Church Traditions that don’t work for me

This is an expanded version of a post I shared on Instagram here. I don’t like to overly criticise the church or alienate those who find these helpful — I’d much rather focus on positive and hopeful signs of new life — however, it turns out that being controversial makes for very engaging social media content!

Of course with the limited space for text, I did title my Instagram post “Church Traditions I find outdated” which likely contributed to the significant conversation it generated. But ultimately, I stand by these statements… Read my thoughts below, and then you can decide: am I getting controversial yet?

Firstly, to highlight up front, it’s ok if you find these things helpful or meaningful — I’m not here to say my understanding is the right one! I’m just sharing my experience and perspective. I’m keen to highlight that some of the assumptions churches make don’t always resonate with people. Even if they are traditions we’ve had for hundreds of years… the church can change.

Keeping Sundays “Holy”

We can engage in ‘church’ any day of the week. I spend many of my weekends with family, shopping, and having fun. I don’t feel a need to keep Sunday as a special day — as long as I’m making space or feeding my spirituality at some point in the week. Sometimes that involves going to a church building for worship, but not always.

We don’t have to have church at 10.30am on a Sunday.

Sermons don’t work for me

I don’t think Christian community and discipleship should revolve around listening to one person speak at the front. I find a discussion far more helpful. Faith isn't about rules or believing the right thing, so why do we need to be told what to believe? I’d rather church was more of a discussion club. Everything should be open to being discussed. We don’t need to come to any answers or find any ‘truth’. There are no answers for me. The discussion itself is what’s valuable, and making space for us to be confident in not believing the same things.

We don’t have to have sermons or preachers

It was interesting to receive a comment saying: as a preacher they like to craft a talk… but are not always that keen on listening to a sermon! “Not sure what that says… I only attend worship when I’m leading it”

I don’t enjoy singing Hymns

Now things are getting a bit more interesting… there wasn’t enough space to fully explore this on Instagram, so the headline statement is a little bold. Church music often feels outdated (and modern worship songs don’t reflect my faith).

We don’t have to sing old hymns.
I should say I’m not against music, quite the opposite! But I’m not particularly into singing… And the hymns vs songs debate is always interesting — for me neither quite hit the spot because they aren’t my preferred genre / music tastes. Lyrics is a whole other topic! Hymns can have great theology, but I find the old language off putting.

Some people resonated with this — one said: “I go to 8am services because I prefer Said Mass and don’t really like singing hymns. And modern worship songs are too cringe for me!”

Others didn’t share this view — one said: “I enjoy some good ol’ hymn singing”, and it’s true there can be a lovely nostalgia to some of these things we did years ago, and they can be really meaningful for people. But what will our children find nostalgic in the years to come? I hope there's a variety of new options to connect with that build on our past.

But one thing we all agreed on was that music is important. Just many of us find connection in other genres and “non-christian” music (not a fan of that phrase — I don’t think there’s a distinction, it’s just all music) — and not in what we sing at church.

People added to the conversation: “I use music all the time and any music has spiritual resonance for me”, and “I listen to more heavy metal and the latest Bruce Dickinson album is pure theology but I doubt he’d agree!”

Rituals and following a script

We repeat a lot of old words that hold little meaning for me: the peace, the grace, liturgies, the lord’s prayer etc. (there’s many examples).

Again, a broad sweeping statement — I do find some repetition and form of words helpful (I’m not throwing it all out the window!) but I get frustrated we just blindly repeat words and liturgies full of jargon.

We don’t have to use old language.

One comment added to the discussion: “I do use liturgy fairly regularly from the Northumbria community, but morning prayer I find I use the prayers in my head at various points depending what’s going on”

Another said: “Every now and then I’ll stick the New Zealand Lord’s Prayer into a service I’m leading. Initially people are like ‘ooh no this isn’t the Lord’s Prayer’ and then they warm up to it”

Communion isn’t that important for me

Probably our most notable ritual as a church, but it just seems strange to me. I’d much rather have a meal with people.

I’d go as far as to say I think it makes us seem like a cult. I’m probably getting controversial now!

We don’t have to share in bread and wine.

For me, any food or drink can be communion… body/blood of Christ. And in my view, anyone can (should be able to) administer it. The way we do it in church just feels too rigid and like religious rule-following. I don’t feel a need to participate (and often don’t). But I would share in a meal in remembrance of Jesus. We need to reimagine how we do Holy Communion.

I know many out there who share this view but of course many (most?) Christians hold a different opinion. One comment on Instagram said: “Eucharist is really important to me. An important ritual that connects us with our faith”

It’s difficult to know how much I’m in the minority on some of these — but I don’t mind. It’s sometimes helpful to highlight what doesn’t work for me. This is the fun of reshaping the church — how far can we take it? What is the essence of our faith, is it our church traditions? That leads nicely into…

Focussing too much on the bible

I’ve explored and written about this in multiple places, and will continue to do so, so won’t overstate this here as I know it’s a little “out there” for many.

I think it’s important, but not our only source of wisdom. We put reverence on reading it in church but don’t discuss its limitations. We follow Jesus, not a collection of books written by men.

We don’t have to have bible readings in church.

It’s hopefully not controversial to say we all interpret the bible differently. I believe that to be effective it needs historical context, scholarly unpacking, details of translation / original language & clear communication. For me, a church can be God and Jesus-focused without idolising the bible (not ignoring it, just putting it in context).

But it’s also important to recognise God can grow us in different ways. For the first 1,500 years of church history, most Christians did zero personal Bible reading, but God still worked in their lives.

The Bible doesn’t form the cornerstone of my faith. I often question everything that it says and I believe a fair amount of it is metaphorical rather than literal. The central question for me is not “is it biblical?” The central question is, “does it lead to human flourishing?”

I think all these things can be held together comfortably in our modern understandings. One is not better than the other, and my understanding doesn’t invalidate your understanding. I offer here a different perspective. We hold it all together in diversity and unity. Making space for everyone.

Do you resonate?

It was lovely to have a few get in touch to confirm that these opinions on church traditions do indeed resonate: “Controversial to some maybe, but good to know some people share the same view as me”

One final comment from my post on Instagram: “Jesus spent much of his time on Earth challenging church / religious leaders to try and loosen their grip on the parts of their religion and traditions that they were holding on to far too tightly. Maybe it’s time for us to do the same?”