Hills worth dying on.

The Essential Tenets of the Faith - An introduction.

"Do you sincerely receive and adopt the essential tenets of the Reformed faith..."  That is #3 in the list of 9 questions that make up my ordination vows.  I answered gladly, "I do."

But the bigger question is...what did I actually say yes to?  There is no official list of what those essential tenets actually are.  There have been many attempts to develop such a list.  Some presbyteries have adopted official statements on what they believe are the essential tenets of the faith.  But in many other presbyteries, and on the denominational level, any movement towards identifying the essential tenets of the faith has been  met with significant opposition.  At my very first Presbytery meeting here in Southeastern Illinois, we were divided into groups to talk about a motion to adopt the Essential Tenets document that was put together by San Diego Presbytery.  In our group, I took a risk and spoke up first to say that I'd always found it strange that I was asked in my ordination vows to sincerely receive and adopt a set of beliefs that no one will actually identify.  I spent the rest of the meeting listening to the group bash the idea of trying to tell someone what they ought to believe.

It has been suggested that our current approach leaves us in a position similar to that of the European Union.  The nations of the EU have a shared currency (the euro) but each nation has been allowed to develop their own fiscal policies.  Each nation in the EU has taken different approaches to how they understand and implement the use of their shared currency.  They have the same currency, but don't use it in the same way.  And this has significantly undermined the stability of the EU, from a financial perspective.  How can they grow when their own perspectives undermine each other?

Presbyterians suffer from a similar problem, though with a bit of a twist.  Though we, in theory, have the same currency (Jesus Christ), we have very different perspectives on how we understand the implications and underpinnings of faith.  The bigger challenge is that we cannot even agree on our "currency," which is to say our core convictions about Jesus Christ.

Our inability or refusal to identify the core, shared content of our faith makes it increasingly more difficult to move forward together (as churches, as presbyteries, even as a denomination) in terms of working out how we connect with and support one another and even moreso - how we share in mission together.  (Side point - when I say "share in mission," I'm not remotely talking about mission projects or sponsoring missionaries.  I'm talking about shared understanding of the mission of God and how we are to be people of that mission.)

Presbyterians often use the metaphor of a "Big Tent" to describe our denomination.  It is big enough to contain many different perspectives and opinions.  I genuinely believe that is one of the strengths of our denomination.  However, if we cannot identify and agree on the poles that hold up that tent, then we are not under a tent at all.  Instead, we are all wallowing around under a great, suffocating blanket of confusion.

I have come to believe that we desperately need to be able to identify the essential tenets of our faith.  Theology matters.  The content of our faith matters.  Not every theological expression is appropriate or acceptable.  There are some core convictions which support the big tent of our faith.  To be sure, within the bounds of those core convictions, there is tremendous room for different perspectives.  But I've grown to believe that it is precisely those essential tenets that create the room within which we can have the other hard conversations in the first place.

Over the next 2 weeks, I'll be blogging my thoughts on these Essential Tenets.  I hope you'll feel free to chime in.  I don't pretend to have final answers to these questions.  In fact, tomorrow's post will talk about what a list of essential tenets is not, and what it cannot do.

Peace