, strategized clergy development and ate food out of white cardboard boxes.  

A few years ago, Jim almost died of congestive heart failure and his brush with death has prompted his recent writings about "congregational cardiology."  He argues we must all die to the wrong things (like contentment with the status quo). He also argues we must die for the right things (like surrendering our will to God's will and receiving new life in Christ). 

Hearing Jim juxtapose "traditionalism" (as "the dead faith of the living") and "tradition" (as "the living faith of the dead") gave me pause.

I munched a fork-full of curiously seasoned coleslaw I'd dug from a small plastic bowl hidden in the white box, and began to wonder how important it is for us to honor the "tradition" of the Church, without embracing the conventionality of "traditionalism." A lot of people are open to the"traditional" teachings of the Church, but they recoil from orthodoxy's pervasive resentment of emerging cultural mores, technologies and social media innovations. At least, it seems that way to me.

Matthew 15:1-3  -  Then some Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, "Why do Your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread." And He answered and said to them, "Why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?

 

Comments

[Jim Preisig]

Hey Mark,

Just preached on this last weekend at the Summit and have an ongoing conversation on my blog (www.jimpreisig.com) regarding technology and tradition. It seems to come down to what is essential vs. what is secondary, at best. Christ was emphatic as to his mission, as articulated in Luke 4:18: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to bring bring Good News…” Everything else secondary. To make anything else primary is a subtle form of idolatry.

The problem is when Christians and churches loose their theological focus, they tend to emphasize and elevate tradition and lose sight of the essential mission.

Jaroslav Pelikan said, “Tradition is the living faith of the dead,
traditionalism is the dead faith of the living."

Jim

[Mark Beeson]

Thanks Jim.
Good word on the topic, and good sourcing for the "tradition" vs "traditionalism" quote. I appreciate it.