For several reasons I have been thinking about creeds lately. For example, pressure on the Emergent Church community to write a statement of faith, to my own church's decision to write a position paper on women in ministry, to my recent introduction to Anabaptism in my theology class at school (Anabaptists tend to be non-creedal). Even today my church began to corporately go through the Apostles Creed so as to clarify what all Christians have believed for all time.
So to get to the point, (I am guessing people will probably stop reading if they are forced to scroll down), I question what are creeds good for? To illustrate my point I will use my church as an example. Last Wednesday the elders held a town hall meeting to present their position paper on women in ministry. They have been working on the issue for a year now, and now came the time to let the congregation in on their decision. To make a long story short the elder's decision seemed to equally upset the complementarians and the egalitarians. The way that they read scripture is that there is obvious hiearchy in the Bible, but in the NT we can see an elevation of women's status and involvment in the church, therefore the church must uphold hiearchy, yet at they same time encourage significant female contribution in the church. Practically this will work out in women being encouraged to lead adult sunday school, small groups, and to participate in an elder advisory board. The position of elder and senior pastor will continue to be for men, furtermore, only men will be able to teach from the pulpit on Sunday mornings.
If you are familiar with the debate you can probably see why this decision would upset both groups: it seems really abritrary. One attendee (a complementarian) said "the only difference between men and women in this theology is 50 feet" (the distance from the pulpit and the adult sunday school classroom).
Anyway, back to the original intent of this post. What good is this position paper? Will it spur on further engagment of the issue or will it simply close the book? Will this position paper allow for the diversity of beliefs in the church to continue to exist? Is this position paper just another example of our constant need in the church to nail our beliefs down? Why must we constantly determine who is in and who is out?
I think most of life is in between. In between good and bad, love and hate, joy and pain, hope and despair. I am not sure what that has to do with my blog, but I think to have a good blog, it needs to have a sophisicated philosophical tone to it. As if we are ever that philosophical in our actual existence. Anyway, enjoy. PS...as a bonus you might find some of my photos posted on this blog.
3 comments:
I believe this calls for a response from (in a loud echoing voice) CAPTAIN N. ANDERSON!
Here's my thoughts: unity. what do we agree on? things written down solidify what's being spoken and lived out.
things written down are also used to abuse others.
but i think...i agree. this position paper will probably not help anybody, except those who want to exclude anybody who doesn't think like them.
yeah...creeds are not neccessarly bad...but how they are used can be bad. For example was the Nicene Creed just the Roman Emperor's way of keeping his empire in line. Why were the leaders of the church so willing to do his bidding? They should have told the emperor to cram it, but instead the church joined in and put crosses on their swords and shields.
i prefer to use my creeds for more practical means, like...toilet paper and spit wads.
Yes, they can be abused. But what can't?
Most importantly: love God.love others.
If you have a creed, it better help you do those above things. if it doesn't, then use the creed as toilet paper and find a new one. Or better yet, look for the God behind the creed.
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