As Lisa and I have begun our family and had kids, yes a few kids. We have had many discussions on the
family traditions that we both grew up with. Some were big deals to one or the other of some were just
things that we always did, no real passion behind having them continue. As we discussed many times we
have found ourselves continuing some of these traditions and some we stopped. We made a plan to
continue many of these because we remember why we grew up with these traditions. There are some that
we tried to keep going and they just didn’t fit our family or our families passions.

Church traditions can be the same way. We can discuss why we have done things a certain way and talk
about the history of them, what they meant to generations before us and share ideas of new traditions. As
our church family grows, and even changes, we will find new traditions and also many traditions that will
always be a part of who we are at Emmanuel as we continue them, to practice them to point us and others
to Jesus. We should always remember our traditions but we don’t worship them. Only Jesus is worthy of
our worship and only he will last forever.
RH