While I really liked the idea of the Twitter of Faith, I think my Presbytery might think that was a little bit short, so below is what I am planning on presenting as my Statement of Faith. I’d love to hear any feedback that you might give, especially constructive feedback. My context is a fairly small Presbytery (18 churches) in southern, rural Idaho. I basically took my previous Statement of Faith and made some changes to it. If any of you have gone through the Ordination process before, I’d be especially interested in things you think I left out (and maybe really need to put in) or issues/questions that you could see arising from my Statement.
While I enjoy so many people from my Presbytery in Idaho, I am so looking forward to being done with this process of jumping through the hoops. I go before Presbytery on Saturday, December 6 in Idaho Falls, ID. sometime between 10 and 3pm (MST). Your prayers are appreciated. I do believe that this is really an “evolving” Statement of Faith – I don’t believe these types of statements are meant to be considered static. So, this is my Statement of Faith, as of November 2008. To read my Statement of Faith, continue below.
Statement of Faith
In the beginning, before the dawn of time, God began to create. Out of love, God created the cosmos, our world and humanity. God declared all of God’s creation to be good and thus humans were given the opportunity and command to love and care for God’s creation. Humanity quickly turned from God and desired to seek their own ways. And thus the story of redemption and reconciliation began: humanity would both follow and turn away from God and God would be an ever-present companion, full of compassion, mercy and justice.
As the story continued, it became clear that our world was broken and torn apart by sin. In order to reconcile a broken world to Godself, God took on human flesh and broke into human history in the person of Jesus, who brought salvation and liberation to humanity. Jesus became human, told stories, touched outcasts, challenged assumptions, loved sinners, gave hope, and turned the world upside down. In the end, he gave his life on the cross, and through that sacrificial act, gave humanity the gift of salvation, redemption and hope. But death did not have the last word; the last word belongs to God and it is a word of life. Jesus was resurrected and we are given the promise of eternal and abundant life.
God continues to reveal Godself to us through the continual presence of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit leads us into truth, renews and sustains us, prays for us, and gives peace. The Spirit is also a wild and unpredictable wind surpassing the ability of humanity to contain or control. As we wrestle with God’s word to us in the Scriptures, the Spirit teaches, guides, and opens up truth. As we wrestle with God’s words in the Scriptures in community, and as we acknowledge the Bible consists of the words of men, we trust that they were inspired by the Holy Spirit and believe them to be the unique witness to Jesus, the Word of God incarnate.
The Church is the place where messy, broken and struggling people of God come together to bear witness to the truth and power of the Gospel. The Church’s call is to discern where God is at work in the world, and join in that mission. When we participate in God’s mission, when we partner with God, we bring about the kingdom of God in the here-and-now – the kingdom of God on earth, as it is in Heaven. We are nourished for this mission through the two sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper; through our baptism, we become a part of the body of Christ and through the Lord’s Super, we are continually strengthened and nourished by the body and blood of Christ through the Spirit, remembering the salvific demonstration of God’s love through the cross.
The realities of the perversion of God’s goodness in this world are all too real. Yet, as we are actively involved in this world, in this creation, we continue to look forward to the fully-realized Kingdom of God that we believe, in faith, will come one day – the new earth and the new heaven. But until that day comes, we are called to love God the Creator, to seek to follow the way of Jesus the Redeemer and to be attentive to all the movements of the Spirit the Sustainer.
Related posts:
- A Theological Statement for Your Critique
- Twitter of Faith
- “Centered in Jesus Christ, We Grow in Faith”
- An Open-Source Sermon: “Joseph: Unwavering Faith?”
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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
i know nothing about ordination processes and statements of faith in those processes, but i thought this was beautiful.
Lots of good stuff, but three things I’d call your attention to:
1) Your understanding of the church seems interestingly “voluntarist” for a Presbyterian — as if people just decide to get together and be the church.
2) The church as “place” language communicates something I’m guessing you don’t want to communicate. I know you mean it metaphorically, but most people don’t. Be careful locating the church as a geography.
3) “We bring about the kingdom of God” — really? Or do we witness to the inbreaking Kingdom? Testifying to that which we can’t bring about, but with which we can cooperate? You speak later about the fully-realized Kingdom, but here you’re making it sound like it’s all about the action of the church, and that it’s possible for humans to bring the kingdom about. Later you say the kingdom will “one day come” — how? by whose action?
4) I’m sure that the Lord is SUPER, but it’s spelled SUPPER. ;-)
5) Your brief statement on baptism can also be interpreted in a really voluntarist way. Do we make ourselves part of the body of Christ by choosing to be baptized? Do our parents make us such by getting us sprinkled as infants? Or, in baptism does God bring us into the covenant community, the body of Christ? In short, what is divine action, what is human action in baptism?
6) I wouldn’t restrict the remembrance of God’s work in the Lord’s Supper to just remembrance of the cross. Nearly all the ancient liturgies, and present Presbyterian liturgy, understands the remembrance in the Lord’s Supper to be remembrance of the birth, death, crucifixion, resurrection, and second-coming of Christ (yes, memory of a future event).
There’s some great stuff in this statement, like your connection of sacraments and mission, but the above represent the places that stood out to me as those that might create friction with Presbyterian-types.
Oh, I guess my three things turned into six things.
I didn’t notice the “voluntarist” theme quite as strongly, but you could change this sentence: “The Church is the place where messy, broken and struggling people of God come together to bear witness to the truth and power of the Gospel.” to:
“Through the Church, messy, broken and struggling people of God are called together to bear witness to the truth and power of the Gospel.” That might address Andrew’s observation.
I think it is beautiful. I like the scripture section.
The following sentence could be clearer:
“The realities of the perversion of God’s goodness in this world are all too real.”
You are basically saying that the realities are real. How about “It is too easy to see how God’s goodness has been ….”
Nicely done, Adam! I’m looking forward to your ordination!
You could say more about baptism, but
Very nicely done. This is a tedious deal as Andrew points out with his six places where you are incorrect or whatever. Presbyterians are weird. Hey good luck in Idaho. I used to live in Mountain Home and then Boise. My mentor, Francis Horner, pastored a church in Wendell.
It is a good place. You will do well. Congratulations on your ordination!
I didn’t mean to say you were weird Andrew or that your critiques weren’t helpful. I was thinking about the whole thing regarding how we are supposed to make our statements of faith fit in boxes.
Hey Adam,
I love reading peoples statement of faith – such a window into their core convictions (or of what they think needs to be said to satisfy orthodoxy). I love the emphasis on story and ecclesiology. For what its worth: the absence I notice is any reference to Abraham or Israel, the beginning place of God’s redemptive work in the world which climaxed in Christ and is still being felt through Christ’s Body the church. Reformed theology stresses the connection and continuity of Old and New Testaments and covenants.
Adam,
I would probably include the words: Trinity, fully human and fully divine,
When questioned on the floor, someone will probably ask why you don’t flat out mention Father, Son, and Holy Ghost as such. Might even ask, if you will say such when you baptize someone:)
How about adding something about being missional–serving others–Matthew 25ish?
Just throwing out some thoughts.
I am so happy to be done with the process—the Statement, the hoops, the Ords. I am having serious 2001 flashbacks:)
May God continue to give you endurance as you run the ordination marathon.