Passing on how to do it is a means of preserving the way one generation liked do to do things. But this always changes - and needs to change, since the culture keeps on changing.
But passing on what to do helps each generation to stay in line with what God has said. What to do means doing what God said. For us Christians the simple list includes: love the Lord with all our heart; love one another as Christ has loved us; make people from all nations disciples of the Lord Jesus; build up the body of Christ.
Those are the kinds of things we want to make sure are passed down and strengthened from generation to generation. They are things about which we can all say the same thing (1 Cor 1.10).
How those things are to be done will keep changing and are secondary. Except that if we are serious about holding on to the what to do, we will be continually working out best ways to do the secondary things. Because we really want to do what God wants as well as we can.
The hope for the church in Perth lies in the experienced people handing on, while they are still alive, - to those who are younger - the commission to do what God had called them to do. To build his church.To make disciples. To feed and protect his flock.
Unfortunately many churches lack crucial experience: experience of what God has said and done. A remarkably poor knowledge of the scriptures. God has spoken through prophets and in these latter days through his Son we are told (Heb 1.1). Yet large numbers of Anglicans have almost no idea of what God has said through those prophets - or indeed through his Son.
So there is not much good to be handed on. Instead a great deal of confusion and how to do.
By God's grace not all churches are like this. Some are in a state of renewal. In some there is a new hunger to hear what God has said and to put it into practice. But the days are dark and the need is urgent.
Those of us who have been Christians for some time must not slack off. In some cases we need to catch up to where we ought to be. In every case we need to keep encouraging one another - and those who are newer to the faith - to do what God has said.
Dale