July 30, 2014
What We Believe
As I visit churches and engage people in
conversation they often want to give me their denomination information, or send
me to a web site that explains what “we” believe. I’m now realizing I do the
same thing when I greet visitors at my church. It’s as though the
denominational information helps define the church character. However, telling
a visitor that my church is an independent Christian Church doesn’t really
reveal what we believe. I’m now thinking I need to change my introduction to
something more reflective of Jesus. So what do I
believe? The confession I made at baptism may be a good place to start, “I
believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
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1 comment:
Gail;
-----One thing attracted me to the Campbellite movement of which is your church. It sees the structure of beliefs built upon the foundation of Christ as the project of the believer, not the church. Yes, it holds fundamental truths as important knowledge, but it acknowledges a believer would not be a believer unless he knew those truths: Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, born of a virgin, God dwelt with us, crucified, resurrected, imparting the Holy Spirit to indwell, sitting at the right hand of the Father, and to come for judging the world and receiving His own into eternal bliss. It teaches this foundation as presented in the Bible with clarity, while it leaves the extensive doctrines and ideologies beyond these for the believer to discover with the Lord.
-----Unfortunately, church is a group, and as such it is subject to the general tendencies of grouping behaviors. Regardless of the Campbellite attitude towards doctrine and ideology, people still come to the Christian Churches seeking to know its beliefs as if to join those beliefs instead of joining the church’s people. They still find in the Campbellite church plenty willingness to serve beliefs on the church’s platter instead of just Jesus crucified and raised, like Paul served.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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