Shift

About the Project:

In 2008 the pastors at Trinity discussed the possibility of creating a series of statements about Trinity’s approach to the Bible and Christian theology to help guide our congregation’s life and learning.  We researched the websites of a wide variety of Christian churches to see what other congregations were saying about themselves.  We didn’t see anything out there that we wanted to use, so we decided to create a process for Trinity to create our own statements. 

Five of us on staff with formal theological training gathered to get the process going.  Cindy Jones, Pastor T.J. Anderson, Pastor Kris Linner, Pastor Dan Poffenberger, and Pastor Siri Erickson met to make a plan for this work.  Recognizing that the five of us have different training, theological perspectives, and beliefs, we agreed to search for the ideas and language that we could all agree upon in the following topics: the Bible, God, Jesus, Spirit, the Church, and Other Religions. 

After we finished writing and editing the Bible statement, we decided to test it out on a few small groups to see how people responded to it.  In our testing, we realized that the groups were having great conversations about the Bible because of reading the Bible statement together.  People in the groups also had helpful insights about how to change and improve the statement.  Because the groups seemed to be having as much fun and as many good ideas as we had in our conversations, we decided that it would be fruitful to engage the whole congregation in the conversation.

This fall we are looking for your comments and ideas about the Bible statement.  In January 2010, we will take all of your comments and create a revised version of the Bible statement to be posted on Trinity’s website and to be used in training leaders, teaching people of all ages, and inspiring great conversations about the Bible.  Early in 2010, we will be releasing the God statement, hosting conversations and collecting comments from the congregation.  We are currently working on writing the Jesus statement.

The Bible

The Bible is a diverse tapestry of stories and writings that challenge us to dig deep, ask hard questions, and explore God’s loving relationship with humanity and all of God’s creation.  It is not an easy answer book for all of life’s questions.  Studying the Bible is an important lifelong practice as we seek to grow in our awareness of God’s presence in our lives.

Consisting of the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament, the Bible is our community’s shared sacred scripture.  The Hebrew Scriptures link our spiritual tradition with the Jewish community; the whole Bible links us with Christians throughout the ages and around the globe.  We recognize that people of other faiths share some of these foundational stories even though they have their own sacred books.

We affirm that the Bible was written by humans and that God was present with people as they were writing.   For thousands of years, people composed prayers, stories, poetry, and letters about their real experiences with God and other people.  Over time, the most important of these writings were collected by communities of faith and began circulating together as a collection of books.  This library of books from across the ages eventually became the Bible we read today.  We believe that the Bible has a powerful message for people of all ages and backgrounds and that each generation and community must do the work of faithful interpretation in their context.  We trust that God is involved with us as we interpret scripture today.

As a whole, this collection is a record of God’s interaction with the world and shows how God’s story is intermingled with our human story.  Through its many books, we see over and over again how God reaches out to people in order to invite them into a dynamic relationship.  Engaging the Bible is one of many ways that people can experience God, encounter the power of God’s unconditional love, and be transformed by God’s revelation in Jesus.

We acknowledge that some stories and passages in the Bible are more important than others.  As Christians, we believe that the life and teachings of Jesus are central to our understanding of the Bible’s overall message.  Studying scripture helps us to discover God and our identity as Christians who are called to love and serve the world in the way of Jesus.