What Keeps You in Your Church Tradition?

Maybe nothing keeps you in your church tradition. You might be willing to make a leap tomorrow, or a year from now.

So, the question I have, as a Pentecostal pastor, is: What is it that causes a pastor/scholar/theologian… or even a “layperson”… to “jump” from one tradition to another?

I have long held the more “mainline” traditions in higher respect than I used to. As I’ve learned more about the Orthodox Church, I have felt more of an affinity toward them than the Catholic tradition.

Articles like this one always raise my interest.

Here is a key thought I want to point out for discussion:

Sooner or later, Protestants who are serious about their faith – serious about what it means to be a Christian and to be a member of the Church – begin to look beyond the borders of their limited denominational existence for a more profound spirituality, a God-centered experience of worship, and a concrete sense of belonging to an historical Christian community.

So, as a Protestant, if you stay a Protestant, are you not serious about your faith?

I would readily agree that any denominational experience is limiting. I think that’s the beauty of being rooted in a denomination while fellowshiping closely with other brothers and sisters in faith in your community. I have read widely. I have studied deeply. While my own denomination has its limitations, I don’t feel “limited.”

But… maybe I’m not “serious” about my faith.