Friday, May 05, 2006

Can a statement of faith stay living?

There is a great post by Leron Schultz about why Emergent is not going to do a statement of faith and how in general they tend to inhibit conversation. I hope you will read it an comment. I think it has potential for local church communities as well. Click here to read it.

3 comments:

Brian said...

Two thoughts-

As for the nature of Emergent, because it, as an organization is not an ecclesiastical structure so I really see little need for a statement of faith. But, I did like what James Smith had to say on generousorthodoxy.net...

"So the next time Emergent is asked to produce a "statement" of faith, why not just hand them a copy of the Nicene Creed?" (1)

The problem with traditional faith statements is that they tend to resemble check lists and thus individual points seem to stand on their own. However, the nature of doctrine is not at all like that - beliefs, like the church, as better described as a web of belief rather than a list of individual beliefs. So if we're going to write "post-modern" statements of faith (if there are such things) I think they should either be the classic creeds (Nicene/Apostles') or in the form of narratives so that everything is interlinking rather than independent.

(1) See the full post here: http://www.generousorthodoxy.net/thinktank/2006/05/statements_cree.html

John said...

Amen to Brians words, quoted below!!!

"So if we're going to write "post-modern" statements of faith (if there are such things) I think they should either be the classic creeds (Nicene/Apostles') or in the form of narratives so that everything is interlinking rather than independent."

We must encourage people to communally express what they "are believing". Note the tense, we are "believing" people, and our believeing is ever being shaped by our stories as poeple are interacting with and being transformed further and further by the continuing narrative of God's story - Jesus Christ the Word of God.

Sarah Louise said...

Good stuff! (and very exciting to be a part of such an intelligent movement, where folks are not just knee-jerking to the lowest denominator.)