In Defense of Our Traditions
Mark Tooley on Denominationalism
Recently, a friend who belongs to the conservative Presbyterian Church in America accompanied me to a service at my United Methodist local church. The hierarchy of my denomination is famously liberal, of course. But my suburban congregation in northern Virginia is conservative and evangelical. After the usual service of praise songs, traditional hymns, children’s sermon, prayer, Scripture reading, and sermon, my friend commented that my supposedly Wesleyan church was indistinguishable from his supposedly Calvinist church.
He was not so much being critical as observant. There was nothing to offend, and much to inspire, an orthodox Christian at my local church.
Fading Distinctives
But most persons who “church shop” and who are concerned about theological orthodoxy can attest that denominational distinctions among the conservative churches in the denominations have faded. (It is the liberal churches in those denominations that, while sitting very lightly to their church’s doctrinal heritage, hold very tightly to the distinctives of their denominational identity.)
Some external differences persist, of course. Some clergy wear robes; others do not. Some are more structured in their liturgy while others are more “open to the Spirit.” Some say the ancient Creeds; others do not. But my impression is that a lot of congregations, like my own, strike compromises, including praise songs and ancient hymns, organ music and guitars, recitation of church creeds with personal testimonies, traditional sermons with occasional “skits.” The trend, surely, at least among Evangelicals in the denominations, is for an increasingly generic form of worship, preaching, and ministry.
As a liturgical traditionalist, I confess that I cringe when costumed performers strut into the sanctuary to illustrate the gospel through drama. I prefer a sermon to a choreographed dialogue, just as I favor Charles Wesley’s hymns, with their theological complexity and depth, over repetitive ditties with simple messages whose lyrics do not exceed fifty words.
A recent poll of my church’s membership showed, to my disappointment, that 70 percent enjoyed the skits. I’m sure the praise songs are equally popular. Oh, well. Stylistically, they do not appeal to me, but their messages are scriptural. Besides, the skit-and-praise-song people have to join me in singing “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God,” and reciting creeds and prayers that remain in seventeenth-century English. This sort of Christian compromise is sometimes trying but is still mostly unobjectionable.
But these compromises have helped create a generic evangelical style of worship that is nationally recognizable and not necessarily unpleasant, even to the traditionalist, and this has aroused some concern among those of us who value our denominational distinctions. And it has helped persuade many that America’s old denominational structures are destined to fade, and that their distinctive identities and contributions cannot, and probably should not, be saved.
I recently attended an Assemblies of God church near my parents’ weekend home in West Virginia. Although tucked away in Appalachia, the congregation neither rolled on a sawdust floor nor summoned the serpents. Aside from the multiple raised hands, the service was little different from that of my church or a hundred others in the suburbs outside Washington, D.C.
Competition & Mainline Failures
Mark Tooley directs the United Methodist committee of the Institute on Religion and Democracy (www.ird-renew.org) in Washington, D.C.
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