Hello, Chris. While I appreciate the irenic spirit with which you made your
post, and while I agree that local churches need not insist that those
desiring membership must agree on EVERY article in an adopted creed or
confession if the article does not directly, dangerously affect one's
understanding of the nature of God, His Word or His Gospel, I don't agree
with your "bare-bones minimum" approach to what a church creed needs to be
because there are other important teachings ignored in your doctrinal
summary that can lead to chaos, disorder and division in a church especially
if leaders & teachers disagree over these matters. I would also insist on
adding things to a summary of belief such as a more clear definition of the
Trinity (3 separate but coequal & coeternal Persons in the one Divine Being
of God), women being unsuitable candidates for leadership or teaching
positions over adult males, a prohibition of the public expression of
alleged charismatic gifts such as tongues, repentant believers being the
only viable candidates for baptism (and that by immersion), a clearer
explanation of the eternal state of both the saved and the damned, etc.,
etc.

ALL congregations have a creed. Even those that claim, "We have no creed but
the Bible" are pronouncing a "creedal" statement when they claim that
whether they recognize it as such or not. A creed or a confession is merely
a summary of teachings a local church proclaims to be important to remain
faithful to Christ's Word, to His Gospel and to maintain church order. I
could accept an individual who disagreed with me on issues such as those I
mentioned as a genuine brother or sister in Christ, and even as a fellow
member of a congregation I belonged to as long as he or she submitted to the
fact that he or she should not seek to undermine the leaders' teachings on
such matters with other congregants, but for the sake of a local
congregation to conduct itself in decency and order I cannot imagine such
things being eliminated or considered inconsequential in a summary of belief
and conduct. Also, while I agree with you that Evangelical Arminians are my
brethren, due to the fact that I hold "Calvinistic" soteriology with such
high importance, I cannot imagine in good conscience being a member of a
congregation in which one or more of the teachers or leaders in that
congregation taught a belief contradictory to the Doctrines of Sovereign
Grace.

I would think that in order to have harmony maintained in a local
congregation in which leaders & teachers disagreed over those important
issues (and possibly other issues I failed to mention) these doctrines would
have to be downplayed in their importance and relevance to the Gospel of
Christ and to proper, biblical order in His church. I don't believe it is
possible to create a congregation that allows EVERYONE who professes the
bare-bones minimum of Evangelical Christian teaching into EQUAL standing in
membership (especially with the possibility of eventually becoming a leader
or teacher) without the congregation compromising important, biblical truth,
or without it eventually sliding down into chaos, disorder, division and
possibly splits down the road. God bless you!

In His grip,
Chris Arnzen


> If I had to present my own statement of faith, it would go something like
> this:
>
> "I believe in one God who created everything; in the deity and lordship of
> Jesus Christ, head of the church; and in the deity of the Holy Spirit who
is
> actively at work in the world.
>
> "I believe in the divine inspiration and supreme authority of the Bible.
>
> "I believe that each person was made to have a relationship with God, but
> each person's sin has destroyed that relationship. Through Jesus Christ
God
> has provided a way to restore this relationship.
>
> "Christ's apostles taught those seeking this renewed relationship to trust
> in Jesus Christ, repent of sin, and be immersed into Christ.
>
> "I believe in the unity of all Christians, who are the church established
by
> Christ in the New Testament, that the world may believe."
>
> I have tried to phrase things in a way that any Christian could accept,
and
> to stay vague enough that if I were to break fellowship with someone, I
> would probably have to do so on the basis of the Bible rather than this
> statement.  One feature you may note about my statement of faith has to do
> with immersion:  a paedobaptist could accept what I believe, insist on his
> paedobaptism, and I could still accept him as a brother.
>
> Chris McKinney
>
>
>
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