ACOP Narrative Commentary

[Zach]

It is important to distinguish between core beliefs, denominational distinctives, personal beliefs, and personal preferences because if you don’t make these distinctions your might do some serious damage to someone’s personal relationship with Jesus. For example, to elevate a dress code to a first order or core belief in terms of what even makes one a Christian would distort the truth of the gospel to being something unrecognizable (e.g. belief in Jesus’ death and resurrection + the right clothing = salvation). Although an extreme example, when we elevate our preferences or beliefs and impose them on others as first order issues, we create division, water down the truths of the Bible, and create factions in the body. From what I have read of the ACOP statement of faith and Narrative Commentary is does a good job at being clear about these distinctions, but also allowing space for many to exist in the same camp while allowing the Holy Spirit to lead us all into all truth.

[Jaylen]

It is important to distinguish different levels of belief because without order there is simply chaos. It would not be articulated that we, for example, might believe doing communion every month is a more important belief than that Jesus is the Son of God.

[Deleted User]

• It is important to distinguish between these different things because it is important to know how your personal beliefs can impact how you interpret statements of faith. Organizations need to have statements of faith that clearly state the things their organization believes to have constructive conversations with individuals regarding how their personal opinions and beliefs fit in compared to doctrinal distinctive and core beliefs.
• Throughout this course, I have had the opportunity to look at ACOP’s statement of faith a few times. I am quite familiar with other statement of faiths as well as I have grown up and around a number of different denominators that all have different emphases in their statements of faith. In this lesson, I also looked at the narrative commentary that I didn’t know existed before. It was interesting to see the biblical passages that reveal why the ACOP believes what they believe. It is important to have that be the pre-requisite for any statement of faith.

[Kimberly]

It is important to distinguish first order beliefs from second order beliefs so that there is unity. This is also very beneficial so that lines are not blurred on the importance of beliefs. As Christians, there are some things that must be believed, and there are some things that may be viewed differently, that aren’t as crucial to believe one certain way. Having these things written out formally keeps communication clear.