Leadership Journal

Dave White has found a way to present the Easter story to thousands of non-Christians in a public space. He uses tradition. It may sound impossible, but he represents a growing trend that blends historic Christian worship with contemporary forms. In Dave's case, this means taking the traditional Stations of the Cross, which tell the story of Jesus' death and resurrection, and recasting them for his community in Hamilton, New Zealand.

Dave began by gathering a group of artists to creatively reinterpret the Stations. With the support of the local city council, Dave and his team spent all night setting up experiential stations along a trail in the Hamilton public gardens. Four thousand visitors came through the breathtaking scene. At one station, each person was given a cross-shaped ice cube to carry on a leaf to help them reflect on the event. At another station, a lake was filled with hundreds of rubber ducks with a rifle aiming at them, symbolizing Jesus' fate.

Dave and his artists were taking an old story and retelling it using very new symbols. And they managed to do it in a way that not only attracted non-Christians but actually got them participating in the story themselves. In a way, Dave was improvising with tradition—taking a very ancient ritual and putting it in a contemporary frame.

In one of his least known parables, Jesus suggests the Kingdom of God is like a teacher who goes to the cupboard and takes out both old and new treasures (Matt. 13:52). At a time when culture is changing so rapidly, we must not forget that old things have value and tradition can be good. Our own faith has been passed down over the centuries from one generation to another. With 2,000 years of tradition, Christianity offers a real sense of weight; it is a much needed anchor in a fluid world. But treasure may also be found among new things. It isn't either old or new, but finding value in both.

In the United Kingdom where I serve, something intriguing has been taking shape in the area of worship. It's not uncommon to find communities practicing rituals, lighting candles, projecting icons, and regularly using liturgy around Communion, which is becoming more central in many gatherings. The irony is that many of these churches turned away from traditional worship a few decades ago when tradition became a dirty word.

Some reacted negatively to tradition, as many still do, because they saw it used to defend a flawed status quo and squelch innovation. But there is a significant difference between tradition and traditionalism. Christian tradition is living; it is not closed or completed, and it is not opposed to innovation.

Traditionalism, on the other hand, is dead and static. It is championed by those who want to do things "the way they have always been done."

Part of faithfully carrying a tradition forward is keeping it truly alive. To keep reforming religious tradition is part of being faithful to that tradition. This reformatory impulse is at the heart of our Christian heritage. And when tradition is kept alive, it actually subverts the traditionalism that attempts to the choke life from a community.

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