My Personal Creed

A couple of days ago I began a post stating my personal creed. I then lost it, and haven't had the energy to go back and recreate the post.

But, I'll do my best. My Blue Like Jazz group the other night was discussing the Emergent Church. What is the Emergent movement? Are we emergent? What are we to believe that we have heard both wonderful and horrible things about this movement?

And what do I believe? I've been a Jesus follower for years now, but what's at the core of my beliefs? In the years that I've been a believer, I've been fundamentalist, conservative, evangelical, born-again, am I now emergent? And aren't all of these things just titles anyway? How can I say that I'm any of these any more than I can say that I belong wholeheartedly to any one political party? What do I believe?

I believe that there is a loving God. I believe that He created the universe.

I call God He because Jesus referred to Him as Father when he was on the earth. I have a good enough relationship with my earthly father, that it doesn't harm my theology to think of God as my Heavenly Father.

Speaking of which, I believe that God speaks to us in terms that we understand. We understand relationships, so we understand God as Father. In the words of Joan of Arcadia:

Joan: Are you being snippy with me? God is snippy.
God: Let me explain something to you, Joan. It goes like this. I don't look like this. I don't look like anything you'd recognize. You can't see me. I don't sound like this. I don't sound like anything you'd recognize. You see, I'm beyond your experience. I take this form because you're comfortable with it. It makes sense to you and if I'm snippy, it's because you understand snippy. You get it?
Joan: Sort of.
God: Good. Cause I'm really not snippy. I've got a great personality. You'd like me.

This is not to say that I believe that God would change Who He is, but simply that He is relational, and talks to us in ways that we understand.


Speaking of which, I believe that God speaks to us through many ways: Prayer, His Word (the Bible), others, life experience. I also believe that often times people think they hear God when they're really only hearing their own voice. In the words of Malcolm Muggeridge: "Every happening, great or small is a parable by which God speaks to us. The art of life is to get the message."

I believe that Jesus is God's Son. I believe that He is 100% God and 100% man. God wanted for us to be complete and as close to Him as possible, but we kept messing things up. We are people who understand sacrifice. Being a relational God, He reconciled us to Him in a way that we would understand.

I believe that there is a right and a wrong. I also believe that the most important part of my life is not to tell others that what I'm doing is right and what they are doing is wrong. I believe that I am not called to point out the mistakes of others, but I am called to love everyone in the Name of Jesus.

I believe that what I do is sometimes wrong, too. I believe that I am an imperfect person relying on a perfect God. I believe that sometimes even when I want to do what is right, there is a part of me that still chooses to do what is wrong.

I believe that the church has gotten it wrong a lot. I belive that we have become a group of people who feel greatly loved and priviledged, but forget that we live among people who don't like their idea of who we are. And rightly so. The church throughout history has killed people, hated those we're called to love, and thought ourselves so much better than other, all in the Name of the One we claim to serve.

I believe that the purpose of the church is to be a group of believers that looks outward, not a group that sits in our ivory towers patting ourselves on the back for how good we are and how bad everyone else is.