The "Traditional" Church (Part 1)

"Tradition is the living teachings of dead men; Traditionalism is the dead teachings of living men" - Dr. Ergun Caner; President- Liberty University

In a society and church culture that continues to evolve every "90 seconds", it still amazes me to this day how the "traditional church" stays alive. In the context of what I call "traditional", I am talking about the good ol' days of church past. The time when Sunday School started at 9:30 sharp as roll call was taken and your Sunday School books were opened. At the 10:45 bell to conclude Sunday School, you would than have 15 minutes to go to the restroom, get a drink of water and make plans to go to Luby's after church with an another church family. 11:00 O'clock sharp the choir director will make his way to the platform and ask the church to open their hymn books to page such and such as they sing all 5 stanzas of "When the roll is called up yonder." After 3 songs it was like clock work; the offering was taken up, the special song for the morning was sung and the pastor had 15 minutes left to preach his 3 points, give an invitation, make the announcements and conclude at 12:00 o'clock sharp! Those were the good ol' days huh? What I just described was one form of "tradition." Yet in 2007, these kinds of churches are few and far between. However, allow me to present to you a "shocker"; as your pastor I want to be a traditional church. In other words, my desire is that FCOH becomes in it's growth a "traditional" congregation. You may be thinking that I may have lost my mind, however, it is not the kind of tradition that I just described. The traditional church I want to be is a different kind and form of the word "tradition." Because of time and space, I am going to break down this blog into (2) parts. I do want you at your leisure to study this verse found in 2 Thessalonians 2:15. I want to describe in context what Paul is telling the church in Thessalonica, and the principles that we at FCOH should hold fast as well. I will begin part 2 tomorrow evening. Until Next Time- Pastor Sammy