So how can we discern good and helpful traditions from bad ones?<\/p>\n

One good way is to practice something I learned from my two-year old: ask “Why?” a lot.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

To discover if a certain\u00a0church\u00a0practice should be continued or not, ask \u201cWhy?\u201d about it seven times.<\/p>\n

If, in asking \u201cWhy?\u201d seven times, you don\u2019t get to a good reason, you might want to consider dumping whatever it was you were asking \u201cWhy?\u201d about.<\/p>\n

And if you ever answer \u201cBecause the Bible says so\u201d then ask \u201cWhere?\u201d and \u201cIs that really what that verse means?\u201d<\/p>\n

This is often good to do with a group of people because they can help you answer the questions, and tell you when an answer is not valid. You may have to “tweak” your question asking a bit to get at the root of the issue, but the point is to ruthlessly examine and question everything. It may look like this:<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how it works:<\/p>\n

Statement: The church meets on Sunday morning.<\/p>\n

Why?<\/p>\n

Possible answers:<\/p>\n