I have no idea what "traditional church" means. I think I get what people are trying to say, it's just very limited. For most people, their idea of "traditional" is how we programmed church stuff when they were growing up (30, 40, 50 years ago). But it's all subjective. Why not back it all the way up to 2000 years ago. Then the tradition would be to meet daily in the temple courts, to gather in homes and to wear Bible costumes.

It cracks me us to hear people complain about someone wearing sandals to a church service, because it's not "appropriate." Translated, "It's not what I'm comfortable with according to my traditions or surroundings." But I'd argue that sandals are what we should all be wearing if we wanted traditional. One time a friend teased me for wearing sandals to a small group meeting and I quickly said, "I wear what Jesus wore, what kind of shoes do you wear?"

But we church people also talk about contemporary. And this is a confusing term too, because many "contemporary services" are done in a style that fits well with the early to mid 90's. It also often assumes that one-size-fits-all style of music (contemporary) fits in every context.

I say all that to say this, God did not command us to "do church stuff" one specific way. In fact, He probably knew that if we would, we'd start to fall in love with "how we do church stuff" more than loving Him. And Jesus certainly saw the Pharisees do this. But God commands us to Be the Church. This includes worship, loving others, Bible study, Fellowship, Remembering, Service, Caring, and did I say loving others?

In Acts 15 the Jerusalem Council had a huge discussion based on how Gentiles could become Christians. This was no small matter. In their conclusion they say, "It seemed good to us and to God...." to not require them to be Jews in order to be Christians (my paraphrase). But that phrase, "It seemed good to us..." has always struck me. I think after study, prayer and discussion, we churches are in the OK to say, "It seemed good to us to... try this program/have this music/start at this time/go on this trip."