AllHoursChurch

How Creeds Are Used

A creed is used to identify the certain important beliefs of a body of believers. Generally points are emphasized where there is sometimes not agreement. For instance, not all who call themselves Christians believe in the resurrection of Jesus. For those who think this is an essential point of the Christian faith, the creed might include "we believe Jesus rose from the dead."

Some creeds have "I believe" and others "we believe." The word "I" is used when emphasis is placed on each person's belief. The word "we" is used to emphasize the unity that exists in the body of believers.

Most churches share the same creed. This is called the Nicea-Constantinopolitan Cread, or more often "the Apostles Creed. It is entirely possible for the All Hours Church to adopt every element of this creed. It would look like this ...

I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth and of all things visible and invisible and I believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten not made, one in essence with the Father. Through Him all things came into being. By the power of the Holy Spirit he was born of the virgin Mary and became man and for our sake was crucified under Pontius Pilate, suffered, died and was buried. He decended into hell. On the third day he rose and is seated at the right hand of the Father and from thence He shall judge the living and the dead and his kingdom will have no end. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of Life, who proceeds from the Father, who together with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets. I believe in one hold catholic and apostolic church. I believe in one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. I look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come."

This creed is over 1500 years old and accepted by the majority of churches. It serves to show that a church agrees with the conclusions of the bishops of Nicea in the year 325 and the bishops in Constantinople in the year 381.

The All Hours Church does not require any specific belief of those who attend and use the facilities and resources we make available. We will, however, have a minimum required set of beliefs for some types of support volunteers, such as counselors and prayer teams and most members of staff.

The precise verbiage of the creed the All Hours Church adapts will be determined after we have met with each church pastor to pray about what the Lord says to do. If we use a shorter creed this does not mean that we do not agree with a longer creed. If we use any creed at all, it will almost certainly include:

We believe that Jesus Christ is Lord, that He was raised from the dead, that He is God's only Son, that He came to save sinners in His love for us and that His promises are true.