Fingerprints

[vc_row el_class="blog-body"][vc_column][vc_column_text]Even identical twins don't have the same fingerprint - although these two people look the same, they have physical distinctives.Today's blog is about theological distinctives. Every true church in many ways can look the same - they have common doctrines such as the divinity of Christ, the work of Christ on the cross, the trinity, etc. But each also has its own unique set of distinctives in areas of practice and areas of doctrine. This can be an unhelpful thing if we allow these distinctives to create disunity and lack of fellowship with each other, but they are equally helpful for bringing clarity and focus to a particular church and to those looking to join a church.For some people it may be questions of worship style. It may be how the church is governed or how the Bible is preached. Whatever it is, these distinctives are key to us finding a spiritual home.With this in mind I thought it would be helpful to look at Hope Community Church's three key theological distinctives - our fingerprint.As a church we are passionately reformed, charismatic and complementarian. Often you may find a church which holds to one or two of these ideas but it can be hard to find churches which hold to all three.We could write page upon page on each of these three distinctives (and many have) but for the moment in short what do we mean by reformed, charismatic and complementarian?

Reformed

There are so many elements that make up what has come to be known as Reformed theology. It is a theological system with an extremely high view of the bible and passion for God's glory in all things. John Piper (Chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary in Minneapolis, Minnesota and prior to this Pastor for Preaching and Vision at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota for 33 years) explains it like this:"...a view of God and his way of working in the world that grows like a tree with lots of branches, out of a deep conviction that God’s glory is the goal of all things and that his freedom and his sovereignty are essential to his deity. And, because he is free and sovereign and glorious, he doesn’t need to be served by anyone to meet his needs and, therefore, he is gloriously free to be gracious to us. That is it in a nutshell."Other elements include the five Solas (from the Latin meaning "alone" or "only") of the Protestant Reformation:

• Sola Fide, by faith alone.
• Sola Scriptura, by scripture alone.
• Solus Christus, through Christ alone.
• Sola Gratia, by grace alone.
• Soli Deo Gloria, glory to God alone.

As as church we are passionate about the doctrines of grace, that our salvation is dependent on nothing we have done or can do but is instead built on what Christ has already achieved for us through his death, resurrection and ascension.This excellent article from The Gospel Coalition summarises Reformed theology beautifully:https://blogs.thegospelcoalition.org/kevindeyoung/2014/11/06/what-is-the-heartbeat-of-reformed-theology/

Charismatic

As a Charismatic (or continuationist) church we believe that the gifts of The Holy Spirit spoken of throughout the New Testament continue to be active and are still available to God's people throughout the church age, including those of miracles, healing and prophectic insights.We believe that such gifts are at ALL times subject to God's word, the Bible, and therefore will NEVER contradict it. The Bible is God's main way of speaking to us and by it we are to weigh all other means of His communication with us.Dr Sam Storms (Pastor of Bridgeway Church in Oklahoma City, and President-elect of the Evangelical Theological Society) defines spiritual gifts very helpfully like this:“Spiritual gifts are not God bestowing to his people something external to himself. They are not some tangible ‘stuff’ or substance separable from God. Spiritual gifts are nothing less than God himself in us, energising our souls, imparting revelation to our minds, infusing power in our wills, and working his sovereign and gracious purposes through us…[in summary] Spiritual gifts are God present in, with, and through human thoughts, human deeds, human words, human love.”

Complementarian

At its most basic level this view holds that male and female are created completely equal yet different and are therefore not interchangeable.Here's a helpful definition, again by John Piper:"Complementarianism is a way of thinking and living that flows from the conviction that God created human beings as male and female, equal in worth, both in the image of God, both heirs of the grace of life, both fully capable of direct allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ, both fully redeemed from sin in Jesus, and both destined for eternal joy and eternal significance as children of the Creator of the universe - and that male and female are designed by God and appointed in his word for some distinct and complementary roles in life, owing to the fact that they are male and female."We will devote more time to this in a later post when we look at our value "An equal yet diverse community" but suffice to say for now that we believe the scriptures teach that in the church the roles of Elder and that of teaching the gathered church community are reserved for qualified men and that within marriage the wife is to submit to her husband who is himself called to love his wife in the same way that Christ loved the church and gave himself up for us (see for example 1 Timothy 2:11-14 and Ephesians 5:22-25). If you want to go into more depth on this we highly recommend the book "Evangelical feminism and biblical truth" by Wayne Grudem.So these are our three theological distinctives. If you want to find out more about this or Hope Community Church in general, please email us on welcome@hope-community.church or call/text us on 07496 356199. We look forward to hearing from you.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]