Why should we care about the Christians who came before us? Why should we study church history? We don’t want to idolize the saints of the past—or discount them. We study church history to be encouraged by the great cloud of witnesses, while we press on to the true goal of the Christian faith: Jesus.
S4E7 – Biblical Stewardship: What Should a Christian’s Money Goals Be? – A More Beautiful Life Collective Podcast
- S4E7 – Biblical Stewardship: What Should a Christian’s Money Goals Be?
- S4E6 – What Does the Bible Say About Money? | 20+ Scriptures on Finances & Biblical Stewardship
- S4E5 – What Do Jerusalem, Athens & Rome Have to Do With Your Faith?
- S4E4 – You Don't Have to Agree With Them to Learn From Them: Why You Should Study Church History
- S4E3 – Bible Alone? Can We Really Just Follow the Bible?
Welcome to A More Beautiful Life Collective. I’m your host, Cayce Fletcher, and I’m here to walk hand in hand with you as we grow in grace, build with purpose, and live beautifully.
This season on the podcast, we are examining the faith we’ve inherited. Each one of us needs to take hold of our faith, internalize it, understand it, and be able to communicate it clearly to our children in word and deed.
When we begin to analyze our faith tradition, we will recognize that there are things we don’t know. We must turn to Scripture as our highest authority to answer these questions (like we talked about in our last post here).
Unlike other understandings of tradition and faith, I don’t believe that Church tradition and extra-biblical writings should be held to the same authority as Scripture. Instead, we have to approach each of these things with discernment. To study church history does not mean to idolize the past.
But, as we saw in our last post, the broader impulse among Evangelicals and Biblical Unitarians is not to hold tradition too highly. It’s to toss all tradition, history, and collected written thought away because of doctrinal distinctives—or the text just being a little stuffy and difficult to read. This tendency asks, ‘Why bother?’ when prompted to study church history.
We are “surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses” (Heb. 12:1), so let’s not toss aside their testimony because we are suspect of a few of their doctrinal points.
Why should you care what Christians thought, did, and believed 500, 1,000, or 1,500 years ago? Why study Church History?
Let’s talk about it.
Why Should We Study Church History?
In Colonial America, books were expensive and hard to get. Unlike my shelves that are overflowing into tottering stacks on the floor, their libraries were sparse. The books you did choose to have were books that you would read again and again. They were formative.
I once heard that in Colonial homes, you were apt to find two books: The Bible and Foxe’s Booke of Martyrs (actually titled, Actes and Monuments of these Latter and Perillous Days, Touching Matters of the Church). This book shaped the Protestant consciousness, setting it apart from Catholic tradition, while emphasizing how the Protestant impulse to stand up for the faith could be traced back to the first disciples.
We look to the Bible for deep theological truths. That is where we learn who God is and what His will for us is. What do we learn when we turn our focus to the Saints that came before us?
From their example:
- We learn the virtues and habits that sustain us.
- We learn the value of standing up for our faith.
- We learn how we should live.
And when I use the word “saints” here, I don’t mean perfect Christians or Christians who have been elevated above ordinary believers. I’m using it in the biblical sense: God’s people. Ordinary, imperfect people who sought to follow Christ faithfully.
The Saints Who Came Before
Our Sunday School class is currently working its way through Revelation. It’s interesting that in the midst of all of these seals that bring about calamities, we see this picture:
In Revelation 6:9-11, it says, “9 When He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held. 10 And they cried with a loud voice, saying, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” 11 Then a white robe was given to each of them; and it was said to them that they should rest a little while longer, until both the number of their fellow servants and their brethren, who would be killed as they were, was completed.”
As chapter 7 begins, we see more about these Saints who were given a robe. These were the ones sealed by the Spirit, who praise God again and again. (The full chapter is worth reading.) Verses 13-17 say, “13 Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, “Who are these arrayed in white robes, and where did they come from?” 14 And I said to him, “Sir, you know.” So he said to me, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 15 Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple. And He who sits on the throne will dwell among them. 16 They shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any heat; 17 for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
In this passage, we see the saints praising God and being comforted by God. They are made pure, and they serve God fully. This is a picture of our future hope—but it is also a reminder that there are many who have gone before us.
I mentioned before that Hebrews 12:1 speaks of the great cloud of witnesses that surrounds us. Hebrews 11 gives the details of who these witnesses are: Abraham, Moses, David, Samuel, Samson, and so many others that we would lose count. What does this great cloud of witnesses inspire us to do?
We “lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:1b-2).
The testimony of those who have come before us inspires us to press on. This is why we should study church history.
Related: How Traditions Cultivate Your Faith and Disciple Your Family
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The Family of God
There is a middle ground we can find between the two common extremes of approaching church tradition. On the one side, we see people exalting tradition and those who have come before us to almost a demigod-like status, going as far as praying to them as a mediator. On the other hand, we see people approaching any Christian who doesn’t believe exactly like they do with either indifference or suspicion.
There is a middle way between these two extremes—and we find this middle way by looking at how we approach our own family. Our families are full of different kinds of characters. There may be the saint, there may be the one who has struggled, and there may be the black sheep.
We look back on the history of our family with the recognition that these are not perfect people. We learn from them. Depending on what our family history is like, we may be encouraged by their legacy (or we may swear we will never repeat what they did).
We should approach the family of God in the same way.
Tradition is not an authority. We don’t say, “They believed it, therefore it must be true.” Tradition is also not irrelevant. We don’t say, “They got things wrong, therefore there’s nothing for me here.”
Scripture is our authority. History is our inheritance. The faithful lives of Christians who came before us are a source of encouragement and wisdom.
We study church history not because the Christians who came before us were infallible. We look back because faithfulness is worth remembering.
But what does this actually look like in our lives?
How do we go from saying, “Church history is important,” to actually allowing the Christians who came before us to encourage and edify us? How do we study church history well?
# 1 – Know the Tradition You’re Standing In
Before we can appreciate, critique, or thoughtfully inherit a tradition, we have to know what it is.
This past year, my own denomination, the Church of God General Conference, chose the theme, “Pillars and Pathways,” for the annual conference. We stand on the pillars of faith — the tradition that has made us — while we pave the way for those who come after us to take up the faith as their own.
Knowing your tradition does not mean we become even more ‘denominational.’ Instead, it means that we’ve thought through why we do the things that we do. You need to know the story you are standing in.
Many people go to church every Sunday without ever thinking deeply about the tradition they have inherited. Why does your church sing those songs? Why do they baptize people in that way? Why do you take communion in the way you do? Knowing these answers will help you to understand your own faith better.
My church was established in the late 1800s. When it was first founded, they met under a grove of trees until they built a shelter. Because of their beliefs, some in the local community came and burned the first shelter to the ground.
Knowing the story that we’re standing in means that I recognize how the tradition I inherited has persevered through trials and tribulations while still holding fast to the truth.
Here are some questions to get you started in your study of church history:
- What did your tradition inherit?
- What did it emphasize?
- What questions was it trying to answer?
- What did it get right?
- Where did it go wrong?
- Who were its heroes?
- Who were its blind spots?
The Faith Family Inventory will help you do just that. By asking questions about what you’ve inherited, you will begin to understand the story of your faith so much more.
2 – Read the Christians Who Came Before You
So how do we begin to understand the tradition we come from? We read. We read widely. We read deeply. We read theology. We read biography.
There are 2,000 years of great Christian wisdom and thought. By reading, we deepen our understanding. Biographies, memoirs, journals, sermons, and theology can encourage and equip us for a life of faithfulness.
A large portion of thought indeed comes from the pre-Reformation writers, but those writings hold deep truths and are worth reading. Just like we approach tradition with discernment, we approach these writings with discernment.
You don’t only read people you agree with. In fact, some of the most valuable books you can read are written by people with whom you have significant theological disagreements.
I don’t have to agree with Augustine on everything to learn from Augustine’s devotion.
I don’t have to adopt every conclusion of Calvin to learn from Calvin’s seriousness about Scripture.
I don’t have to share every theological conviction of a missionary to be challenged by their courage.
I don’t have to believe everything Jonathan Edwards believed to be convicted by the seriousness with which he approached the holiness of God.
Reading people we don’t agree with can produce more fruit as we wrestle with why they think the way they do. This reading is not just limited to sermons and books on theology.
Theology teaches us what someone believed. Biography shows us what those beliefs looked like when they met real life.
When we think about what we can learn from the Christians that came before us, looking at their lives can help us to understand how a faith is lived out. Biographies and memoirs can answer the question: What does faithfulness look like in a human life?
This is a great way to study church history and make it come alive.
Related: 4 Steps to Cultivate a Reading Life
#3 – Tell Your Children Their Family Story
We already understand this instinctively in our families.
When we tell our children about their grandparents or great-grandparents, we don’t tell them, “Your great-grandfather was a perfect man, and therefore everything he ever did was right.”
We tell them the stories because they belong to them.
We might tell them about the grandmother who prayed faithfully. The grandfather who worked hard. The great-grandparent who endured hardship. The ancestor who opened their home to people. And yes—we might eventually tell them about their failures, too.
Because we aren’t creating saints out of our ancestors. We’re teaching our children where they came from.
And that’s exactly how I think we can approach Christian history.
The Christians who came before us were not perfect. Some were wrong. Some held beliefs we would reject. Some participated in things we now recognize as grievously wrong. Some were courageous in one area and profoundly blind in another. And yet God worked through them.
Their faithfulness can still strengthen ours. Their failures can warn us. Their questions can sharpen ours. Their sacrifices can humble us. Their writings can teach us. Their stories can remind us that we are not the first Christians to wrestle with suffering, doubt, temptation, persecution, family, work, death, Scripture, prayer, or what it means to follow Christ.
Related: Prone to Wander: How Remembering Our Story Can Cure Our Wandering Heart
So we pass on our legacy — both from our personal families and our larger Christian tradition as a whole — to our children.
How do we pass on our larger Christian history to our children? By reading to them biographies of the saints that came before us.
Here are a few recommendations to get you started:
- The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom — Corrie’s memoir of her family’s Christian faith, their work hiding Jews during the Nazi occupation, her imprisonment, and the difficult call to forgiveness. Excellent for older children and teens.
- God’s Smuggler by Brother Andrew with John and Elizabeth Sherrill — A fast-moving memoir about secretly carrying Bibles behind the Iron Curtain. Especially good for talking about courage, Scripture, persecution, and trusting God.
- Through Gates of Splendor by Elisabeth Elliot — The story of Jim Elliot and the other missionaries killed while attempting to make contact with the Waorani people of Ecuador. A powerful entry point for talking about missions, sacrifice, and the complicated history surrounding missionary work.
- George Müller of Bristol by Arthur T. Pierson — The story of Müller’s work caring for thousands of orphans and his remarkable commitment to prayer and dependence upon God. His life gives you a natural way to talk about prayer, generosity, and caring for people in need.
- Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther by Roland Bainton — A classic, very readable biography of Martin Luther and the Reformation. Particularly fitting for this episode because Luther gives you plenty of opportunity to say, We can be grateful for a Christian’s courage and contributions without pretending that everything he said or did was right.
***For younger children, look for age-appropriate biographies of these same Christians—or simply read a longer biography yourself and retell their stories around the dinner table.
You can also start a Christian History timeline to keep track of Church history as a whole and also how your particular tradition and church began.
Do you know your tradition?
We don’t have to reject all the Christians who came before us just because we don’t agree with what they believed on every point. We practice communal discernment, being encouraged by their words and letting the disagreements we have with them sharpen our faith.
Church history is a conversation. It is not an authority we have to submit our lives to — unlike God and his Word. But it is something that we take in, evaluate, and add to in our own lives. When we study church history, we are entering into that conversation and adding to it. As the reformers said, we are reformed and always reforming our faith and tradition.
We are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses. With the testimony of their lives in our minds and hearts, let us throw off what entangles us and press on towards Jesus.
How do you approach Christian tradition and the saints that came before us? I’d love to hear what you think! You can comment below and let me know what you think!
You can get the Family Faith Inventory to document the faith you’ve inherited. If you want to go deeper, the Faith We Inherit Workbook will walk you through the process of retrieving and reforming your faith. Get it on the AMBL shop.
The Faith We Inherit | Family Faith Inventory & Formation Workbook
What faith are you handing down?
The Faith We Inherit is a 66-page Family Faith Inventory & Formation Workbook designed to help parents examine the beliefs, traditions, practices, and values they’ve inherited—and thoughtfully consider what they want to pass on to the next generation.
Through guided reflection, Scripture study, theological questions, and practical family formation exercises, you’ll move from what you inherited to what you believe to how you want to live.
Includes the Keep Growing: 12-Month Family Theology Plan as a bonus download.
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Next time, we’re going to talk about a framework to understand our faith by looking at the three great cities of Athens, Jerusalem, and Rome.
Until then, keep creating a life you love, and cultivating your heart for God.
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