- 1 Corinthians 15:1-11
- Acts 2:14-39
The Sermon title is Do You United Church Folks Believe Anything?
Early Thoughts: This Winter/spring Congregations and Presbyteries across the country are talking about what we believe because we have been asked about including new formulations of the faith into our Basis of Union (the constitution of the United Church of Canada). You can read more about that here. So what do we believe?
The sermon title is a two-edged question. On the one hand, United Church people have been accused of having no set beliefs. On the other, we are sometimes accused of being the church where anything is acceptable. And neither is true.
A story. I was working one of my first shifts at a new job. My relief comes in and learns that I am a candidate for ministry. "What church?" she asks. "United." "Oh, the social club."
"The Social Club". Not really a church, in her estimation. Certainly not a proper one anyway. My hunch, after working with her a while, is that we didn't believe the "right" things.
It is difficult to condense what the United Church believes. We are such a diverse group that there is almost always someone who will disagree. But we have a belief system. We have a way of expressing ourselves. For more on that take a look at the national website, particularly this section.
This Sunday come and share as I, who was born and raised in this church, who learned what it means to be church in this denomination, try to explain what the United Church belief system is and a bit about how it developed/is always developing. And maybe, just maybe, we will then have an answer to the question Do you folks believe anything?
--Gord
I wish I could be in two places at once. This sounds like it was interesting. We did the Song of Faith responsively today. I think people generally enjoyed it. One woman I expected wouldn't said she really liked it. We do need to continue to remember what we do believe in and articulate that!
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