ItinerantPreacher said:
Biker said:
What do you mean policies? I am not aware of any "policies" in scripture.
Policies, like teachers must be in doctrinal agreement with the church, or teachers must attend regular services to keep their teaching position, or are you "there is no doctrinal statement except "we believe the Bible"?
We have a doctrinal statement which is provided prior and again, at a membership class upon joining. . If they don't believe the fundamentals of the faith, they do not join of course. Generally they wouldn't be there in the first place so that never happens.
Upon joining, I crossed out what I didn't believe of their Doctrinal Statement- added verses then had to type up a whole new sheet. It took a whole week to fully explain my beliefs because i subscribe to nothing that anyone else does. Everything from Annihilation (which I believe but not in the manner that most do) to addressing points of Calvinism. Their Doctrinal statement changed sometime after I joined but before I became an Elder.
I honestly have not compared the two versions but apparently there are subtle differences. Wording more generalized. Two Elders told me they believe it's due to my involvement in church.
Since I studied scripture, I knew if they were a biblical church, they would allow me to join and they did. They had already taught me how to study.
I do not fully believe what Calvinism teaches though the other Elders, to my knowledge, do. I don't care either way.
We are a church plant of a very well known Calvinistic Church in California, and the Pastor who started our church, was very high up. Holding two separate positions in that church so our church is modeled after it. Two of our other Elders graduated from their Seminary. Yet many of our members do not subscribe to Calvinism. And of course... we have no statements which say petty things like Teachers need to attend church so much of the time, that's because the Bible says no such thing.
You see, a doctrinal statement is useful yes, but it is not biblical. Meaning you do not expect someone to give some kind of oath to it.
I miss church ALOT over the Summer due to to work. Two of our Elders/Pastors are racers. A few local bike races take place on Sundays. Those days part of our congregation could be missing to watch these Pastors race. They are on the same team. The majority of our Members are involved in weekly Bible Study at any given moment.