In the Bizarro-land of the watchdoggies, even the unoffensive offends. I posted this article, which was really just posting Mars Hill Bible Church’s statement of faith (which has been available online for several weeks, if not months, now) with the following comment of mine added:

While I am sure this will seem a little odd formatting to those used to more didactic means, with bullet points and direct scriptural references, this is a narrative form, which seems to be a much more refreshing restatement of truth in scripture than the norm.

Somehow, this gets blown up into an article in and of itself in which I am referred to as “an unofficial apologist for Rob Bell”, and prooftexted as:

this is a narrative form, which seems to be a much more refreshing restatement of truth in scripture…

Now there’s some hard reporting for you, folks! I sense a Pulitzer in the making. While I’m sure this was somehow supposed to be an insult to me, Mars Hill (my apologies to all 11,000 of you) or both, it certainly is a head-scratcher. I didn’t realize that restating truth became a sin somewhere…

Actually, had I decided to post Grace Community Church’s doctrinal statement (all 19 pages of it), I could have followed it up with an introductory comment like this:

While I am sure this will seem rather long and dry, and an almost impossible read for an unbeliever or as an evangelical tool, you will find that this is a choppy document written in didactic form, which seems to be a rather drawn out restatement of truth in scripture along with some systematic theology tossed in.

I doubt this would have warranted an article of its own, identifying Chris Lyons as an unofficial apologist for John MacArthur, prooftexted to:

written in didactic form, which seems to be a rather drawn out restatement of truth in scripture along with some systematic theology tossed in.

Certainly it would be true, but would it be news?

Or is this (like 90% of Silva’s articles) just a bid to juice Google and this “pastor/teacher’s” already inflated sense of importance in the grand scheme of things? Surely not…

In this episode Chris Lyons and Tim Reed talk about defines emergent and emerging, and how we can be faithful to the twin Biblical mandates of truth and unity. You can download the episode here, or listen to it below.

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The following is the statement of belief from Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I thought it interesting and relevant to our discussion (HT: Darren Sapp)

We believe God inspired the authors of Scripture by his Spirit to speak to all generations of believers, including us today. God calls us to immerse ourselves in this authoritative narrative communally and individually to faithfully interpret and live out that story today as we are led by the Spirit of God.

In the beginning God created all things good. He was and always will be in a communal relationship with himself – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God created us to be relational as well andmarked us with an identity as his image bearers and amissional calling to serve, care for, and cultivate the earth. God created humans in his image to live in fellowship with him, one another, our inner self, and creation. The enemy tempted the first humans, and darkness and evil entered the story through human sin and are now a part of the world. This devastating event resulted in our relationships with God, others, ourselves, and creation being fractured and in desperate need of redeeming.

We believe God did not abandon his creation to destruction and decay; rather he promised to restore this broken world. As part of this purpose, God chose a people, Abraham and his descendants to represent him in the world. God promised to bless them as a nation so that through them all nations would be blessed. In time they became enslaved in Egypt and cried out to God because of their oppression. God heard their cry, liberated them from their oppressor, and brought them to Sinai where he gave them an identity and a mission as his treasured possession, a kingdom of priests, a holy people. Throughout the story of Israel, God refused to give up on his people despite their frequent acts of unfaithfulness to him.

God brought his people into the Promised Land. Their state of blessing from God was intimately bound to their calling to embody the living God to other nations. They made movement toward this missional calling, yet they disobeyed and allowed foreign gods into the land, overlooked the poor, and mistreated the foreigner. The prophetic voices that emerge from the Scriptures held the calling of Israel to the mirror of how they treated the oppressed and marginalized. Through the prophets, God’s heart for the poor was made known, and we believe that God cares deeply for the marginalized and oppressed among us today.

In Israel’s disobedience, they became indifferent and in turn irrelevant to the purposes to which God had called them. For a time, they were sent into exile; yet a hopeful remnant was always looking ahead with longing and hope to a renewed reign of God, where peace and justice would prevail.

We believe these longings found their fulfillment in Jesus the Messiah, conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin, mysteriously God having become flesh. Jesus came to preach good news to the poor, to bind up the brokenhearted and set captives free, proclaiming a new arrival of the Kingdom of God, bringing about a New Exodus, and restoring our fractured world. He and his message were rejected by many as he confronted the oppressive nature of the religious elite and the empire of Rome. Yet his path of suffering, crucifixion, death, burial, and resurrection has brought hope to all creation. Jesus is our only hope for bringing peace and reconciliation between God and humans. Through Jesus we have been forgiven and brought into right relationship with God. God is now reconciling us to each other, ourselves, and creation. The Spirit of God affirms as children of God all those who trust Jesus. The Spirit empowers us with gifts, convicts, guides, comforts, counsels, and leads us into truth through a communal life of worship and a missional expression of our faith. The church is rooted and grounded in Christ, practicing spiritual disciplines and celebrating baptism and the Lord’s Supper. The church is a global and local expression of living out the way of Jesus through love, peace, sacrifice, and healing as we embody the resurrected Christ, who lives in and through us, to a broken and hurting world.

We believe the day is coming when Jesus will return to judge the world, bringing an end to injustice and restoring all things to God’s original intent. God will reclaim this world and rule forever. The earth’s groaning will cease and God will dwell with us here in a restored creation. On that day we will beat swords into tools for cultivating the earth, the wolf will lie down with the lamb, there will be no more death and God will wipe away all our tears. Our relationships with God, others, ourselves, and creation will be whole. All will flourish as God intends. This is what we long for. This is what we hope for. And we are giving our lives to living out that future reality now.

While I am sure this will seem a little odd formatting to those used to more didactic means, with bullet points and direct scriptural references, this is a narrative form, which seems to be a much more refreshing restatement of truth in scripture than the norm.