A Lament of Weak Confessions Among Churches

Just recently, I started a new Wednesday night series at our church walking the people through our Church Statement of Faith. It has been a tremendous blessing as we are able to see the beauty of Scripture and truth as well as the historic belief of our church’s founding members. I rejoice greatly that Bellevue has such a robust confession that we can study with any depth. This is not the case at a great many churches.

The first place I look on any church’s website is the “Our Beliefs” section. I lament that lately I have seen less and less good church confessional statements and more and more of what R.C. Sproul called studied ambiguity. Churches are quick to point out how the visitor will feel in the service, what style of music to expect, and promise an accepting dress code and relevant message. The problem is these churches have given the visitor no idea of what they believe. Are we preaching Christ or dress codes and warm, fuzzy vibes from a preacher in ripped jeans and sneakers? The thing for me is that I don’t care about dress code (as long as its modest and appropriate) so long as the doctrine is sound. If Christ is our message, He must be made known abundantly and clearly in everything we do, including our websites. If He is not the message, then you are preaching a false Gospel.

So many churches have watered down their beliefs statement to a few sentences where they say that they believe in Jesus for salvation, but in no way outline what that means or the basis for that belief. Other churches simply espouse a denominational confession. As a lifelong Southern Baptist, I have seen multitudes of churches simply list The Baptist Faith and Message as their confessional statement. When presented for the revision in 1999, the writers of the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 said, “we do not regard them as complete statements of our faith, having any quality of finality or infallibility.” This comes directly from the Preamble of the statement, which goes on to recommend that Baptists should develop confessions of faith that are wise and expedient at any time.

In a 9 marks roundtable event after the 2018 SBC Convention Meeting, I heard Dr. Al Mohler make a profound statement about the Baptist Faith and Message 2000. He basically stated that it was intended to be a “big tent” statement, one that provided the minimum standard of cooperation. He went on to say that we can guarantee that all Southern Baptists believe more than the BF&M 2000, but none believe less. Personally, I believe that the BF&M2000 is an excellent standard for cooperation, but not for conveying the specific convictions and teachings of a church.

I believe that a deeper, clearer, and more robust confession is an asset to a church in many ways. First, a robust confession sets the standard for teaching. When someone looks to your church, they will know what to expect in regard to teaching. Instead of being promised relevancy, visitors are promised doctrinal standards of teaching and preaching. Secondly, it prevents division. So many people cite doctrinal differences as reasons for church division. Could these divisions, heartaches, and splits not be avoided if everyone knew what to expect from the outset? Thirdly, robust confessions lead members to robust personal confession. Just as church members follow the example of the pastor in prayer and devotion, so too will they follow the church confession in depth and understanding. Our confession conveys what is important to us. How can we not specifically address Soteriology, Trinitarian theology, Ecclesiology, Doxology, Pneumatology, and on and on?

Ultimately, the failure to develop a rich confession and the tendency to be more ambiguous comes from a fear of offending someone and a desire to draw large amounts of people who would otherwise be turned off by your doctrines. This is seen in the same way that many seeker sensitive churches remove the denominational name from their church. A faithful retired pastor who attends our church once said, “That name “Baptist” means something.” Its true. But many churches are scared to mean anything out of fear of losing something. What a shame. These churches should repent! A church confession should be so Scriptural and specific that someone may be saved in reading it. These attempts to appeal to the masses are antithetical to the calling God has placed on His church. Romans 1:16 says, “For I am not ashamed of the Gospel for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes…” We must not be ashamed of that which will save. We must be bold to proclaim it. We must recognize that we are called to know Him and make Him known and to glorify Him and lead others to do the same. I believe that we best glorify Him by being clear about who the Bible says He is and how the Bible tells us to respond.