Wedding Vows and Credo

If you have been to a wedding in the last twenty years, and especially in the last five, you might have noticed a trend. More and more couples are deciding to write their own wedding vows. This change no doubt reflects the desire for the couple to really 'own' their vows, to put their own spin on the words they would nervously utter while exchanging rings.

I understand the desire to do this; after all, our society is now very far removed from using words like 'with my body I thee worship' and all the other antiquated phrases that have been used through the centuries. There isn't anything wrong with altering the vows, given that the bride and groom understand and thus mirror the oaths that the older vows represent.

You might think me old in saying this, and that is of course your perogative. But I do think it very important to maintain the ideas behind our older ceremonies, even if we change the words. It would be appropriate to vow your devotion and service to your spouse, regardless of situation or feeling. But it would be less than fitting on your wedding day to say, "Hey, you're pretty cool and I think we can take a swing at life."

Why?

Well, there is power behind words. Despite our society's desire to deny this truth, it remains unaltered. When we vow and affirm our promises, we say something about our ability to hold to them. Understanding what millions of people throughout history have said and believed and held to can help connect us to a community that spans even time.

This is why we need to understand our spiritual heritage and the words and vows that our ancestors made. It is a good thing that we are always trying to relate to the world in ways that make sense. We employ technology, sound, visual aids, and modern vocabulary because without these things, we aren't very relevant! But as we do this, we must also keep the same message. We can change the wrapping, but the gift still needs to be the same.

It is with this understanding that I want to present something I wrote a few years ago regarding the Apostles' Creed. If you aren't familiar with it, or want to commit it to memory (a very good idea), I will include the text below.

No doubt, many of you who are reading this blog attend non-denominational churches. Churches like these are relatively new, historically speaking. They are usually independent congregations, made up of believers who come from every conceivable background. This tells me why some of my readers may be cautious about the study of doctrine. Their unity in Christ is precious. They want to guard it. Believers in these churches have enjoyed a generation of unity because they decided not to discuss doctrinal differences. The problem is, most of these churches have now come to the time when they must decide what to teach their children and new converts. Trying to meet this need often opens up the potential for disunity. When I served at a church in central Phoenix, this very dilemma pushed us towards a new and, for us, a surprising insight. We decided that if we could go back to the days before Christians began to divide from one another, back to the days before the great denominations were formed, we would find the common deposit of faith, the essence of "Mere Christianity. " We wanted to get in step with the steady beat of the Great Parade.

For three centuries after the death of the apostles, Christians struggled about what they believed. Even when the apostles were alive, Christians often disagreed among themselves over issues such as how to interpret various portions of the Scriptures (what we call the Old Testament). Then, immediately after the apostles, they argued about which writings should be included in the New Testament. Early Christians also held different beliefs about Christ. Some of these beliefs questioned the deity of Jesus Christ. Others questioned His humanity. Differences like these left Christians divided and discouraged.

To settle such issues, the Christians held special gatherings called councils. Christian churches all over the known world sent representatives to these meetings. In these councils, the believers worked to define and describe the doctrines that would be common to all Christians. The first of these councils is recorded in the Bible itself, in Acts, chapter 15. In the next few centuries there were several more church councils. In them, the Christians decided things like which writings would or would not be included in the New Testament, how much of Jewish practice would or would not be retained in the Christian Church, and what Christians would teach about Jesus Christ. Through the ages since, the overwhelming majority of Christians have agreed with the decisions these early councils made. They have played their music to the steady beat established in the church counsels. The decisions of these councils have stood the test of time through countless trials and tribulations. They are important to all of us.

The early councils struggled over how to describe Jesus Christ and the doctrines about Him. Their decisions were then worded in such a way that they could be memorized and used in public worship by common people. We call these doctrinal poems "creeds," since the first word in each of these doctrinal poems is the Latin word "credo," which means, "I believe."

The first and most important of these creeds is called the Apostles' Creed. No one knows for sure when it was written. We do know that Christians were quoting it in the second century. A couple of centuries later another important creed, called the Nicene Creed, was written. There are few Christians anywhere, with all our differences, who do not accept the doctrines that these creeds teach. So it is in these creeds that believers in Christ find their common doctrinal heritage. The creeds contain what C. S. Lewis meant by "Mere Christianity."

The Apostles' Creed

I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
the Creator of heaven and earth,
and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord:

Who was conceived of the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried.

He descended into hell.
The third day He arose again from the dead.

He ascended into heaven
and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty,
whence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy *catholic church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and life everlasting.

Amen.

*The word catholic refers to Christ's universal church, not to the Roman Catholic Church. You will often hear this replaced with 'holy Christian church' to promote clarity.

I'd Rather Be Casting Out Devils

When I heard the song about exorcism on Keith and Megan Cook's CD project, I just laughed out loud. (Well, have you ever heard a song about exorcism before?) So I sent out a blog about it, just last Monday, in fact. Then, as the week went on, I came to the conclusion that I should organize my Sunday sermon around the theme of the CD project: Narrow Road. So that’s what I did!

We also asked Keith and Megan to sing for us in our morning service August 10. We videotaped them and wanted to give you a chance to see it.

Of course, it wasn't just the Cook's CD project that inspired the sermon. I had been profoundly moved by a holy moment that occurred as we were receiving communion in the Sunday PM Service the week before. Our singers and musicians lost themselves in worship as we prepared to approach the table. That moment too was captured on video and I encourage you to watch all five minutes.

We are sending you this email because we are trying to learn how to share the gospel and build Christian community in our highly technological age. In fact, that's what my sermon was about: Discerning the mission of God by observing how He distributes the gifts of the Holy Spirit upon a particular people in a specific season.

So if you enjoy either -- or both of these videos -- share them with friends. By watching how widely they get distributed, we hope to learn how to use internet related technologies to make friends for our church, share our mission with the world and expand the gifts (and vision) of our congregation.

Ok, one more shameless plug: you can see the sermon in its entirety by clicking on visiting the sermons page of the Christ Church Website. Or, if you prefer a written version, just write me a note: dan@christchurchnashville.org. You can also purchase the Cook's CD Narrow Road and other products by Christ Church composers, singers and writers on our site.

God bless each of you -- we are thankful for every member of our extended Christ Church Family.

Dan Scott
Senior Pastor
Christ Church Nashville

Is Creed A Good Thing?

I recently heard a story from a friend about something that took place in her church which absolutely baffled her. The pastor began a teaching series on the apostle’s creed. He walked the congregation through the meaning of each of the concepts of this ancient statement of faith. He even went so far as to explain the meaning of words that might be “offensive” to some of his congregants. My friend said that he did nothing more than lay out the basics of our faith in a clear and concise way. At the conclusion of this series the pastor asked his congregation to join him in affirming this creed together in their public worship service. After such thorough teaching there was now no reason for anyone to be confused about the truth claims of the creed. But before the congregation had finished the last line, a whole family of faithful congregants stood up and walked out of the service. They refused to be part of a church that used a written creed in their worship service. It’s absolutely amazing how many people question whether a creed is a good thing.

Is a Creed A Good Thing? (Taken from Twelve Drummers Drumming)

Perhaps you have heard people say something like, "Christians don’t need creeds, they don’t need doctrine! They just need to love Jesus!" I have certainly heard people talk like that. It sounds right until you ask, “What do you mean?” For if you ask a simple follow-up question like, "Who is Jesus?" he or she will, without fail, begin to unfold his or her own doctrine. For if, in trying to answer the question “who is Jesus,” he says something like “the Jesus of the Bible." You need merely ask, "And what does the Bible say about Jesus?" You will soon see that any answer he gives reveals his doctrinal viewpoint.

The fact is we all have doctrine! Our doctrine may be “homemade,” something we have pieced together ourselves from countless experiences, teachers, preachers, and personal feelings. Or, we may have learned much of our doctrine from some seasoned mentor. However we came up with it, we all have some sort of doctrinal system, formal or informal, that forms our practices and beliefs. The question is not whether we have doctrine or not. It is impossible not to have doctrine. For the conscientious Christian, the question is, How does my doctrine compare with what the Bible teaches and what the saints through the ages have believed? Am I marching to the steady beat, the common rhythm of my faith?

The family that walked out of my friend’s church did not understand what the pastor was trying to do. We live in an age that denies the existence of absolute truth with such loud shouts that it drowns out the music of our faith that has played through the centuries. That pastor was merely trying to beat the drums a little louder in order to help his people find their place in the music again.

I received this e-mail from a younger member of the congregation. As it raises some pertinent questions (and difficult ones at that!) I thought it might be some fodder for conversation. Please add your thoughts, and let's get some dialogue going!

Am I marching to the steady beat, the common rhythm of my faith?

This question leapt off the page when I began to read Twelve Drummers. Though I know the typical answers, I struggle with it nonetheless.

It is my experience that today’s society asks us to eschew labels and yet simultaneously embrace them. We desire to define ourselves by these labels, but not to be bound by them. I don’t think that churches are any different in this regard.

I have always attended a church. More often than not, it has been a quasi-charismatic, non-denominational, Evangelical church. These churches have been happy to tell me that Jesus is Lord, that Easter is about the Resurrection, and that the Bible is a very, very important read.
Beyond this, I’m sorry to say that there was little formal teaching. I gleaned things from Sunday School, VBS, and my Christian school Bible classes. I was left to the very differing whims of the Southern Baptist, ex-Pentecostal, and former Lutheran.

Upon meeting someone my age who was very catechized, I realized that my beliefs were…interesting. This is not to say that they were incorrect or even uninformed; no, they were just different from those of someone who served in the same realm of religious life that I did.

What I am trying to get at is that the churches I grew up in didn’t want to try too hard to be ‘penned in’ by the confines of an absolute catechism. I both appreciate and mourn this idea, and I believe that it has much to do with my level of difficulty with the aforementioned question.
I am surrounded by good, loving, Christian people of all colors and stripes. This adds to my life greatly. But it also means that I am sitting in the middle of a very mixed up pot of beliefs. Why does this matter?

Well, if we are trying to walk to the ‘common rhythm’ that the question presents, we have to come down to the bare minimum that the drummers are drumming!

If we have all manners of beliefs on who the Holy Spirit is and who is saved and what the process of sanctification includes and WHAT on EARTH should the choir wear for the Christmas concert, then we really have to simmer this pot down very, very low.

What we come down to are several things, and these things are usually those that are included in the Apostles’ Creed: Jesus was a man, Jesus was God, He died, He rose, and the other ‘basics’.

The problem is, if we only stick to these basics, we are left with a large problem.

Someone who is living a homosexual lifestyle can believe these things and yet, according to ‘mainstream’ Christianity, not be considered to be living within the Biblical framework that we are trying to uphold.

We can say that the issue of morality is not a salvific one. Indeed, if we are to be judged, we all fall miserably short. And yet, we know that it is important to try our best to adhere to Biblical principles on Christian living.

While even casually perusing the Bible, I can see many examples of how even the most conservative of modern Christians do not practice the ideas of the Old and New Testaments. We understand that some things were ‘for a time’, and that time has now passed. If you are a woman, you are most likely able to speak in church or hold a class in which you instruct women and men. This would not have been kosher, so to speak, during Biblical times.

How then do we know what to cast off and what to retain?

Commonality is a difficult thing to understand, as people and institutions are fickle by nature.
In order to march to a common beat, we need to carefully define what set of drummers we are following.

In today’s times, there are many people in the band, and it seems as if they all want to be in the drum core. I hear many beats, many rhythms, and many sounds that cause me to get lost.
Lately, it isn’t about staying away from those whose beliefs are widely different from our own. No, it is more important to know what subtleties and slightly varying scores will cause us to forget what tune we are supposed to be playing.