Modern Church Doctrinal Ignorance

I'm becoming increasingly alarmed at the level of biblical/doctrinal ignorance that is so rampant in the modern church. As I've said before, as an ex-Fundamental Baptist it was almost encouraged to not pursue extensive amounts of bible education. Now I'm not saying that all IFB folks are like that...but people often raised their eyebrows when I bought another book or took another class.

I decided to start doing some investigating on the matter and specifically I'm wondering how much young adults who regularly go to church really know about theology and doctrine. I did a quick search on the internet prior to this post and searched on "church interviews on doctrine." One link got my attention.

http://www.thefellowship.info/

When I clicked on the link and went to their main website I found that this is the home of the "Cooperative Baptist Fellowship." Here is what they have to say about themselves:

"Made up of individuals and approximately 1,900 affiliated churches, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship is an organization that serves a larger renewal movement among Baptists. Partnering with 15 theological schools, 19 autonomous state and regional organizations and more than 150 ministry organizations worldwide, CBF has an annual budget of $16 million."

It sounded pretty impressive....1900 churches, $16 million dollar budget. What do these people believe? You'd expect a robust and pretty clear doctrinal statement, right? Not that I could find. Now it's possible that I've missed it on the website but here's what I could find so far:

In their Frequently Asked Questions you find most of their "doctrinal statements"- http://www.thefellowship.info/About-Us/FAQ

• Regarding the Bible- they say it's "inspired" but not inerrant? Wow!
• Women pastors- they say it's OK and use Galatians 3:27-28 to prove it!
• Homosexuality- no official position from the "fellowship" since it is a "social issue"- gee, I thought it was a biblical one and the Bible has an official position on it?

If you download their "Who We Are" brochure (http://www.thefellowship.info/Files/About-Us/Who_We_are) here is what it says doctrinally:

• "We affirm the freedom and responsibility of every person to relate directly to God without the imposition of creed or the control of clergy or government." Uh...isn't that a creed? They go on to say that interpretation is totally between the individual and the Holy Spirit...the idea you get here is that anything established as a formal doctrinal statement, creed, confession is bad...you get the impression that Scriptural interpretation is a free-for-all of those who have never studied the Bible. WHat about church leaders- pastors, teachers, professors?


• Now here is the closest they've come to a comprehensive doctrinal statement, sorta:
  We believe the Bible teaches that …
  - God is the one triune God, Creator of all people in God’s own image.
  - All people are separated from God by sin.
  - Christ is the Savior and Redeemer for all peoples.
  - The Holy Spirit convicts and converts all who believe in Christ, teaches the church in the voice of the Living Christ, and empowers the church and all believers for the mission of Christ in the world.
  - Christ calls us to minister redemptively to the spiritual, physical, and social needs of individuals and communities.
  - Every believer and every church is responsible for sharing the Gospel with all people.
  - We want to enable believers and churches to work cooperatively with other Great Commission Christians to activate this global missions calling in their
  communities and throughout the world.

Pretty weak and not very thorough. I think it's on purpose though...they don't want to pin anyone down with anything...interpretation is a private matter and theology seems to slow down the focus on missions.

Here is what really saddened me...how would they interview someone to see if they were qualified to be in their ministry? Do they ask lots of doctrinal questions? Here is the interview guidelines I saw on their site- http://www.thefellowship.info/Documents/Interviewing.pdf

Please click the link and read it...what you will find are lots of questions about leadership, ministry goal, how you fit in, etc, etc...but NO doctrinal quesitons. Folks...today's churches are a mess...can your church teenager group tell you what imputation is and what it means to them? Can they define repentance and tell you if it does/doesn't have anything to do with salvation? Do they know any relevant church history? Do they know what justification is? Can they give a biblical defense of the deity of Christ or the existence/nature of the Trinity? If you think these are silly questions then you're part of the problem.