5 Church Commands that are Breaking the Commands of Scripture

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Every church has rules, written and unwritten, that help create the climate of a church and infuses it with its DNA. Some examples of typical church rules include music is to be played with a piano and organ, the church is to help the less fortunate, people are expected to dress their best for church, and church members are expected to share their faith with others.

Most of the time, churches will intermingle commands of Scripture and traditions of the church to the point where it's difficult to discern between the two. But one of the greatest tasks of church leadership is doing exactly that, discerning between commands from Scripture and traditions of the church.

In Matthew 15, the Pharisees (surprise, surprise) are coming after Jesus for breaking the traditions of the synagogue. "Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, 'Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands before they eat!'"

To which Jesus promptly replies, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition?" Matthew 15:1-3. Jesus then tears into them for failing the central command to honor their parents by not caring for their physical needs when they get older, which the Pharisees were doing and using a tradition of the synagogue as cover.

Why is this all important? Because Jesus himself made it important when he made that vital distinction between traditions and commands. When the traditions of the church break the commands of Scripture, then you've got problems. Here are five prominent church traditions that are breaking the commands of Scripture.

Traditional music is to be adhered to in the church even if it alienates and drives away the next generation.

People love their music. But a stubborn adherence to traditional music simply because that's the way it's always been done sends a clear message to the next generation that they are not valued in the church. And with the Millennials walking away from the faith in record numbers, they're getting that message loud and clear. And this isn’t saying that contemporary music will magically solve everything. The secret's not the music, it's the heart behind the willingness to change a style of music to reach a new generation. We don't know what kind of music our great-grandchildren will listen to one day, but rest assured we won’t like it. But pray we have a heart that values reaching the next generation over our preferred style of music. Is your church willing to change their style of music to reach a new generation?

There will be much formal pomp and circumstance in church services because it best reflects the heart of God.

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We are great about putting on a show. We want to give our best. We want to honor the glory of God. But amidst all the formality of church services, we can easily lose something even more important: authenticity and community. The temple in Jesus' day was full of pomp and circumstance. And see what Jesus did there. Our church services can become so formal that they become inauthentic, where we deal only with the surface and never get to the heart. Formality also kills community, a vital aspect of any living church. Is the formality of your church services killing its authenticity and community?

The goal of preaching is to explain the Bible and transfer as much knowledge as possible.

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Preachers have a problem. Many of us have degrees, degrees from seminaries that we feel we need to justify, seminaries that taught us a specific method of preaching that will in fact kill the church one day soon if we're not careful. Many preachers approach a sermon with the goal of explaining a Bible text. The simplest and most convenient method is to preach verse-by-verse. It's clean, it's simple, it's methodical. But it misses the point entirely. The center of the Christian faith is not a book. At the center of our faith is a person, Jesus. And when Jesus preached and taught, he did not walk his disciples verse-by-verse through the Old Testament to increase their Bible knowledge. He used dynamic illustrations, challenging questions and intriguing stories to convey truths about the Kingdom of God. When preachers force the people to come to the Bible rather than bring the Bible to people, we're missing out on the heartbeat of how Jesus taught. Do the sermons in your church have the primary goal of transferring information or transforming the heart?

People need to clean up the mess of their life before they come to church.

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This tradition is so prevalent it's not even funny. We've created churches for church people: people who have their lives figured out, people who are still in their first marriages, people who have never struggled with addiction, people who grew up in church themselves. If your life is a mess, then you need to stay out of church until you get your life right, then you can be welcomed by the church. If you don't think this tradition exists, then go and find someone with a bunch of tattoos or piercings, or someone in town with a known drug or alcohol problem, or that woman who's slept with half the town, and walk with her into First (pick a denomination) Church and see what happens. The Father's heart is clearly revealed in Luke 15 when the father ran towards his prodigal son and embraced him, mess and all. How many churches reject that because they don't want to deal with the mess? In what radical ways is your church embracing the messes of your community?

The church will outsource missionary work to professional organizations.

Mission organizations abound today and that's a good thing. What's not good is that churches have outsourced the missionary mindset as well. Missions is something done 'out there' in nations far away. And the requirements of missions are met if a church drops a check in the mail. Wrong. The commands of Scripture are clear that we all as believers have a responsibility to be engaged in it. And missions is not a location, it's a mindset. Every church should be a missionary outpost in its community, pioneering innovative ways to break through barriers and reach people for Jesus. If your church isn't actively reaching people in your community (and not just stealing believers from other churches), then your church is not fully engaged in the mission mandate of Acts 1:8. Simply dropping a check in the mail does not absolve us of this responsibility. Is your church actively reaching non-believers in your community?