22 & 23 Mar 2025 (Pastoral Page) CHRISTIAN FORMATION THROUGH DIFFERENT CHRISTIAN TRADITIONS

By Snr Ps Beh Soo Yeong

If you have been following the pulpit series during this Lent season, you will know that we are on the journey of learning about the various Christian traditions or streams that can help us in our spiritual growth. In fact, by the end of this weekend where we will know more about the Charismatic stream, we will be half way through the six traditions.

After my sermon two weeks ago, I am encouraged by the response of many of you who have shared how much you have learnt and appreciated the gleanings about the various traditions, including the contemplative. I hope that all of us will continue to be open to learn from these streams.

Personally, this has been a journey of growth for me – to learn about these traditions that are different from ours. At the same time, through the rich pickings that come from various creative practices, I have been blessed in the following ways:

1.  Freshness in my spiritual journey. After being a Christian for many years, it has been a refreshing journey to learn about the various tradition and start to try and practice them. It was like someone opened the window to my room and a breath of fresh air went through. For example, rather than just sitting at my study table to “complete” my devotions (evangelical), I found the practice of praying, meditating and memorising the Beatitudes while taking a walk (contemplative) quite helpful, especially since I am drawn to nature. The freshness helps me draw closer to God in ways I had not experienced before.

2.  Filling in the gaps. As a typical evangelical who treasures the Scripture, getting acquainted with other traditions help me appreciate the gaps in my own spiritual formation. Rather than merely studying and preaching about the what the bible says about serving the poor, I learn to go and do something about it (Justice). Serving and giving to the poor brings about a certain practical application and authenticity to our own Christian faith that tends to be missing in my own evangelical upbringing.

3.  Creative application into our everyday lives. Last week, we learnt about the “classical” discipline of fasting (Holiness). At the same time, we can apply that to our everyday lives in a more relevant manner, such as fasting from social media and the internet from time to time to prevent ourselves from becoming over-reliant on our devices (Incarnational). In fact, this has become an important and helpful way for us to bring our faith to bear in our daily lives, and to improve our emotional and mental health.

4.  Deeper appreciation of my own tradition. As I practice some of the suggestions in the various traditions, I was surprised to find myself appreciating afresh and deeper our own evangelical tradition, especially on the emphasis of Scripture. These practices such as Sabbath-keeping (Holiness) or giving to the poor and praying for the marginalised (Justice) help me re-appreciate the importance of the Scripture as the underpinnings to these practices. Scripture points me back to the reason and motivation for such practices, so that there can be a variation in the method, while keeping anchored the basis for the practices.

5.  Enlivening my existing evangelical practices. Last but not least, I found that when I start to learn from these other traditions, I am more committed to my own evangelical leanings. For instance, when I understand more about the invisible spiritual realm (Charismatic), I become more attune to what the Scripture teaches about spiritual warfare. On the one hand, I had to relearn and correct some of my former biases and preconceived ideas that are not biblical. On the other hand, I also grew deeper in my conviction about what is in the Scriptures, while staying humble to be open to what God chooses to do in us and the church. This exposure to other traditions “forced” me back to re-examine Scriptures for myself, rather than merely relying on what others transmit to me.

I hope that just as I was blessed as I learnt and embraced some of these practices of other Christian traditions, you would be open and able to try them out for yourself. Most importantly, I hope we will be able to reflect on the work and words of Jesus through these traditions or streams to draw nearer to him during this Lent season and beyond.