“What does IAC believe in this area of faith?”
“Is this topic a central part of the faith, or something more on the edges?”
“My friend disagrees with me on this belief: how big of a deal is that?”
As a pastor, I get questions like this all the time. And while I can give a really quick response, I often feel like there’s a missed opportunity to have a larger conversation on not only what Christians believe, but how we believe. There are some areas of the faith that we can be very confident in, and some that aren’t as clear as we’d like them to be. We need to be able to tell the difference, engaging others who believe differently with the appropriate mixture of confidence and humility.
IAC’s new Gospel Clarity and Charity document – written and approved by our Church Council - is intended to guide members of our congregation (and those who are thinking about joining us) in navigating these difficult questions.
Christian belief is nothing more than the declaration of the gospel, the story of who God is and what he is doing. We find this story in the Scriptures, our ultimate authority in all matters of faith and practice,
But some things are clear and central in that story, and others are less so.
Therefore, we’ve divided Christian belief into 3 layers: Central Beliefs, Biblical Affirmations, and Disputable Matters.
Areas of Central Belief can be thought of as those things which are clear in the Scriptures and have been believed by the church for the last 2000 years. These beliefs form the foundation stones of Christian faith, and are contained in the Creeds (namely, the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds). To be clear, we do not believe these creeds over the Bible: we believe them because they are an effective summary of the Scriptural narrative and some of its key themes. At IAC, to be outside the bounds of these Creeds – for example, to say that Christ did not rise bodily from the dead, or that there will be no judgment of right and wrong at the end of the age – is to be outside the Christian faith.
However, the Creeds don’t say all that can be said about what we can confidently believe based on the Scriptural witness. There are places where Scripture is very clear: when it is read as a consistent narrative across every book of the Bible, sensitive to its historic context, informed by the church’s history of interpretation. These areas of Biblical Affirmations have often been summed up in “Confessions” during the church’s history. Our attempt to summarize these beliefs is contained in our IAC Affirmations. Although not all Christians would agree with all that’s written in our Affirmations, we trust that these conclusions grow clearly from the Biblical material and that most believers around the world would find overlap and similarities with us within this layer of confidence.
The last area of belief we address is Disputable Matters. These are the places where, quite frankly, Scripture just isn’t as clear as we’d like it to be. This does not mean, of course, that we don’t need to come to conclusions around these topics: it simply means that the conclusions we make can (and should!) be held more loosely. In our Disputable Matters section, we address some important (and often divisive) issues of our day, providing some principles that guide us as we navigate the difficulties of all we don’t fully know.
In this section, you’ll also find an important concept for Christian belief: it is important not only to have Gospel Positions, but also Postures toward those who disagree. Knowing what to believe is only part of our responsibility: we also need to know how to walk alongside others that believe differently! We can stand far apart from one another with hands open in an attempt to persuade, or we can stand next to one another with fists up, shouting our truth. It is the combination of Gospel Position + Gospel Posture that the Spirit often uses to draw people to himself and to bring the factions within the church into unity.
Finally, we unpack these areas of belief to point out just a few implications on how we are called to live in Commitments of Behavior. We are well aware that much more could be said in this section, but we hope the few things we have highlighted point the way to a life of flourishing and wholeness!
We have several hopes for this document as it enters our community at IAC.
Our primary hope is that is creates confidence - for all who are a part of IAC or thinking about joining us - about where we stand and how we stand. The journey to Belonging at a church is hard enough, and it makes it harder when we have to wonder if there is something “under the covers” related to the church’s beliefs. Even if you disagree in certain areas, we hope the clarity is a kindness for your own sense of Belonging.
However, we also hope that this document provides clarity on where you stand. Our prayer is that reading through the document provokes you to discernment about your own faith and beliefs, how they are being lived out in your life (or not), and where might be a good next step to explore within IAC.
For those who already belong at IAC, we are asking you to give us a glimpse into that discernment process by filling out the “Gospel Clarity and Charity Response Form.” On this form, you’ll find that you have two primary options for each area of belief: Agree & Abide.
It’s easy to be confused about what this means. In short:
Agreeing means that you are in concert with a given belief and committed to live it out in your own life.
Abiding means that even though you disagree with a belief, you are willing to participate in a community that holds that belief without causing division.
Areas of agreement are often fairly easy to navigate. Disagreements can be trickier, because there is a big difference between being able to abide in disagreement, and not being able to abide in good conscience. We are thankful that there is such a diversity of beliefs at IAC on Disputable Matters, because we believe this makes our community richer and more able to reflect the fullness of the kingdom. But if those places of disagreement create obstacles to unity in what is central, it can be extremely difficult to live in community together.
When you come to a place of disagreement, it’s important to be honest with the church and with yourself. There may be places where you can’t abide within IAC, and naming that is important. If you find yourself in that place, then we would love to help you either (a) process through the issue, or (b) help you find another church home that better fits your convictions. Please let us know how we can be helpful in this.
As you consider this document, we want to be absolutely clear about what this means for Belonging at IAC: You truly do not have to Agree with any area of belief to Belong at IAC.
Whether you’re seeking, deconstructing, or a long-time believer with some differing convictions, you can be at home here! The only requirement for Belonging is that you are willing to abide within a community that will champion and teach the beliefs listed in the document.
There may be implications for leadership positions at IAC based on Agreement and Abiding. For example, we are committed to the boundary that members of our Church Council – our lay team that stewards our Vision & Values – Agrees with the core elements of the historic faith and committing to live a life that reflects Christ’s love and healing. However, even here this is flexibility to Abide in various areas.
However, please know that at no level of our church’s leadership – not even our staff – is it required to Agree with all the Disputable Matters principles that are listed in the document. We welcome a variety of beliefs in those topics within the framework of Abiding, and believe that we can truly learn from one another and grow in our faith as we encounter different perspectives.
We know this may be a difficult document for some to navigate based on previous experiences with doctrinal statements that labeled people as “in” or “out.” But our heart is less about setting up fences and more about clarifying where the well of our unity resides: the historic gospel of Jesus Christ, handed down by the apostles, contained in the Scriptures.
We don’t want to serve up yet another litmus test for what it means to be a “real” Christian, or a check-box to swiftly move through in the Belonging Journey. We want all of us to grow in our capacity to grasp this gospel with confidence and humility, because it is our only hope!
We don’t write this story: we simply receive it and wrestle with its implications in our day.
May we receive with confidence what we know about who God is and what he’s doing: and rest in humility in all we don’t know.
In expectancy,
Pastor Ken and IAC’s Church Council