Friday, August 24, 2007

Another Question about Church.

A young man was walking by our church when I happened to be outside washing the bus. He asked, "Is this a christain church?" (Good reasons to have "Christian" and "Church" in your name, although the fact he was asking, I think suggested he thought it was) I said yes and he then asked to see a list of our doctrines. We have this available for when people ask this question. It's on the back of our vision statement. I brought one out to him, let him look over it and asked, "What kind of church are you looking for?" He said "Hold on, I'm not done....pause... This looks fine. When are your services?" He's been coming for two weeks already. Here is the a similair list to what I showed him.

Here's today's question(s)?

Does an "unsaved" person care what your doctrine is?

Does someone "de-churched" or "unchurched" or "burnt out on church" care what you believe?

I know people care, but is it possible they care more about what beliefs affect your life and not so much which ones you put on paper?

What about "doctrines" like gender treatment and creation care, that seem to be largely absent from the above mentioned list? Are these merely divise issues or do people want to see "your side" on paper somewhere?

If you were writing a "WE BELIEVE:" for a hypothetical church, what would you include or leave out?

2 comments:

JDF said...

"I know people care, but is it possible they care more about what beliefs affect your life and not so much which ones you put on paper?"

Is there a difference? If a belief does not affect your life is it a belief? But then maybe that was your point.

"What about "doctrines" like gender treatment and creation care, that seem to be largely absent from the above mentioned list?"

"Gender treatment and creation care?" LOL Do Christian's actually speak this way? I am assuming that gender treatment has to do something with gender roles within the church and creation care has to do something with environmental concerns. The bible certainly has something to say about these issues but they are secondary to the soteriological concerns of Scripture that had better be on paper, like Justification by faith alone for instance.

Environmental concerns regarding how we care for an earth which is fading away, soon to be burnt up and replaced by a new creation, seems like significantly less of a concern than how we can partake of that new heavens and new earth.

I think Credo's ought to emphasize what the Scripture emphasize. They should speak to those things which are clear with respect to the knowledge of God and of his will.

Topherspoon said...

YES! Like If you have to tell people you're church is "friendly" or "cutting edge" it's probably not. I just wonder... If you have to tell them you believe in "justification by atonement"...?

One of my students said, "I would have handed the guy the Bible and said here's our doctrine."