Statements of faith & creeds

Welcome to a course on Christian beliefs. In this class we will explore issues of theology, studying various doctrines and beliefs we hold as Christians within the Baptist tradition. We started by brainstorming on some beliefs and how to categorize them: T/F, personal/shared, provable or not, etc.

Our group exercise was to write down a summary of what we believe as Christians: a personal statement of faith. Some groups did well, others struggled. One of the course objectives is for everyone to be able to formulate their own personal statement of faith and of course, explain what it means. (Defending it is probably beyond the scope of the course!)

We looked at the TCBC statement of faith (from our constitution) and compared it to the statement of faith from AFC, which is the sponsoring organization for CCFs which many of us attend or attended. Content issues aside, the TCBC statement of faith is longer. Why? Because we are a specific church whereas CCFs try to be as broad and general as possible, being as inclusive to as many Christians as possible.

Statements of faith change. Our church amended ours in 2005 to include a traditional definition of marriage. Why? Given recent societal debate on that subject, it seemed prudent to give a clear declaration. And so it is with personal statements of faith: it should be a living document reflecting our growing understanding of our beliefs. The object of our beliefs, God, the Bible, etc, doesn't change but we do as do our circumstances. Thus it is very appropriate that we amend a personal statement of faith from time to time.

We then looked at creeds. Creeds are just historical statements of faith. It comes from the Latin "credo", meaning "I believe" which is the starting words of most creeds. We looked at the Apostle's Creed, available in our hymn books. Of note is what it doesn't cover: the authority of the Bible, the divinity of Christ, etc. Creeds don't replace the Bible, they are short summaries and thus can't possibly be a complete statement of everything that we believe.

Of note, Baptists are not a "creedal" people: we don't force people to sign creeds to be a member. Some Christian organizations may. Baptists instead encourages each believer to study the Bible for themselves. A personal statement of faith is thus very Baptist; other traditions may not be so eager to allow such independent thought. With this freedom comes great responsibility for all of us.