3.4 – How ACOP’s Beliefs Have Evolved

[Caleb]

There will always be things the church may want to define in their statement of faith as important to an association because culture is ever changing and growing away from the church in this day and age. however, there should never be any dogmatic views ever added to the statement of faith. I wonder if there is a better way we can present a statement of faith without mixing dogmatic, doctrinal, and personal beliefs together as there will always be more and more differences that arise between culture and the church. yes, the church in Canada does need to address a lot of cultural changes, such as gender fluidity and other morally contradicting differences, but will adding these things and continuing to add more things to statements of faith cause division between the church and the people they are trying to reach?

[Rachel]

A social issue that may need to be addressed has to do with the LGTBQ+ community. Are we allowed to have Lesbian women as pastors etc. I realize the agenda the media has and the impact it has on our society. We will not be able to ignore what is happening in the world forever. How do we keep our beliefs and minister to those who disagree?

[Kylie]

I cannot think of a specific social issue at this moment, however, the way gender is being warped in society’s perspective it may become something that needs to be addressed and added in the near future. Our culture is also constantly shifting between being heavily individualistic to the value of community and the collective, but if we ever swing too far into; the individual is the most important, that has potential to become an issue even though all of scripture already addresses it.

[John]

A future consideration for Christian organizations may involve virtual reality. While this has been in the culture for some time, future technology may make it common place.

With the meta verse and another platforms, justification may be made by some to take part in sinful activities and/or ignore the real world altogether. What about an AI service that allows “marriage” to a virtual partner.

On the other hand, the rise of virtual reality could prove useful for evangelism. This whole area may be considered as secondary issues but at least, may be discussed for a primary issue.

[Micah]

This is a really interesting thought. I wonder how prominent this area of technology will become. It will be interesting to see how churches adapt to a cultural world very different from the 1st century and how scripture is interpreted to address things like VR and AI. It makes me wonder if the church will initially be very closed to it, like they were during the introduction of TV, and miss out on potential outreach things, or if it will allow for lots of freedom.

On a similar note, though it may not be distinct enough to need in a statement of faith, this makes me think of growing issues with online pornography. Our world and media is saturated with it, leading to alarming numbers of very young people being exposed and addicted. How can the church defend holiness while still using things like VR and social media as witnesses in a broken world? Is this something that ever should need to be in a statement of faith? (it is mostly a question that came to mind)