posted
Bumping this into recent topics, since it was asked about. Enjoy!
I like the "Obedience to Christ's Commands" concept much better than a "statement of faith":
Jesus said, "Teaching them all I have commanded you..." and "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." So we look for the word "command" and for clear directives by Jesus and we find they fall under these seven, easily understood, easily remembered commands:
The Seven Commands of Christ are : 1) Repent, believe, and receive the Holy Spirit (conversion, regeneration), Mark 1:15; John 3:16; 20:22 2) Be baptized and live the new life it initiates, initiating ongoing transformation, Matthew 28:18-20; Romans 6:1-14 3) Love God, neighbour, fellow disciples, the needy in a practical way and enemies (forgive), Matthew 22:36-40; John 13:34-35, Luke 10:25-37; Matthew 5:43-48 4) Break bread (Communion, related to all that we do to worship), Matthew 26:26-28; John 4:24 5) Pray (private and family devotions, intercession and spiritual warfare), John 16:24 6) Give (stewardship of our time, treasure and talents), Luke 6:38 7) Make disciples (witness for Christ, shepherd, apply the Word, train leaders, send missionaries), Matthew 28:18-20
So, we teach "simple, loving obedience to Jesus".
Since these things are, by definition, what it means to be a Christian, and yet are easy to apply to daily life, easy to transport across cultures and even the youngest baby Christian can do them, I'd advocate for them instead!
Any time you start having a "statement of faith", you are talking about "closing the circle" "we four no more" clubs" - and we are instantly not obeying command # 7 - to make disciples, we are instead trying to "keep the disciples we already have."
My 2c. Blessings, Laurie Ann PS: These come from George Patterson, Brian Hogan and others with success in planting self-reproducing movements to Christ.
quote:Laurie Ann said: Any time you start having a "statement of faith", you are talking about "closing the circle" "we four no more" "clubs"...
So then the question is... Do we just stick with the "apostles creed" as our "must have" list...
***NOTE: Taken [mostly] from Wikipedia***
I believe in God the Father,creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, his only born Son, our Lord. Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and born of the Virgin Mary. Jesus suffered under Pontius Pilate for our sins, was crucified, died, and was buried. Jesus descended to the dead. but on the third day, He rose again! He ascended into heaven, and He is seated at the right hand of The Father. Jesus will some day judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, one holy Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, and the resurrection of the body to everlasting life or death.
...and then go with the "abstain from things that can stumble others, and sexual sin," as a "can't stand" list.
How is that? To complicated, or to simple?
Have a wonderful weekend, Matthew
-------------------- Hope with abandon, all ye who enter here!
posted
Right, Matthew. Who can disagree with the so-called apostle's creed? Yet, if Jesus had wanted us to have that kind of statement, why didn't he give it to us? It seems He gave us action items instead of believe items, and said, "If you love me you will obey what I command"... and then "the Spirit will guide you into truth".
I think that creating tenets of the faith takes our focus off of Jesus the Living One and puts in onto ourselves, inside our own brains, making us to "lean onto our own understanding" (Pr. 3:5,6).
The fruit of that is Cerebral Christianity. An example of Cerebral Christianity carried to its extreme is Germanic Higher Criticism. That resulted in a church that could be undecided about whether Nazism was or was not a good thing. Hmm.
Germanic Cerebral Christianity also resulted in Karl Marx leaving divinity school to found dialectic materialism. Hmm again.
Oh! Wait! Am I being cerebral??
deep breath in... out
And back to "Childlike obedience to Jesus' commands" for me!
quote:Laurie Ann said: Oh! Wait! Am I being cerebral??
deep breath in... out
And back to "Childlike obedience to Jesus' commands" for me!
He he he! You're so bad! So, does this bring us back to love The Lord and then love your neighbor [which has nothing to do with smooching] and then show it? This would cover all of the "commandments" you listed up there ...I think.
Blessings, Matthew
-------------------- Hope with abandon, all ye who enter here!
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He he he! You're so bad! 
