What are the non-negotiables?
It was a few weeks ago that Toby and I went to the park to swing when I overheard a conversation between two people. In order to make the story easier to understand I made up names.  Bob was sharing with Tom that a guy knocked on his door to talk some spiritual matters earlier in the week. Somewhere in the conversation the guy who knocked on the door was talking about these papers that had been found.  Bob started laughing and said that he had to share with the guy at the door that these papers were called the dead sea scrolls.  Tom asked what the dead sea scrolls were. Bob said they were the missing portions of scripture the found in the sea about 30 years ago so now we have the rest of the story. I was ready to go over and enter the conversation but Toby was determined to go down the slide again. I later heard Bob share about his time in an odd church where he was about to take a drink from the baptismal font.
I also recently got a phone call from someone interested in The Bridge. He wanted to know if we had a theological stance paper he could read so that he could know if he could worship with us. As I answered each of his questions I kept trying to relay to him that although I see us agreeing on what he calls the critical issues of the church (and some of them were) I’m not sure that we are the right church for him.
I share these two stories because it started to drive home the question of what are the non-negotiables for the church? What are those things that should be black and white and what are those things that are left in the gray? I shared this question with our core team last night and here are some of their responses. I’m not advocating or denying any of them just listing them for further conversation.
Jesus Came - Died - Rose
The Bible is Truth
Love everyone no matter what
The Trinity
What do you think?
June 28th, 2007 at 11:43 pm
Marty,
I think you’re on the right track. We are a denominational church plant and I support the beliefs of our denom or I wouldn’t be planting with them. That said, I think we die on the wrong hills many times…I tell our people that my non-negotiables are doctrines that all Christians should have as a part of their catechism. (I know that’s used a lot by Catholics but it’s applicable). These include:
The Gospel - Death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.
The Bible - Inerrant and Infallible. Our book for living the Christian life.
Jesus’ Calling For Us - Matthew 28:19-20
The Church - Acts provides the building blocks! (Okay, a little flexible here, but you get the picture).
These are what I would consider to be deal-breakers.
June 29th, 2007 at 8:02 am
Excellent topic Marty… there are many different angles and ways in which you can slice this up. one way might be what were the non-negotiables for Jesus?
what comes to mind for me…
- submission to God the Father / servant of humanity
- being on mission - an embodiment of peace and love to those around him
- removing all obstacles between people and god
- values of life, truth, way, fullness, freedom
- sacredness of life/time/resources - many parables on stewardship
there seem to be so many, it’s hard to narrow down sometimes. Sometimes I just want to say we try to be Jesus in all we are and do… and feel free to challenge us on it.
June 29th, 2007 at 3:36 pm
Faithuntamed - There was a lot of discussion as to whether or not we were going to be a denominational plant. Much like you it wasn’t that we had didn’t value their beliefs but rather that they become a place of settling. I’m choosing to pioneer rather than settle. We’ll visit these beliefs but hopefully we are on the move.
Much like you point out Lon - submission has the word mission in it - often we submit to these beliefs systems which leads to conversation and inaction rather than mission which creates action and more entertaining conversations.
Both of you are creative with your answers I like how they (your answers) lie outside the lines of the big words (although big words do have their place and are helpful and neccessary) of sanctification, sovereigny, or incarnation.