‘When You Want Church to be Church We’ll Still be Here – (offering) Traditional Services’ – What is ‘traditional’ anyhow?

I was driving to the hospital to visit someone the other day when I came across a church sporting a sign that read, ‘When you want church to be church, we’ll still be here – traditional services.’

It was a sign that was so unbelievable that I had to actually circle back for a second look (and, of course, a picture). as I was gazing upon this sign and the message that it bore, I found myself asking two questions: 1) does such a sign really encourage people to give this church a try? and, 2) what constitutes a ‘traditional service’ anyhow?

The answer to the first question would be well-nigh impossible to answer without talking to the pastor or someone who attends this church, but my sneaking suspicion is that it is not a messag that encourages passersby to say, ‘let’s give this church a try’.

The far more interesting question for me is what is meant by the term ‘traditional’. Are we talking about 80’s traditional with sappy choruses and readings from the NIV? Are we talking 60’s and 70’s traditional with Gaither songs and Bible readings from the KJV? Will the services make use of the Book of Common Prayer? Will the pastor wear clerical robes? Are services going to be conducted in Latin? Or are we going with early church ‘traditional’ which largely resembled synagogue worship?

Tags: traditional services, wacky church signs
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