I'm not happy at all with the new Covenant. Just like the old FOS, it keeps us all firmly on a foundation of dishonesty.
I'm talking about the three confessions: BC/HC/CD. I've heard for years that these confessions give us our identity, since we all agree with them. Actually what unites us is our willingness to say (or sign our name) that yes--we agree with all these.
This is embarassing to many of us, and very manipulative. A young person in our church cannot even officially profess his faith in God without also "agreeing" with these confessions. (Yes, that is in the form which is used, and it doesn't matter if they've never even looked at these documents.) The same is true, of course, for all office bearers. Many of these (most??) have also never looked at the documents in question. (Well--parts of the catechism are well known, but definately not the others.)
Not many of your commenters will agree, but it would be refreshingly honest to admit that these old documents are well past their "use by" date. What is it that we really do believe today? Don't we have the resources within the denomination to produce a new confession?
In the world of computers today, we click on all sorts of buttons to signify our acceptance of contracts and terms which we haven't read or understood. But this is no way to operate within a faith community. It's not the type of community we want to be any longer.
Posted in: Living Confessionally in Covenant
I'm not happy at all with the new Covenant. Just like the old FOS, it keeps us all firmly on a foundation of dishonesty.
I'm talking about the three confessions: BC/HC/CD. I've heard for years that these confessions give us our identity, since we all agree with them. Actually what unites us is our willingness to say (or sign our name) that yes--we agree with all these.
This is embarassing to many of us, and very manipulative. A young person in our church cannot even officially profess his faith in God without also "agreeing" with these confessions. (Yes, that is in the form which is used, and it doesn't matter if they've never even looked at these documents.) The same is true, of course, for all office bearers. Many of these (most??) have also never looked at the documents in question. (Well--parts of the catechism are well known, but definately not the others.)
Not many of your commenters will agree, but it would be refreshingly honest to admit that these old documents are well past their "use by" date. What is it that we really do believe today? Don't we have the resources within the denomination to produce a new confession?
In the world of computers today, we click on all sorts of buttons to signify our acceptance of contracts and terms which we haven't read or understood. But this is no way to operate within a faith community. It's not the type of community we want to be any longer.