Expressing Faith in Words—The Value of Confessions of Faith —The Nicene Creed for Non-Creedal Christians Post 6

Thomas Campbell

The Stone-Campbell Movement from its earliest days has been ambivalent about creeds and confessions of faith. Alexander Campbell did express his openness to the Apostles’ Creed but felt that creeds were often divisive. That has been a major Disciples position from the beginning. Simple is better! Yet, we do find it necessary to express our faith in words. So how should we do it?

Interestingly, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) does have a confession of faith. We may not recite it very often in worship, but it is a confession nonetheless. It serves as the Preamble to the Design, the constitution, and by-laws of the denomination. It covers most of the bases, mirroring in many ways the Apostles’ Creed. It even has a Trinitarian pattern.

 I invite you to ponder the wording of this confession and consider what it might be saying to us. As you consider it, ask yourself what it says about what the writers of this confession in the late 1960s had in mind.

As members of the Christian Church,
We confess that Jesus is the Christ,
the Son of the living God,
and proclaim him Lord and Savior of the world.

In Christ’s name and by his grace
we accept our mission of witness
and service to all people.

We rejoice in God,
maker of heaven and earth,
and in God’s covenant of love
which binds us to God and to one another.

Through baptism into Christ
we enter into newness of life
and are made one with the whole people of God.

In the communion of the Holy Spirit
we are joined together in discipleship
and in obedience to Christ.

At the Table of the Lord
we celebrate with thanksgiving
the saving acts and presence of Christ.

Within the universal church
we receive the gift of ministry
and the light of scripture.

In the bonds of Christian faith
we yield ourselves to God
that we may serve the One
whose kingdom has no end.
Blessing, glory, and honor
be to God forever. Amen.

                Having read and reflected on this confession, I want to ask another question. That has to do with our expectations of a confession of faith. What do we want it to do? I ask this because most confessions have their roots in a particular issue that needs to be resolved. The Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, for example, was designed to refute Arianism, thereby excluding Arianism from the church. The Barmen Confession, on the other hand, was created to respond to the Nazi takeover of the German state church. One of the criticisms of the Nicene and Apostles Creeds is that they say virtually nothing about the life and ministry of Jesus. He was born, died, and resurrected, but what happened between birth and death? Of course, that was not the question being asked in the Fourth Century, but it seems like a pertinent question today.

                When it comes to the Preamble, it serves (in my view) as a statement of identity. This is what we believe about God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the church, and the sacraments of the church. It doesn’t say much about the life of Jesus either, though it does speak of accepting our ministry of witness and service in the name of Jesus. It would, it seems to me, wise to recognize that any confession of faith has its limitations. The Nicene Creed and the Apostles’ Creed address questions of identity. They’re not infallible or perfect. They are also quite ancient. However, they offer Christian communities a summary of beliefs considered by most Christians to be central to their identity. They serve as a starting point for conversations about identity, but in my view, need to be held lightly and with humility. The same goes for the Preamble.

                One of the principles espoused at the very beginning of the movement that became the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) is that “Unity is a given.” Thomas Campbell made that clear in the first proposition of his Declaration and Address:

The Church of Christ upon earth is essentially, intentionally, and constitutionally one; consisting of all those in every place that profess their faith in Christ and obedience to him in all things according to the scriptures, and that manifest the same by their tempers and conduct, and of none else; as none else can be truly and properly called Christian. 

We might not have fully embodied this unity in Christ, but it already exists. We simply need to embody it. Perhaps Ronald Osborn, in his contribution to the Panel of Scholars Reports that preceded Restructure has put his finger on how Disciples need to approach these concerns:

We Disciples must constantly alert ourselves, and all larger institutions in which we share, against the tendency of organization to require conformity. It is our calling, I believe, to seek for institutions which better express the oneness of God’s people but which, at the same time, do not demand the free Christian man to forfeit his integrity. [Ronald E. Osborn, “‘One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church,’ The Continuing Witness of Disciples of Christ,” in The Reformation of Tradition, Ronald E. Osborn, ed., (The Bethany Press, 1963), p. 311.]

If we can excuse Osborn’s masculine language here, the call is for unity not a form of uniformity or conformity, which too often becomes oppressive. We need freedom to move, which has been a hallmark of the Disciples movement at its best. If we can do this, then we can find appropriate words to help us confess our faith, even if we have to nuance them a bit so we do not forfeit our integrity.