Note: this post was written originally back in March of this year. To date we still hold to what it is saying.
Our transitional transparency meetings are beginning to have two effects on us as members of our congregation. On the one hand, we are learning much about our fellow members, and this is good. But on the other hand, we are discovering great discrepancies between our beliefs, a very bad thing. Most of the issues we have been looking at are clearly spoken to in the Holy Scriptures, and yet many within our congregation have another view. They site the working of the Holy Spirit as the testimony that what they want is a ligament course of action. If we only strive to come to consensus on the issues we face, we will surely be less than what God had in mind. If all we strive to do is arrive at something we can all agree with, this in no guarantee that God's will is done. We must use another standard than consensus. Our understanding is that we must use the scriptures in testing whenever there is disagreement. Consensus is not what Christ had in mind when he prayed for unity within the brotherhood. Our unity must be under Christ the Lord as head of the church. Scripture is the source of arriving at understanding what that unity should be...not our own experiences. We must use a standard, and we feel that standard must and should be the Holy scriptures. Our understanding of the workings of the Holy Spirit are as a guide in understanding scriptures and as a source of strength in living out what Christ calls us to do. The working of the Holy Spirit was never meant to be a substitute for an understanding of that call. We are to serve Christ through the church body. God has a plan for how we are to go about doing that. The Holy scriptures clearly define that plan. Some within our congregation want to bypass certain scriptures and follow what they feel the Holy Spirit is calling them to do instead. We firmly disagree with this position. We both believe as our confession of faith decrees: "We acknowledge the Scripture as the authoritative source and standard for preaching and teaching about faith and life, for distinguishing truth from error, for discerning between good and evil, and for guiding prayer and worship. Other claims on our understanding of Christian faith and life, such as tradition, culture, experience, reason, and political powers, need to be tested and corrected by the light of Holy Scripture.
We know from Scripture that the Holy Spirit continues to reveal God's will to us (1 Cor. 14:26-33). The Spirit of God is not silent in the present. However, this new revelation will not contradict what we know of Christ's way in Scripture (John 14:26). So we can open ourselves to revelation and prophecy, provided we test them in the community of faith by the norm provided in Christ through the Scriptures."
