Evangelical Christians have a tendency to either radically overvalue church history—allowing treasured tradition to trump Scripture instead of letting Scripture have its way with tradition—or radically undervalue church history—believing that what God has done in the past has little to no value in the present. Churches likewise are tempted to misuse their history and fall into “we’ve never done it that way here before” syndrome. Or they neglect to value the past and fall into the “those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it” effect. —Darrin
