Ministry in a Multi-Cultural and Unchurched Society

Sess i on 7: Chur ch Mat ter s and Go i ng Back to the Future

117

Specific traditions seek to express and live out this faithfulness to the Authoritative and Great Traditions through their worship, teaching, and service. They seek to make the Gospel clear within new cultures or sub-cultures, speaking and modeling the hope of Christ into new situations shaped by their own set of questions posed in light of their own unique circumstances. These movements, therefore, seek to contextualize the Authoritative tradition in a way that faithfully and effectively leads new groups of people to faith in Jesus Christ, and incorporates those who believe into the community of faith that obeys his teachings and gives witness of him to others.

~ Terry Cornett and Don Davis. Traditions . Wichita: TUMI, 2005.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

D. Implications for us today: How might we resuscitate the Great Tradition in our largely Protestant contexts?

1. What might be the limits of our consensus ? Our reference to the Ecumenical Councils and Creeds is, therefore, focused on those Councils which retain a widespread agreement in the Church among Catholics, Orthodox, and Protestants. While Catholics and the Orthodox share common agreement on the first seven councils, Protestants tend to affirm and use primarily the first four. Therefore, those councils which continue to be shared by the whole Church are completed with the Council of Chalcedon in 451 ( Ibid ).

2. What is the final rule of debate, dialogue, and practice? The canonical Scriptures as they have been taught in connection with the Great Tradition!

II. We Need to Reaffirm Our Biblical Identity: The Great Tradition Affirmed the Church as One

John 17.20-23 (ESV) – I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, [21] that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. [22]