Centrality of the Word of God | A Firm Foundation week 1

Centrality of the Word of GodA Firm Foundation • September 4, 2022Teacher: Adam Barnett--Evangelical Covenant ChurchWe covenant with each other by cultivating communities of worship committed to prayer, preaching, and study of the word, celebrating the sacraments, and building relationships across gender, ethnicity, age, culture, and socioeconomic status. We equip loving, giving, growing Christians to reach out with the good news of Jesus Christ – evangelizing the lost, ministering to those in need, and seeking justice for the oppressed.1. Start and Strengthen Churches2. Develop Leaders3. Make and Deepen Disciples4. Love Mercy, Do Justice5. And Serve Globally1. We affirm the centrality of the word of God.2. We affirm the necessity of new birth.3. We affirm a commitment to the whole mission of the church.4. We affirm the church as a fellowship of believers.5. We affirm a conscious dependence on the Holy Spirit.6. We affirm the reality of freedom in Christ.We affirm the centrality of the word of God.We confess that the Holy Scriptures, the Old and New Testament, is the word of God and the only perfect rule for faith, doctrine, and conduct.1. The Old Testament is the foundation of the New Testament.2. Scripture is the perfect foundation for faith.Phillip Spener“Thought should be given to a more extensive use of the word of God. We know that by nature, we have no good in us. If there is to be any good in us, it must be brought about by God. To this end, the word of God is the powerful means since faith must be awakened through the gospel. Therefore, the more at home the word of God is among us, the more we shall bring about faith and its fruits.”3. Scripture is the perfect foundation for doctrine.4. Scripture is the perfect foundation for conduct.If we are not shaped by the word, we are shaped by the world.Scripture is a complete document to awaken faith, form theology, and guide behavior.Donald C. Frisk“If we are to be trustworthy, we dare not tame the message, tone it down, or domesticate it. We dare not accommodate it to the spirit of the age or make it acceptable by blunting its cutting edge. Whenever we are lured into proclaiming a comfortable and thereby innocuous Gospel, our sin is visited on the generations to come.”