Does “We Have Always Done It This Way” Settle the Question?

A familiar answer deserves a further question

A congregation has used a paper sign up book for years. Someone proposes another way to arrange volunteer duties. One member remembers the confusion the book once solved. Another sees the people who cannot attend the meeting where it is passed around. Both have noticed something worth hearing. “We have always done it this way” begins an account of the practice. It does not finish the account.

Inherited practices can carry wisdom, affection and reliable ways of helping one another. They can also outlast the circumstances that made them useful. A Christian community needs more than a contest between affection for the past and excitement about the future. We need to identify what has been entrusted to us, what a particular arrangement serves, and whether it still serves that purpose. ¹

Samuel Scheffler describes traditions as enterprises in which people participate across generations. Their history can give participants a reason to continue them. He also distinguishes having a reason from being under an absolute obligation. We can give a familiar practice serious consideration without granting it authority over every future decision. ⁷

Boyd, Richerson and Henrich describe how communities inherit practical knowledge too complex for one person to reinvent. Their account of cultural learning gives us reason to examine an unfamiliar practice before assuming that unexplained means useless. Ask the experienced volunteer what difficulty the arrangement was designed to solve. ²⁷

Jesus tests a tradition by the command it obstructs

Mark 7 opens with a dispute about customary handwashing. Jesus answers through Isaiah and Moses. His example is Corban, a declaration of a gift that prevents help from reaching a parent. He says, “Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered” (verse 13). The religious defense of a practice has collided with the command it should have served. ¹

Elizabeth Shively observes that Jesus uses received Scripture to evaluate received practice. His argument does not depend on declaring every inheritance worthless. It asks which authority has priority when an interpretation permits disobedience. A familiar rule cannot become its own complete defense against the word of God. ²

Matt Skinner emphasizes that Jesus and his disciples belong within this Jewish setting, where people followed different practices. The passage gives Christians no warrant for contempt toward Judaism. Its searching question reaches our own hearts. Defenders of an old arrangement and advocates of a new one can both conceal pride beneath religious language. ³

Before arguing about the sign up book, identify the obligation. Reliable service, truthful commitments and consideration for people belong within Christian conduct. Whether a particular book must be passed around at one particular meeting is a further question. We should be able to explain how the method helps us fulfill the responsibility. ¹

Keeping the faith includes knowing what was received

Paul can praise tradition without approving every established practice. In 1 Corinthians 11:2 he commends keeping the ordinances he delivered. Later in the same chapter, he rebukes gatherings that shame people who have little. He recalls the Lord’s institution of the Supper and tells believers to wait for one another. Preserving what was received requires examining what people actually do. ¹

Ellingworth and Hatton note that the traditions in verse 2 may refer broadly to Christian teaching or more particularly to the matters under discussion. That interpretive uncertainty cautions against turning the verse into a certificate for every local custom. A congregation’s preferred method needs its own explanation. ⁴

Karl Jacobson draws attention to the divisions Paul confronts: some people are treated as though they have no place at the gathering. The chapter therefore helps us ask who experiences the consequences of an arrangement. Those comfortable with it may need to hear from people whose needs the arrangement leaves unseen. ²²

In 2 Thessalonians 2:15, holding the traditions concerns what the believers were taught through apostolic word and letter. Stephen Fowl places this instruction within reassurance against alarming claims about the Lord’s return. Received gospel truth steadies a troubled community. The verse does not make the age of a noticeboard or reporting procedure a measure of doctrinal faithfulness. ^{1, 5}

Simon Chan argues that Pentecostals can preserve their distinctiveness through engagement with the wider Christian spiritual tradition. Remembering those who came before us need not extinguish living faith. Asking the Holy Spirit for discernment can include willingness to learn, while keeping Christ and the gospel at the center of what we receive. ^{1, 6}

Ask what the familiar form is carrying

A practice may mean more than its immediate task. Watson Jones and Legare propose that group rituals can mark membership and commitment. An arrangement that looks inefficient to a newcomer may tell longtime participants that they belong to a continuing community. Finding that meaning gives a conversation somewhere more humane to begin. ⁸

Hobson and his colleagues distinguish the outward sequence of a ritual from the meaning people attach to it. Two people may therefore disagree about what changing a detail would change. Before saying, “It is only a form,” hear what someone believes the form expresses. Then consider whether that good can be preserved through another suitable arrangement. ⁹

In an experiment by Oláh and Király, preschool children more often copied a model who had previously used familiar tools conventionally. This small learning task illustrates how social familiarity can guide whose example receives attention. It invites a useful pause before treating someone’s unfamiliar manner as evidence that their suggestion has no value. ²¹

The Orthodox historian Georges Florovsky explains an early Christian appeal to tradition in terms of continuity with apostolic faith, rather than antiquity alone. Christians differ over the authority of church tradition, but the distinction still helps here. Asking how old a practice is does not answer what connects it with the faith it claims to protect. ¹⁷

Neither familiarity nor novelty decides the practical question

Wood and Neal’s account of habits explains how a familiar setting can cue an action without renewed consideration of its original goal. Repetition can make useful service easier. It also gives us reason occasionally to bring the purpose back into view. “It comes naturally now” and “It serves our neighbor well now” are different judgments. ¹⁰

In Samuelson and Zeckhauser’s questionnaire experiments with business and public policy students, alternatives were more often chosen when presented as the existing option. The result does not diagnose a particular church member. It does encourage us to compare the actual merits of arrangements rather than giving one a decisive advantage simply because it is already in place. ¹¹

Bostrom and Ord suggest a reversal test: when changes in either direction are rejected, ask for reasons why the present setting is preferable. Applied modestly to an ordinary schedule, this means explaining why the current duration or frequency serves people well. A reason may exist. The exercise helps us name it instead of assuming it. ¹²

Experiments by Jennifer Mueller and her colleagues found that uncertainty could accompany negative implicit associations with creativity even when people explicitly approved of it. Supporting improvement in principle and receiving a specific unfamiliar suggestion are not the same task. Clear explanations of what is proposed can give practical concerns a fairer hearing. ¹³

James March’s organizational models examine the tension between exploring alternatives and refining existing competence. Both require limited time and effort. A church need not continually replace reliable arrangements to prove that it is alive. Nor should familiarity consume every opportunity to discover a better way of meeting an ordinary responsibility. ¹⁴

Gersick and Hackman argue that the costs of surrendering familiarity and learning another way help explain why group routines persist. A workable proposal should take the transition seriously. Show people how the new arrangement will work, including what they will need to learn and who will help them. ³⁰

A faithful purpose can guide a changed method

During four years of university housing research, Martha Feldman observed a revised procedure for students moving in that reduced confusion while fitting the organization’s educational purpose. The case makes improvement concrete: people changed how a recurring task was performed in order to serve its purpose more effectively. Preserving a purpose can sometimes require revising a procedure. ¹⁵

Feldman and Pentland distinguish a routine’s general pattern from the particular actions of people carrying it out. A written description cannot show every adjustment made in practice. Before defending an allegedly unchanging method, ask experienced volunteers what they already do when an ordinary difficulty arises. Their practical knowledge may reveal both what matters and what can vary. ¹⁶

Augustine’s Letter 54 recounts Ambrose adapting to different local fasting customs in Milan and Rome. Augustine distinguishes variable observances from matters contrary to faith or sound conduct, and recommends consideration for fellowship. Another congregation’s different arrangement need not become an accusation against its faith, or an order that ours must copy it. ¹⁸

Calvin likewise allows practical church arrangements to change with circumstances, while warning against rash or incessant innovation. His governing concern is charity and the congregation’s good. We can receive that practical judgment without adopting every part of his account of church order: a rule should serve people, and a proposed replacement should have a worthwhile reason. ¹⁹

Newman illustrates continuity through a calling whose essential purpose survives changes in outward detail. A magistrate who abandons justice fails the office, whatever familiar forms remain. For ordinary church methods, a similar question can help: does the arrangement continue to serve its entrusted purpose, or merely retain its recognizable appearance? ²⁰

Make room for honest questions

Detert and Edmondson found that learned rules against speaking up predicted workplace silence beyond several personality and local workplace measures. People can believe that questioning an established practice is inappropriate even when they want to help. A leader can make the practical invitation clear: explaining a difficulty with this arrangement is welcome. ²⁵

In Qian and colleagues’ scenario experiments, specific explanations for rejecting suggestions increased participants’ sense that speaking again was safe, with an indirect connection to later suggestions on another issue. A church can likewise explain why a proposal is declined. An answer can take someone’s concern seriously without accepting their preferred solution. ²⁸

Andrieu and colleagues’ two short experiments found that repeated ineffective suggestions reduced willingness to use a new opportunity to speak. Inviting comments while making no response can leave people expecting futility. If a familiar procedure cannot be changed now, give a truthful reason and identify what concern still needs attention. ²⁹

Let a trial answer a definite question

Writing about preparation for clinical trials, Eldridge and colleagues distinguish a smaller rehearsal from the larger undertaking it prepares. The limited practical analogy is useful: trying an arrangement can tell us whether and how people can carry it out. It cannot determine whether every purpose it serves is morally right. ³³

Reed and Card’s discussion of improvement methods distinguishes learning from receiving the hoped for result. A careful trial may reveal that a proposed change is impractical, saving further effort. Finding that out can be a reason to revise or stop. Returning to a workable method need not mean that the questions were disloyal. ³²

For the sign up book, explain what the trial should help everyone learn. Are requests being recorded accurately? Can absent members take part? Do volunteers understand the commitments they have made? Agree when to review the arrangement. An experiment with an administrative method should not quietly become an irreversible promise about every future gathering.

Ellis and Davidi’s navigation study with soldiers found greater improvement when reviews examined successes alongside failures than when they concentrated on failures alone. A review can therefore ask what should be kept as well as what went wrong. The volunteers who made an arrangement work have knowledge worth bringing into the conversation. ³¹

In experiments by Lauren Eskreis Winkler and Ayelet Fishbach, people learned less from their own failure feedback, while learning from another person’s failure reduced that disadvantage. Their work cautions against assuming that embarrassment automatically teaches. An unsuccessful trial deserves attention to its information, without turning the review into a public contest over who was foolish. ²⁶

Give people time to learn a revised arrangement

Lally and her colleagues followed volunteers practicing chosen daily behaviors and found substantial variation in how automatic those behaviors became. A single missed occasion did not necessarily undo the process. When a church introduces a revised procedure, patient reminders and practice may be more appropriate than treating an early mistake as proof of resistance or failure. ²³

Verplanken and Roy studied an environmental behavior intervention among households in Peterborough, England. Recent movers receiving the intervention reported more change than established residents receiving it, with a small effect. Context mattered. In church life, an already necessary change of setting can be a sensible occasion to explain an ordinary routine afresh. ²⁴

Keep the purpose visible when the method changes

Return to the sign up book with a clearer account. Perhaps it still serves everyone well, once an absent member has another way to take part. Perhaps a replacement is needed, with help for people unfamiliar with it. Either conclusion should follow from the responsibility being served and the people affected, rather than from a contest over whose generation has the better instincts.

A community can thank those who established a useful arrangement even when its form changes. It can also retain a good practice without treating every suggestion as disloyalty. Faithfulness receives the gospel, examines conduct and continues loving actual neighbors. By God’s grace, our inherited ways and our proposed improvements can both come under that searching care. ¹