I Believe What I Believe

     What do I believe?

     Now more than ever I find it necessary to return to home base and articulate once again my basic beliefs about Jesus Christ, His Church, and what it is His Church is called to do in this world. There are so many messages we get today from our culture that claim to be truth, and it is simply not all truth.

     You can read some of my previous posts if you want specific examples of how I see fiction masquerading as truth in the world today.

     The nuts and bolts about what Christians believe is the same; what I state in this personal credo is fundamentally no different than other believers, but I have to put into my own words, so here goes ...

     "I believe that God was (and is) reconciling the world to himself in Jesus Christ, and that God has entrusted this ministry of reconciliation to the Church (2 Cor. 5:19). The world is reconciled to Christ when individuals receive new life in Christ, are joined to the Body of Christ, and participate in God’s reconciling work in the world. Apart from Christ, people in the world are, “… foreigners to the covenants of promise, without hope and without God ...” (Eph. 2:12) In Christ, people discover God’s wonderful plans for their lives; they receive a hope and a future (Jer. 29:11). 

     The Church lives out the ministry of reconciliation by proclaiming the Word of God faithfully, in word and in deed, to everyone we encounter. Jesus came, “to proclaim good news to the poor … to proclaim freedom for the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set the oppressed free, (and) to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4:18-19) Whether the Spirit has given us the gifts of evangelism, healing, service, compassion, administration, teaching, or preaching (or some other gift), we each have a role to play in Christ’s reconciling work in the Church."

     In my next few posts I will share what I believe about some specific doctrines. In the meantime, I invite your feedback. Does this personal credo capture the essence of what the Church believes about ministry and mission? If you were to sit down and write your own personal credo, what would you say?