Tradition vs. Innovation: Which Way to Excellence?
In their forthcoming book, In Spirit and Truth , Edward Phillips and the Rev. Sara Webb Phillips counter the “worship wars” dichotomy between the traditional and the contemporary. An associate professor of the practice of Christian worship at Duke Divinity School and a United Methodist pastor, respectively, they affirm, “All Christian worship is both traditional and contemporary.” Worship that ignores the stories, Scriptures, creeds, liturgies, and practices that comprise more than 3,000 years' history is theologically and experientially one-dimensional and shallow, they contend.
At the same time, however, worship that ignores contemporary realities, opportunities, and challenges is theologically and experientially lifeless and frozen. Rigid traditionalism results in “the living faith of the dead becoming the dead faith of the living.”
What is true of worship is valid for the pursuit of excellence in ministry: All Christian ministry is both traditional and innovative. Where do we look for resources that will help us define, form, and sustain excellence? The Sustaining Pastoral Excellence programs are finding insights and formative practices in both ancient and contemporary sources.
All Christian ministry begins, continues, and ends in the ancient and continuing story of God's creation and salvation of the cosmos. However else excellence is defined, it must be evaluated by how faithfully it passes on and participates in God's finished yet always unfolding Salvation Story. The church's excellence lies in its embodiment of God's historic, current, and future reign of compassion, justice, generosity, and joy.
The church and its ministry originate and are grounded in God's mighty acts in history, and the church's life and mission are empowered in the present by the Holy Spirit experienced in a community of memory, engagement, and hope. In our pursuit of excellence in the church and its ministry, we “look to the rock from which we were hewn, and to the quarry from which [we] were dug” (Isaiah 51:1). We also “press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Jesus Christ” (Philippians 3:14).
The Sustaining Pastoral Excellence programs seek to balance tradition and innovation. Hundreds of pastors are discovering anew the rich resources in the tradition as they read the early church fathers and mothers such as Gregory of Nyssa and Teresa of Avila. They are discovering in fresh ways the power of practicing daily the offices and praying the Psalms. The pastoral imagination is being enlivened as clergy gather with colleagues from varied theological traditions and ecclesial practices in pursuit of the goal of participating more faithfully in The Story of God's mighty acts of salvation.
At the same time, peer groups are learning new insights and discovering additional tools through engaging developments in the social sciences and modern technology. They are gaining fresh perception of the ancient story through the lens of emerging biology and cosmology. Pastoral agility and acuity are being enhanced as peers struggle together to understand and live the old, old story in a heretofore unknown world of instant communication, extraterrestrial exploration, medical marvels, and potential cataclysmic destruction.
Throughout the church's history, those who exhibited excellence in ministry have remained firmly anchored in Tradition while navigating the often turbulent currents of their contemporary contexts. From Moses to Martin Luther King, Jr., from the Mary the Mother of Jesus to Mother Theresa of Calcutta, from St. Augustine to Pope John Paul III, from St. Francis of Assisi to Mary McCloud Bethune, excellence in ministry has emerged from deep encounter with what God has done, faithful engagement with what God is doing, and strong confidence in what God shall do!
Kenneth L. Carder is director of Pulpit & Pew: The Duke Center for Excellence in Ministry and professor of the practice of pastoral formation at Duke Divinity School. He was bishop of the Mississippi Area of the United Methodist Church from 2000 to 2004 and the Nashville Area of the UMC from 1992 to 2000.
