What Do You Believe?

September 19, 2012 Andrea Underwood

Through the years, more than one person has said

about the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ),

"You can believe what you want to believe in that church."

But that is not true.

Yes, we are a non-creedal church. We do not repeat

the Apostle's Cree or Nicene Creed as tests of faith.

Maybe that is where it came from.

Let's take a moment to examine that statement.

When someone is ready to profess Christ as Lord

and Savior, they walk forward, in front of everybody

and are asked, "Do you believe that Jesus is the Christ

the Son of the living God and do you accept him as

your Lord and Savior?" They are also asked, "Do you

want to be a disciple of the living Christ?" and

"Do you love the Lord with all your heart, all your soul,

all your mind and all your strength?"

To be sure, there is wide latitude for interpretation

in what those commitments mean. They exist in the

minds and hearts of each believer. I am sure that

each day the believer must come to terms with

what they believe about those commitments.

But that is not all.

Becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ means

learning more. The one who has freedom

to believe, must devote themselves to

studying with the community of believers.

We walk through the passages of the Bible

together, reading, discussing, learning.

Such a journey is a lifetime process.

Some passages need more intensive

examination than others for us to know

how they apply to life.

You and I cannot know what a church

really believes, until we sit in and study

with its believers. (Sometimes you can

tell by what the preacher says, but in

our case, you don't have to always agree

with the preacher.)

The truth is, while there is freedom of interpretation

in all churches, some just don't provide the

latitude for a believer to speak freely.

In the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

we have a culture that acknowledges

we aren't all at the same place in our

faith or at the same level of maturity