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Delighting in Truth: Our Membership Affirmation of Faith, by Pastor Charlie

By Anonymous
     At Glory of Christ Fellowship, we operate under two affirmations of faith: the Member Affirmation of Faith (MAF) and the Elder Affirmation of Faith (EAF). The MAF is a basic theological statement that we require all church members to affirm while the EAF is a more detailed statement that we require elders, deacons, team leaders, and interns to affirm. The reason we have two theological statements rather than one is this: while the door into the body of Christ ought to be as wide as the Bible will allow, the door into the leadership of the church ought to be more narrow, assuring as much theological and practical unity as possible.
     Over the next nine weeks we’ll be dedicating the Sunday morning devotionals to the MAF, one section at a time. The purpose of this statement is to express the truths that a Christian must not deny, or preferably, would affirm. It is not meant to represent all that a Christian should believe, but rather to lay a general theological foundation upon which this church can unite “until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.” (Ephesians 4:13-14).
     Since the MAF is designed to help us affirm, celebrate, and unite around truth, we have made copies of the MAF available on the Information Table. I want to encourage you to grab a copy and study it along with the devotionals each week. In fact, if you’re looking for something to do for your family worship time, you could take one section of the statement per week, look up every text, seek to understand and celebrate the truth that’s articulated there, and then worship the God of truth together.
     Let me close, then, by asking three questions that you can consider as you study each section:
1) How can a better understanding of biblical truth help us to worship the God of truth?
2) How can a better understanding of biblical truth help us to love other believers?
3) How can a better understanding of biblical truth help us to gain a greater passion to share the gospel with unbelievers near and far?

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