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Reflections on the Statement of Faith
Introduction
It may seem that the Statement of Faith is trying to do the impossible: helping us distinguish between people who are Christians and people who are not, on the basis of their belief in a series of doctrinal statements.
Actually, we are not quite using it in this way. The precise role it plays depends on whether you are approaching it as a possible member, or a possible worker.
Members
According to our constitution, we have to make a distinction - not to decide who is or is not a Christian, and not as a judgement about anybody's eternal destiny - but simply to decide who is eligible to function as a member of the company. For this purpose, a Statement of Faith seems to be the best option available to us.
The main alternative is to try and list the denominations we recognise as being 'sound' and accept people if they are members of one of these recognised groups. We believe that this approach would create even more problems than it solves.
Our aim is that any Christian who is a member of one of the historic Christian traditions, and who believes the things they are expected to believe as part of that tradition, will have no difficulty in affirming our Statement of Faith.
Workers
The Statement of Faith makes more sense when you look at it from the perspective of a group of Christian workers.
We need some sort of agreement about what we can expect our fellow workers to believe, and what we can't automatically expect - to make clear the limits of what we, as a group, believe. For example, we believe that Jesus is coming back; but we don't have any position on when He is coming back, or the details of the rapture, the millennium, or where the Beast and the Antichrist fit in. We believe in the work of the Holy Spirit; but we don't have a position on the use of spiritual gifts. You probably get the idea.
About the Statement of Faith
The statement is sometimes regarded as representing an 'evangelical' theology. At one level, this is understandable: the people who set up CCM, and most of the current workers, come from the evangelical wing of the Christian church.
(Just to avoid confusion: the term 'evangelical' does not refer to people who spend their time trying to convert other people to the Christian faith - these people are called 'evangelists'. The popular press often confuses the two. Evangelicals hold to the authority of the Bible, as opposed to the authority of the church or church tradition, and also as opposed to those who believe that parts of the Bible should be discarded or modified in the light of current thought.)
We recognise that there may be an evangelical 'bias' in the statement, but we do aim to make the statement accessible to people who are within the mainstream Christian traditions and denominations, whether evangelical or not. And, let's be honest, it is hard to say anything with any theological content without it appearing to have some bias one way or another.
So, we affirm that the Bible was inspired by God, but we do not talk about 'verbal and plenary' inspiration. Different Christians have different views on what it means to say that a text is inspired by God.
Similarly, we say that the Bible is entirely trustworthy. For some, this means that it is infallible on all matters; for others, it means that it is infallible on the matters which it seeks to address; for still others, that it can be trusted in the same way that a person can be trusted. You may trust a person because you trust their motives and basic integrity, not because you believe them to be incapable of error.
For some people, to say the Bible has the supreme authority is a clear statement of evangelical conviction; but as soon as you try to apply such a belief, you hit the problem that it is not the Bible which actually has the authority, but some person's (or some group's) interpretation and application of the Bible. And that person or group will have gained that place of authority through some process which inevitably involves both human reason and church tradition.
For some people, to say that the Bible is inspired and trustworthy means, for example, that the early chapters of Genesis must be regarded as a simple historic account of the creation of the universe and the lives of the first humans. Others can affirm that the Bible is inspired and trustworthy, but interpret those first chapters in a less literal way.
Probably the key doctrinal issue in the Statement of Faith is the clear statement that we are clearly grounded in a Trinitarian understanding of the Bible and of our Christian faith.
One of the common features of most of the sects which have broken away from the mainstream Christian traditions is that they have denied the doctrine of the Trinity: God is three in one. We affirm this, not because we pretend to understand it - who can actually understand God? - but because we see no other way to be faithful to the Bible and the historic Christian witness.
Most Christians have no problem in affirming that we are redeemed through Jesus' death. For some Christians, they understand Jesus death functioning primarily (or even exclusively) because Jesus was acting as our representative and substitute; others acknowledge that the Bible does talk in these terms, but also uses other terms to describe the mystery of what happened on the cross; and some believe that other terms, other images, are more helpful, and possibly more informative, if we are to begin to understand what was accomplished there.
This may be enough to help you understand how we seek to use the Statement of Faith: as a way to enable us to walk alongside and work with all those who seek to follow the Lord Jesus in practical discipleship, and in caring for the poor and all those who have life-disrupting problems.
If you still have questions, please feel free to contact the General Manager at the usual office address. Thank you.