What's Our Creed?

In our discussions about a doctrinal statement, one of the ideas I had was to start with the Apostles' Creed but update/revise it a little bit. My hope in doing that would be to tie into the history of the Church while updating the language and a couple points of doctrine. Below is a draft and the changes that were made. I'd love comments on if this is an okay thing to do and what changes need to be made to it.

We believe in one true God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—Creator of heaven and earth. Jesus Christ, the only Son of the Father was born of the virgin Mary and was truly God and truly human. He lived a perfect life, died on a cross, and was buried. On the third day he rose from the dead. He appeared to many witnesses and ascended into heaven where he mediates for us at the Father’s right hand. One day he will return in glory and fully establish his kingdom.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the one body of Christ—comprised of all who are in him, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and eternal life.


What else needs to be included?
What is included that doesn’t need to be?

Changes from the Apostles’ Creed

1. The Father is not identified as Creator apart from the Son and the Holy Spirit since Scripture attests that all three were involved in the creation in specific ways.
2. That the one God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is made explicit.
3. A statement about Jesus’ perfect life is added and the direct reference to his suffering under Pilate is removed.
4. The mention of descending into Hades is removed. There are varying opinions on whether or not this is what Scripture refers to. It does not seem to be an essential point.
5. A statement of his appearance to witnesses is added.
6. Christ is specifically named as our mediator.
7. The statement of judgment is replaced with a statement of the establishment of God’s kingdom. Might be good to include both.
8. The “holy catholic Church” is replaced with the biblical metaphor of the body of Christ.
9. “The communion of the saints” is removed.

Reimagining Evangelism

It's no news that the Christian culture sometimes doesn't do the best job at engaging nonbelievers, and there's a pretty obvious culture clash in America. A recent article from The Christian Science Monitor tells one story of a man seeking to build bridges with those without faith.

Jim Henderson of Off the Map (please check the site out if you haven't) is a former pastor who realized that most people never come to church and now is on a mission to help other Christians realize why evangelistic efforts turn people away. If nothing else, his resources are a great discussion starter and thought-provoker.

FaithVisuals.com actually has a free, downloadable video from Off the Map called Three Minutes With Three Lost People.

Open Systems 1

I have been doing a lot of reading, thinking, and discussing about open systems in recent weeks. The most recent impetus for this pursuit has been the book "The Spider and the Starfish." It looks at two organizational models. The first is a more traditional, hierarchical brand. It is compared to the spider because it dies if you take away its leadership, akin to cutting off the head of a spider. It is solid, but lacks the ability to adapt quickly. The second is a very decentralized, always-morphing organization that tends to honor leadership based on character and action rather than on position. This one is compared to a starfish because a starfish can be cut in two and rather than dying it will only produce two new starfish. Without going into all the details and making this entry insufferably long, suffice to say that starfish organizations are stand up to change much better (and change is a staple in our culture) and they tend to bring out greater participation and creativity from their members (something we long to see in Christian discipleship). It seems open systems could be good for the Church.

At least in the things I have been reading there is much talk about embracing open systems in our manifestations of the church. Of organizing in such a way that there are not centralized buildings and leadership, or even programs and theology for that matter (don't read that as saying "any statement about God is as valid as any other"). I think that were open systems truly embraced there would be great benefit to the people of God, but there are barriers to realizing this change. One is that humanity loves control. If an open system is created, influence must be earned over time, it cannot be taken or granted through title and position. This also makes paid church leadership a more "iffy" proposition. Not that it can't happen, but it must be abandoned as a necessity or right. A second problem is our undying fear of heresy. We must be in control or we will slide into something far removed from a biblical theology and practice. Other than the glaring problem that much of the Western Church is already in this predicament, especially in the area of practice and subservience to idolatrous ideologies, where open systems have been formed they have shown themselves to self-regulate. For instance, you might expect Wikipedia, with its availability to anyone's contribution, to be a hodgepodge of idiocy and misinformation, but it is nothing of the sort. It is largely accurate and when people do put misinformation on it usually corrected quickly by other users. We may be less necessary as gatekeepers of theology than we think.

There is much more to be said about this, but I'll leave it here for now.

Legal Bonanza

Now that we have temporarily settled in I am working on our incorporation and board of directors. I always knew I wasn't cut out to be a lawyer, but never have I had it confirmed so clearly as I have today. I have to read most sentences three times before I get an idea of what is being said and I'm becoming increasingly aware that I need help so I don't make any big mistakes.

It has been odd for me to reflect on the organic nature of what we are trying to do in contrast to the highly structured requirements of the law. It seems like a difficult task to fit a fluid organization into such a rigid container. I'm still not sure how I will fashion the legal documents in a way that doesn't stifle the freedom of all those who will be involved. There's a part of me that feels like it would be better to skip becoming a legal organization all together, but you give up too much in terms of legal benefits and protection if you take that step.

All this to say that I am reluctantly receiving an education this morning. It is one that will continue for days and even years to come.

No More Moving--For Now

This morning I'm sitting on Cory's couch in Aurora. The move from Colorado is complete, and it was memorable! (A side note--all I really know about Michelle and the kids at this point is that they have made it to Huntington and that the trip wasn't great. Lots of crying, no sleeping--but they're there and safe.)

I got up Tuesday morning and walked outside to discover it was raining--hard. I went from the Naden's house (Southern Gables worship pastor whose family graciously allowed us to stay with them) to my brother's house to load the car up and get the truck. He and I got the car loaded, but it was raining so hard we both had to change clothes and towel off before leaving.

Because of the rain and the time of day, the 15 mile drive through Denver took about an hour. We had been looking forward to our trip together so much that neither of us really cared about the rain or the traffic, we were just glad to be enjoying our time. We had some great talks about theology and the Bible and spent a lot of the time playing stupid games that gave me the hiccups.

Our first night we stopped somewhere in Iowa. It was still raining. When we got up in the morning, it was still raining. In a show of our fatherly inability to really sleep in we were up and on the road again by 8:00. About two hours from Aurora, it stopped raining. This was a huge blessing because we didn't have to unload the truck in a downpour.

One side note--if you ever drive a big ol' truck through the Chicago area, bring wads of cash for tolls. Each one cost us $5.35.

One other great thing is that Cory let us put stuff in his spare room and the garage so we didn't have to rent a storage space. Cory, Ryan, Megan, Michael, and I worked a sweet assembly line up the stairs and filled the spare room in record time.

So we're glad to be here. I do miss Denver already and so many of the people who have greatly impacted our life who we will see less frequently now. But we know that they will continue to be a part of our lives and we continue to see God's graciousness to us in the transition.

God's Goodness in Pain

Coming to Denver from Indiana five years ago was tough for us. When we left we all had to drive separate cars, and when we made our first stop I got out and saw Michelle's eyes stained with tears. She said she had cried for the first two hours of our trip. We both had a hard time leaving our families. We assumed we'd be in Denver for three years and then move back nearer home.

Now, five years later, we are taking the step we thought would be a relief--we're moving back to the Midwest. We are very excited for what lies ahead of us, but it is very difficult too. One of the prayers we prayed when we came here was that God would give us good friends, and I know Michelle prayed for that especially hard. We have seen God answer those prayers beyond what we could have imagined.

Now, when Michelle thinks about leaving, she is moved to tears in the same way she was when we came. If I stop and think about our move in the midst of the busyness I also have a hard time thinking about the people we're leaving.

It's this pain that has been my greatest reminder of God's goodness in the last few days. First, that God would create us with an ability to relate to others in a way that leaving them would be painful. I praise Him for that. And the fact that he has made this place that is so far from home become our home, that could not have happened without His hand, and I praise Him for that. So our pain is our reminder of the goodness of our God. It is this goodness we throw ourselves on as we move to the next chapter in our lives.

Crazy Weeks

We are now only a little over two weeks from leaving Denver. After spending five years here we are sad to go but excited for what is coming next. I don't think the full impact of leaving will hit us for a while because there is so much to do at the moment. We are packing, figuring out how to start a 501C3, looking for housing and jobs (thanks to Cory and my parents for their help on that front!), trying to see everyone here one last time, and finishing up our jobs here.

I am thankful that our lives will only be so scattered for a few weeks!