Learning Creeds
Kids Cohort, AI Friends, Camp Catalyst, and My Achievement
Hello friends.
I got asked to teach at a student gathering this week while our student director heads out of town for a wedding. They’ve been working through the Apostle’s Creed for several weeks, and I got tasked to teach a room full of middle and high schoolers about the holy catholic church and the communion of saints. No problem, right?
I hadn’t actually done much reading or studying of this creed for awhile, so it turned out to be a super encouraging dive into the weeds of the church and the Christian life together. So, this week you get to enjoy a little devo that I’ll be teaching through this evening. I hope it’s as encouraging for you to read as it was for me to write. Enjoy!
You guys have been rolling through the Apostle’s Creed for several weeks now, and we’re getting to the home stretch. As we begin, let’s stand and rehearse the words of the Apostle’s Creed together.
I believe in God the Father Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth.
And in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord:
Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
Born of the virgin Mary
Suffered under Pontius Pilate,
Was crucified, died, and was buried.
He descended into hell.
On the third day he rose again from the dead.
He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
The holy catholic church,
The communion of saints
The forgiveness of sins
The resurrection of the body
And the life everlasting.
Amen.
The church I grew up in read this creed together each Sunday. When I was young, I’d have to flip the hymnal open (do you guys know what those are???) to the very back where all the creeds lived (do you guys know there are lots of creeds???) and I’d read these core beliefs of the faith along with the congregation.
By the time I was your age, I didn’t need the hymnal anymore. I knew the words by heart, and reciting them was easy. That doesn’t mean I was holier than you, just that the weekly repetition of reading these words together hid them in my heart. “That’s cool Trey. Congrats on being a nerd and having a creed memorized. Quick question, why does it matter? What’s this mean to me as a teenager?”
Great question. Let me try to answer it. Let’s start with the very first words of the creed we just read–I BELIEVE. It’s important that we note that the Apostle’s Creed is a sort of grassroots confession of faith. It’s not something a bunch of people sat down and had a meeting about. This expression of Christianity’s core beliefs seeped out of the experience of the early church. This was the bedrock that their faith rested on. A distillation of gospel truth about who God is, what he’s done, and what that means for believers. When folks heard you rehearsing these truths, they knew you were the real deal.
It’s kind of like your favorite band. You’ll never like a band more than when you discover them at the beginning of their career. That first album drops, and you obsess over it for weeks and weeks. You tell your friends about it, you guys yap and yap and yap about which tracks are your favorites, and memorize all the lyrics. The artist and the catalog become essential to your experience. And the real fans know the essentials. If you run into someone wearing a Taylor Swift shirt and they love her latest album, but don’t vibe to All Too Well, you know they’re not a real fan.
Similarly, knowing this creed was a measuring stick for belief in the early church. As early believers were following Jesus, these were the truths they were proclaiming together when they gathered, shared with their families over meals, and rehearsed in their head as they went through their day. What a gift that we still have this tradition to cling to all these years later, confessing the same truths about the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit that the church has shared for hundreds of years!
Holy Catholic Church
Now that we’re all caught up on why the Apostle’s Creed matters, let’s dive into the two pieces of the creed we’re looking at tonight–the holy catholic church and the communion of saints. You’re probably asking yourself why you’re hearing about the Catholic church when you’re here at “definitely-not-Catholic” Sojourn church. You’ve probably heard lots of chatter about the Catholic church the last couple weeks as Pope Francis died, and the cardinals (people, not birds) elected a new pope (Pope Leo) who happens to be an American. Well friends, that’s the big C Catholic church, or officially, the Roman Catholic church. You’ll notice in our creed, catholic isn’t capitalized.
“Who cares Trey? What is this, language arts class? Grammar is stupid.” I hear you, and mostly agree. However, it’s an important distinction in terms of this creed. The word catholic in this context simply means universal. “Ugh, now I’m learning definitions of words. This is worse than school!” I know, I know, but hang with me.
So why are we confessing belief in a catholic/universal church? It’s this idea that churches in different times, places, and contexts are all connected to the same God of the universe. There are other Sojourn churches in our city, and even *gasp* in Indiana. All part of the universal church. There are even churches of other denominations in our city, a really, really huge one right down the road from here. All part of the universal church. There are churches around the world that preach the gospel and worship the resurrected Jesus that we’ll never see or hear about. All part of the universal church. More than that, there are nearly two thousand years of faithful believers who were part of churches that we don’t even know the names of who shared our faith and confessed the truths of this creed. All part of the same universal church.
We can call the church universal because the hope the church offers is indeed universal. Our universal human experience leads to the universal expression of the church. Everyone who’s ever been born shares the same sinful nature, and the Bible tells us that the consequence of that sin is identical for each of us–death. It doesn’t matter if you’re rich or poor, old or young, homeschool or public school, band kid or sports nut, you’re born into sin and death. The need for a savior is universal.
That’s the bad news. Here’s the good news. God’s offer of grace, mercy, forgiveness, and adoption is universal as well. It doesn’t matter what side of whatever social line you find yourself on, Jesus can reach across it and invite you into his family. Paul says it like this in Galatians 3:26-28.
26 So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
It’s faith in Jesus that defines believers, and serves as their invitation into the life of the church, not whatever arbitrary lines we want to draw. Our faith leads us to baptism, which makes us a part of Christ’s church. Christ’s invitation is extended to everyone. Paul hits us again in Ephesians 4:4-6.
4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
The good news of the gospel speaks to the entire body of Christ. The message of hope we hear in this room on Sundays is the same message of hope the apostles were preaching as the church was just beginning to form after Jesus’s resurrection. We’re part of this beautiful mystery of so many congregations gathering in different times, places, and geographies, yet still making up the one universal church. Different people, different languages, different instruments. One universal, catholic church.
Communion of Saints
The next confession of the creed is closely related to the church, our belief in the communion of saints. The church is of course made up of the communion of saints, so it’d be easy to assume this value without mentioning it explicitly. And yet, we find it mentioned separately here. What’s the point? Why take the time to make it explicit?
It seems to me that the early church wanted to make it clear that the Christian faith isn’t lived in isolation. In fact, while your choice to trust Jesus may be an individual decision, the rest of your Christian life is meant to be lived alongside others. We need other people in our lives to help us see our sin, point us back to Jesus, pick us up when life has beaten us down, go grab a box of Cane’s and listen to our problems, or quietly play Fortnite to calm the feelings we’re not ready to talk about. This is how we live in the communion of saints.
You’re here at S2 to learn the gospel, share your burdens, encourage one another, and have a safe harbor for the storms of life (big or small). This happens together. We show up to worship on Sundays together. How weird would it be if you got here, and everyone just went to their own little closet to sing and listen to a sermon? Sure, you’d still hear the same sermon and sing the same songs, but something would definitely be missing.
The Christian life isn’t meant to be lived in isolation. The story of the Bible is God building a people, not a bunch of persons. Sure, he calls individuals to faith, but he doesn’t leave them there to soldier on by themselves. No, he invites them into the body of Christ. That’s right, the universal church we just got finished talking about. You see, I told you these things were linked! And it’s not just our local church that we’re connected to. We learn from saints, teachers, and pillars of the faith that have gone before us (living and dead), whether it’s a historic church father, your faithful grandmother, or a goofy student ministry sub like me.
Jesus has bought your forgiveness with his blood. What does that tell you? That you’re VALUABLE! He didn’t save you to enslave you. No, he draws us near and passes along his way of life–living, loving, feasting, forgiving, teaching, and dying–and invites us to join him as we set out in our own journey to live in the same way. Our walks of faith are folded into the story of the communion of saints, and into the church that God has invited us into and has been building for centuries.
Now, one last note as we wrap up. While the rest of the Apostle’s Creed focuses on our perfect God, the church and the community of saints is made up of imperfect people. As long as I’ve followed Jesus, and it’s been longer than most of you have been alive, he’s never disappointed me. The church, on the other hand, has disappointed me plenty of times in ways big and small, and I’m guessing I’m not the only one here who’s experienced that. Decisions get made that are hard to understand, people you love say things that wound you, you get left out of conversations, or don’t get invited to that party your other friends are going to. Sometimes it’s intentional sin from others, sometimes it’s our own sin that causes problems, and sometimes it’s just the shifting sands of seasons going by.
God’s church is beautiful, and serves as an outpost of light in a world full of darkness. But no institution made up of people will ever be perfect. That doesn’t mean we hit eject on life with others, but navigate our way through it. You may be here tonight frustrated by how you’ve been treated, or feeling alone despite being surrounded by your small group circle. It doesn’t feel like you’re part of the communion of saints, or even connected to the church at all. If that’s you, I would encourage you to find someone to talk to about it. A friend, your small group leader, Hayden, your parents, or somebody else you can trust. There are plenty of folks here who want you to feel loved and connected to God’s church and his people.
As we wrap up, be encouraged that you share a faith in Jesus that’s thousands of years old. That faith has brought you here to this local expression of the timeless, universal church that Jesus is building. And by God’s mercy, you’ve been welcomed into the communion of saints that’s here to encourage you on your journey to follow Jesus. Let’s pray.
Kids Cohort (Kids Ministry)
Running kids ministry coaching cohorts was one of my favorite things I’ve done at Gospel-Centered Family. While we had to let them go at GCF, I’m happy to share that TGC is offering a kids-focused cohort this fall. Jared Kennedy is leading it, and has put together a team of the sharpest kids ministry folks you know (and me) to lead sessions as well. You can all the details (schedule, topics, speakers, pricing, etc.) at the link above. You’d be a great fit for this cohort if you’re new to kids ministry, need help meeting the needs of a growing ministry, or want to build a network with other like-minded kids leaders. We’d love to have you (or someone you know) join us!
AI Friends (Discipleship)
“Children are coming of age in a world where the mainstreaming of AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini has introduced a new avenue for online “relationships.” It’s certainly no coincidence that now, amid a mental health epidemic, we see these programs marketed toward young men and women.” It seems the loneliness epidemic that likely began with social media has big tech scrambling to find ways to solve the very problems they caused. Noah Senthil writes about an interview with Mark Zuckerberg (Meta CEO) where he outlines the value of AI companions in helping folks find friends, why that should be alarming, and what the Bible teaches us about friendship with actual people. While the notion of young people finding companionship via AI personalities is troubling, Senthil’s writing serves as a call for believers to find ways to engage with one another, and an encouragement about what those deep friendships can stir in us. A really timely, helpful piece to consider here.
Camp Catalyst (Kids Ministry, Student Ministry)
“The camp experience is more than a temporary high. It can have strong, lasting impacts. The transformation students experience at camp goes beyond them; it has a lasting effect on your church.” Camp season is officially right around the corner. It’s easy to look at camp as a chance for parents to ship their kids off for a week of fun while they get a little freedom. Kyle Cravens takes the time to outline why camp for kids and teens can be so much more than that. While the first memory they share is of a waterslide, chances are there are other experiences that will shape them in ways they’ll carry for the rest of their lives. It’s a love letter to summer camp, and a great apologetic for why the expense, headache, and stress are all worth it to get kids connected to Jesus and grafted into the life of the church when they return.
My Achievement
Hitting you with this parenting/Star Wars reel to celebrate the finale of Andor dropping this week. I haven’t actually watched yet because I’m too old to be firing up 3+ hours of television at 9pm on a Tuesday, but I’m sure I’ll be making some bad decisions and drinking lots of coffee tomorrow.