Tradition vs. Innovation

When a we are faced with a challenge, we have two choices. We can either go with what we have always been taught, or, we can innovate. The wonderful world of Wikipedia defines innovation like this: “The term innovation means a new way of doing something. It may refer to incremental, radical, and revolutionary changes in thinking, products, processes, or organizations.” This means that we either must keep doing things as we have always done or we must come up with something new. Erwin McManus said, “The religiously civilized love tradition; the barbarian spirit loves a challenge.” Now here we are presented with a question…  Why on earth would anyone ever want to innovate? Why would you want to come up with a new way of doing the same old things? The answer… a wise man has said multiple times, “If you always do what you’ve always done, you will always get what you’ve always got.” That is so true. If we are unhappy with the way our world is being run and the direction that our country is headed, then it is obviously time for some innovation.

How does one begin to innovate? All you simply have to do is encounter the Maker. You simply cannot meet the CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE and remain the same (The Barbarian Way). When we meet God, we can not help but be overcome and swept away by his power. God is not calling us to remain true to tradition and keep an old law. He even tells us in Romans 7:6

“But now we are discharged from the Law and have terminated all intercourse with it, having died to what once restrained and held us captive. So now we serve not under the old code of written regulations, but of the Spirit in newness”

Do you know what this means for us?! This is God’s way of saying “CUT LOOSE!” He doesn’t want us to remain on the same beaten path! Yes, He has given us guidelines on how to glorify him(aka The Bible), but He never says , “This is exactly how you should live your life.” This is why I do believe innovation is the key to a radical and uncivilized faith. God said a spirit of newness! This means that once we have encountered Him, we are never to remain the same or follow our old traditions of life. Here is the challenge we have been presented with, be dangerous in your faith. Now, what are you gonna do about it? Will you choose to innovate?

Are we complacent christians?

Who is more righteous? The man who pastors a church of 45,000 and makes $100,000 a year or the man who sells everything to go to Africa and share the good news with lost people? The answer is actually neither. Both are fulfilling god’s calling on their life. Even in the life of Jesus we see that he attended church services, but that was not the end of His faith. He was not content to just get up early every Sunday and attend a service. He went out to the world to share His love! If we are truly Christ followers than why do we constantly find ourselves imitating only half way? What is holding us down? What is the point of learning and growing in countless church services and never applying? Do we always have to act so civilized and have nice little meetings in neat little buildings? Why is our love for god not overflowing into the streets? in acts, the church is shown as it was meant to be. it was not a building that opened its door from 8:30 to 12:30 every Sunday morning. It was a group of radicals who were so overcome by love that they could not stand to hide it. They shared everything they had and only took what they needed.

After getting his behind whooped for several hundred years, Satan developed a new strategy. His plan is no longer to tear down every church in the world, but rather to make the people inside them complacent. If he can keep the people happy in their Sunday morning faith, he has successfully got the upper hand. If he can keep us as sayers of the word and not doers, he has rendered us useless for advancing the kingdom of God.

Once again, there is nothing wrong with someone who feels called to be a preacher; they are living out God’s calling in their life. They pour out what God has shared with them every week, but far too often it stops there. What percent of people can say that they take what they learn and apply it every day of their lives? God did not commission us to become spiritually obese; he called us to share His love and to make disciples of all nations. He didn’t even call us to oober Christianity and a perfectly sinless life lived in a cave. There is no possible way we can grow close to god without sharing what he has done. It just doesn’t make sense to hold the secret to escaping eternal damnation and keep it a secret. Can we really love Him and not be so obsessed that we don’t share His love with every person we come in contact with? Now that you have read this, I pray that you have a better idea of whether you are a simply Christian or a Christ imitator.  I will end with Matthew 28:18-20

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”