Should Churches Have a Statement of Faith?
In short, YES.A Statement of Faith, also known as a Creed, is a document that briefly lists some of the most important things a church believes. Most Christian churches have one, and it's usually publicly available in some form. Mine's over here.
But what if a Christian church doesn't have a Statement of Faith, or they teach that studying Creeds are a waste of time?
Well, based on what I've seen, I'd say you'd better run away pretty quickly and never look back. Something is very, very wrong.
Christianity claims to teach important universal Truths - not "a truth", or "what someone believes is true", or "the truth according to my friend Bob", but THE Truth, the unchanging, pure, and universal Truth. The capital-T Truth. The Truthiest of the Truths mankind has ever known. You get the idea.
If that's the case, then what's stopping a group of Christians from being able to write at least some of these Truths down?
I have a guess - and it's not a good one.
Some Christian churches, like the one I encountered, like to "correct" their doctrine from time to time. They can't commit to anything because their "truths" are always changing - and that's only possible if they weren't really preaching the Truth to begin with.