I saw another blog on this topic and thought I'd chime in... I was at a conference recently for an organization that's taken the Apostle's Creed as its "Statement of Faith."  One of the speakers had been given a whole 45 minutes (!) to explain their theology. I ran into him in the lobby later and told him how much I appreciated his efforts, explaining that our church had made a similar decision to simplify our governing doctrinal documents. I explained that we had gone from a very conventional evangelical/conservative "Statement of Faith" (A series of complex sentences with many large and obscure words each followed by an isolated Scripture citation.) and had instead adopted the Nicene Creed.  He asked if I would send him a copy and a little background and here's my reply:

A word of explanation is probably in order…  The background to the review of our statement involved several things happening around the same time:

§       We’d seen too many of the ill effects of our folks “sound-biting” the Word instead of internalizing it.  The format of our existing statement of faith with it’s proof texts and context-free quotations seemed to epitomize this issue.

§       We were becoming more involved in cross-cultural evangelization and attended the course “Perspectives on the World Christian Movement” (www.perspectives.org).  As a result, we became concerned about contextualization and realized just how inaccessible our Christian-ese culture and language made our message.  Our statement of faith was an especially painful example of this problem. 

§       We realized how many of the debates we witnessed were over terms where the debaters argued over specific words without understanding their definitions or appreciating their (often overly subtle) differences.  We also kept encountering folks who had been taught to scan for certain key terms and told that the absence of those specific words meant heresy was afoot!  Our statement of faith with its theologically-correct but extremely obscure vocabulary only reinforced this tendency.

§       We’re involved with a small handful of local church groups and occasionally we’d invite another pastor to join one of these groups.  We kept getting questions about this or that pet issue because they couldn’t be part of something where those people were in attendance.  But when we’d challenge them by asking, “Are you saying those people aren’t Christians (or Brothers)?” some prolonged hemming and hawing commenced. 

§       Finally, several of us were contemplating the creeds (especially the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds) in light of the Scriptures and we became impressed with how many of our intramural debates God and the ancient Church had been content to leave largely unaddressed.  We were also impressed with how the ancient creeds used clear, concise, and non-technical language to disciple their hearers in the faith rather than obscuring the Gospel.

As a result, we felt that our purpose (and our challenge) should be to draw our people together around “Core Christianity.”  We recognized the power that preference, custom, and extrapolation (even the “biblical” extrapolation of our favorite systematic theologies) had come to wield in the Church and began to examine our beliefs and our experiences using an “At what point can I no longer call you ‘Brother’?” template, always challenging one another to go no further in establishing boundaries.  This provided the foundation that made this project possible.  

As a “Community Church” we have people coming from a broad spectrum of experiences and expectations (not unlike RTCA)—from the “What’s wrong with the Bible as a statement of faith?” folks to ex-Baptists, Catholics, Holiness, Lutherans, Messianic Jews, Pentecostals, Presbyterians, fundamentalists, and recovering legalists of all stripes…  The length of the statement of faith largely reflects our Elders' conviction that we should share some of the points we wrestled with in arriving at “the Core.”  One final point: Someone has said that we’re not obligated to attend every argument that we’re invited to.  The language intentionally becomes much more pointed where we more or less highlighted those invitations we didn’t intend to accept.  It still amazes me that that portion consistently elicits a general sigh of relief.

In revising a conventional statement of faith and going to the attached, the temptation was to publish this and then duck for cover.  For all our hesitancy, the response has been amazingly accepting both within the congregation and among our fellow pastors. 

Calvary Community Church “Vitals” (statement of faith):

The absolute best way to understand and learn about any community is to experience it on the relational level. Statements of faith can tell you what a faith community says they believe, but they can’t tell you who they are. That said, we recognize the value of statements to communicate the culture of any organization.  Indeed, even Jesus made allowance for our human need to sum things up when He answered the question, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”  

“‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart
and with all your soul
and with all your mind
and with all your strength.’

The second is this:
‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

There is no commandment greater than these.”

In fact, some have called this the “Jesus Creed.” In keeping with our commitment to asserting truth and fostering unity in the universal Body of Christ, we find the ancient creeds (i.e., The Apostle’s Creed and The Nicene Creed) to be reliable and sufficient statements of the core truths of Christianity. Their proximity to the original Apostles focuses these creeds most concisely on the essential truths of the Gospel. Since the points made in the Apostle’s Creed are contained in and expanded upon in the Nicene Creed, we present the Nicene Creed here:

We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen. 

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father. Through Him all things were made.  For us and for our salvation He came down from heaven: by the power of the Holy Spirit He became incarnate from the virgin Mary, and was made man.  For our sake He was crucified under Pontius Pilate; He suffered death and was buried.  On the third day He rose again in accordance with the scriptures; He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.  He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end. 

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son.  With the Father and the Son He is worshipped and glorified.  He has spoken through the Prophets.  We believe in one true Church, holy, universal, and apostolic.  We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.  We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.  Amen

Subsequent creedal statements and confessions were drawn up largely to respond to contemporary assaults on the one true faith rather than as comprehensive or transcendent statements of truth. We find the Lausanne Covenant as elaborated on in the Manila Manifesto to be helpful responses to the challenges against our faith today.

It should be noted that our Vitals presume submission to Scripture’s authority which both instructs and judges all that we think and do.  The Bible (the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments) inspires and corrects our doctrine and our conduct.  Let it be clear that the Scriptures have primacy over any creeds, confessions, or statements of faith and that while we may find these kinds of documents useful in communicating our beliefs, our benchmark must continually be the clear teaching of Scripture.

We are aware there are some who will find this statement of “vitals” less than satisfying.  We know that in limiting ourselves to what we are convinced are the essential tenets of Christian faith, we have omitted “distinctives” closely held by many (including many brothers and sisters whose opinions we esteem). 

We are also aware that many brothers and sisters have become disproportionately attached to particular wordings of doctrine—whether regarding apocalyptic events, the meaning or forms of administering the sacraments, or the use of catch phrases. It is to be expected that human beings sharing common experiences and expressing familiar ideas will develop and adopt forms to facilitate communication, but we must remember that all our formulations of Christian truth must ultimately conform not to some preset statement but to the Scriptures, all parts of which are divinely inspired. There is no substitute for the thorough, patient examination of what God's Word teaches.

Since what we believe will ultimately determine how we live, the truth of our doctrine is crucial, but so is our faithful participation in Christ's worldwide mission. We resent superfluous distractions; we resist unbiblical diversions. Our aim is to fulfill Jesus’ directives to love God with all our beings, to afford our neighbors the same care we afford ourselves, and to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything” He commanded. Given our confidence in the Scriptures, our belief in the power and reliability of the Holy Spirit to lead God’s Church, and God’s own assurance that He will ultimately work all things (including our ignorance and failures) together for good, we cannot seriously presume that the formulation of and debate over precise doctrinal statements is the mission for which Christ established his Church. 

To be truly Christian means more than debating about what Christians are and who deserves the name. Debate about who exactly is the “right kind” of Christian deserves even less attention. We are unified in the essentials and will not be divided by distinctives.

We stand united with that great cloud of witnesses—the Apostles, martyrs, teachers, and other saints who have gone before us in the faith.  None of us is infallible. None of us is perfect. Thankfully, we do not have to be. We have God's sure Word to correct our steps; we have Christ's sure grace to forgive our errors; we have the Holy Spirit’s sure guidance to lead us, as to the glory of God, we fulfill our mission.

Truth
The Bible is God’s true and authoritative communication to us and its teaching will transform the lives of its hearers — as individuals, households, communities, and nations. Ultimate truth will always be ultimately relevant.

Mission
The great work of the Church centers around and works through relationships—our total abandonment to love and serve God and our total commitment to love and serve the people we encounter as we follow Christ. People matter to God and they should matter to us as well.  We are responsible to pass on to others the information, experiences, and resources that God has trusted to us.  

Relevance
The Church must be culturally relevant while remaining doctrinally pure.  We are God’s ambassadors sent to ensure that His message is clearly heard in the cultural context to which we are sent. Irrelevance interferes with the communication of the Gospel by creating confusion about what the Gospel is and why it matters. When we communicate the truth of the Gospel, the only acceptable barrier should be the inherent offensiveness of the cross — never our means of communication.

Community
Genuine community and loving relationships are hallmarks of Christ’s presence among us.  In such an environment, we will grow spiritually, give and receive care, hold one another accountable, and serve meaningfully.  While this is true at all levels of the Church, it is most evident and most effective in small groups where we are best known and most vulnerable. 

Transformation
God’s work in us brings transformation in our character and wholeness in our lives.  As this transformation occurs, we grow in transparency (we are what we appear to be), in integrity (we do what we say we’ll do), and in authenticity (we are the same person whether alone or in front of others). 

Devotion
We are each created to know God intimately, worship Him passionately, and glorify Him eternally, beginning in this life.  Jesus came to establish us in this abundant life.  Pursuit of full devotion to Christ and His cause is the normal and reasonable God-given calling for every believer. 

Unity
Historically there have been many expressions in the way Christians experience and worship God. Who we are, where we come from, and the varied ways we have encountered God through Jesus Christ, have resulted in different streams of Christian practice. We believe God honors, enjoys, and welcomes these differences, just as we honor and enjoy the uniqueness of individual children within our own families. We believe that God is honored by our diversity; we do not believe He is honored by our disunity.