Dear Calvary,
Just a quick reminder of our Good Friday service tonight at 6:30pm and our all-church pancake breakfast Easter morning at starting at 9am, our resurrection celebration service at 10 (with baptisms!), and the Eggstravaganza after the service for the kids. See below for more details.
For the rest of this article, I’d like to cover something that came up at Summit 1. Last November (I believe) the Elders affirmed a statement that dates back to the Protestant Reformation. Here’s what it says:
“In the essentials of the [Christian] faith we must have unity [or full agreement], in the non-essentials of the faith we must practice liberty, and in all things, we must have charity.”
So, what does that mean? How do we tell the difference between the essentials and non-essentials?
Here is an attempt to clarify…
We affirm that the doctrines of the Trinity, the deity of Christ, the bodily resurrection, the atoning work of Christ on the cross, and salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone make up the essential, distinctive nature of the Christian faith. These represent the doctrines related to one’s salvation. Regarding these essential doctrines there can be no conflicting opinions of those who call themselves true followers of Jesus Christ. However, we do acknowledge that there are peripheral, secondary, or non-essential doctrines that are important, but not critical to the follower of Christ as it relates to our salvation. Some of these doctrines include the exact timing and nature of Christ’s return, the specific functions of women in ministry, the extent and use of certain spiritual gifts, the relationship between divine election and free-will in salvation, etc. While Calvary will seek to be diligent to establish positions related to our current thinking as to how we will relate to these non-essentials, we will not allow these peripheral doctrines to cause division within the church. Those who attend Calvary are a glorious mix of various Christian faith backgrounds and we want to make room in our church for those who have differing views on the non-essential doctrines. Our church seeks to embrace the call of the early reformers who recognized the essentials as those doctrines related to our salvation. Here is what we can do when we find ourselves in disagreement over non-essential doctrines – certainly, we are to extend charity to one another, and furthermore, we can engage in humble, prayerful, and studied dialogue with one another, which will have the effect of sharpening each other’s faith. If you’d like to read a longer and more thorough article regarding this issue, here is a link from Ligonier Ministry.
I’ll see you on Sunday!
Pastor Gregg