(Be sure to subscribe to Marty’s email list. Never miss a post!)
“I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ…”
“I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ…”
The Apostles Creed. The Nicene Creed. The great historic creeds of the Church. Every kid who’s ever gone through Confirmation class has struggled to memorize those babies.
No one ever told us they don’t really matter. Memorized creeds and about $5 will get you something tasty from Starbucks, but not much else. You see, the trouble with creeds is they aren’t very useful for much of anything – other than weeding out the infidels from among us.
We 12-year old Confirmation students hated learning the creeds. But they wouldn’t let us graduate until we had the Creeds down pat. So we swallowed them whole and got out of there as fast as we could.
The creeds reflect the Church’s ongoing struggle to enforce orthodoxy. You see, the trouble with Christians is they all don’t see eye-to-eye. There actually are – and always have been – Christ followers who brazenly use critical thinking to inform their faith.
This is anathema to the institutional powers-that-be. So whenever people have disagreed with the Church’s conventional wisdom there have erupted ecclesiastical hissy-fits. Sometimes the freethinkers were excommunicated. Sometimes they were killed. Almost always, the Church followed up with a creed to save future generations from the heresy that arises when people think for themselves. By the way, the Nicene statement wasn’t drawn up until 375 AD. The Apostles Creed in its present form didn’t come along until much later (700’s AD). So much for being right out of the mouths of Peter, James, John and the boys.
I struggle with the creeds – not because I disagree with the claims they make but because they don’t really accomplish anything useful. Mostly they are used to force people into a common mindset that has no room for debate or discussion. The creeds define who is orthodox and who is not; who is faithful and who is unfaithful.
What we need today is not an ancient statement of what we believe in our heads but rather a statement about how we’re going to live. Such a “creed” would not exclude anyone. More importantly, it would invite anyone and everyone to simply try it out.
A few years ago I attempted to write such a statement of faith. We used it at our church in Tellico. It’s not perfect, but it’s a start at re-thinking the old creeds and coming up with fresh new ways of focusing on what I believe is the central truth of this faith we call “Christian.” It’s simply called, “We Believe.” Here it is:
We believe in Jesus!
We want to be like Jesus.
We want to teach what Jesus taught and live like Jesus lived.
We’re not much into doctrines and human-made systems of belief. Those mostly serve the purpose of dividing people into camps of right and wrong, acceptable and not acceptable.
We don’t believe Jesus lived that way.
Jesus found ways to accept and love everyone he came into contact with. We’re trying to do the same, although we have to admit we’re not nearly as good at loving as Jesus was. But we’re trying!
We call ourselves a “community church” because we believe Jesus made himself available to the whole world – not just a little group of select people. We’re not overly troubled by folks who come to us with different beliefs, ideas, experiences, or ways of looking at things. We find reason to “commune” with each other not because we all think alike, but because God loves us all, and each of us is seeking the same thing – the Way to a better world, the Truth that sets people free, and the Life that is abundantly full and meaningful. We believe the Way, the Truth, and the Life revealed in Jesus is worth discovering and sharing together!
We believe!
(Be sure to subscribe to Marty’s email list. Never miss a post!)
Don’t let any of my fellow Baptist churchmates know that I agree with this .
I remember when I went to meet with Rev. Meadows about the possibility of joining the Community church in Tellico. I embarked on a long explanation of my thinking and beliefs on Christianity and how I didn’t want to be part of a church that focused on dogma and doctrines since I always found them oppressive and divisive. And growing up Catholic, we had a lot of dogma chaff with the wheat of Christianity. I wanted to be sure that the Community Church could accept my focus on Christ and his teachings and not worry so much about details of dogma/doctrines. Christ’s message of love and inclusiveness is the core of my beliefs. Tim was kind and didn’t laugh at me but rather pointed me to this. I quickly read it and said “That’s it!” Don’t know why I hadn’t read the website or other information first. D’uh! That’s why I always felt at home in the community Church.