Biblical Integrity
As the Fellowship Community prepares to officially launch in January of 2015, we are visiting the Core Values that we were birthed from. A few weeks ago, Brenda Norton got us started with “Jesus Shaped Identity.” This week, Jim Singleton focuses us on our next value of “Biblical Integrity.” Stay tuned for Jerry Andrew’s blog next week on “Thoughtful Theology.”
Biblical Integrity: We believe the Bible is the unique and authoritative Word of God, which teaches all that is necessary for faith and life. The prominence of God’s Word over our lives shapes our priorities, and the unrivaled authority of the Bible directs our actions to be in concert with Christ’s very best for our lives.
Among all of the values of the Fellowship (and ECO), Biblical Integrity is one of those values which most powerfully impacts the others. It is the values which reminds us to ever ask the Reformation question – “Where is that in the Bible?” Over the past 100 years, through the infusion of the Enlightenment worldview generally, and through the Higher Critical approach within Biblical Studies in most of the PCUSA seminaries, our denomination has appropriated a truncated approach to the Scriptures. The scriptures are valued by those in the PCUSA – but because of different interpretive approaches, there is different weight given to scripture by those who are Progressives, and by those you call the Fellowship Community a theological home.
The first sentence of this value statement has long been part of our heritage – coming from the Westminster Confession of Faith. The next two sentences are then affirming the priority in value and decisions for the Scriptures. What is unsaid, but implied, is that this priority places scripture above reason and above experience. Reason and experience are indeed sources of authority in each of our lives. There are ways of thinking that just seem reasonable. When a person is hiking in Glacier National Park it is reasonable (and prudent) to make every effort to avoid surprising a mother Grizzly bear with her cubs around. That choice makes sense, yet Grizzlies are not mentioned in scripture. And there are decisions we make because it just feels right. It never feels right for me to pick up a live snake. Yet, it also never feels right for me to eat sushi. Yet others feel differently about each of those.
But in our decisions where scripture does speak, we affirm that it is our intention to lift up the integrity of our biblical witness, and go to scripture as our first priority in decision making. It could feel right at points to break any of the 10 Commandments. We might even determine there is a good reason to break one. But the value of the Fellowship is to stick with what we know from scripture.
In interpretive issues we believe that many times what seems like an issue coming from the a certain type of biblical interpretation, might actually be motivated by a re-prioritizing of scripture behind reason and experience. Obviously, there are many subjects not covered in the scriptures. For those we would endeavor to discover the biblical principles that might clarify each of those decisions. But the intent of those living with the Fellowship Community is to live in Biblical Integrity and to even live in disagreement where we feel like our brothers and sisters have gone against the integrity of the Biblical witness.
Dr. Jim Singleton is on the Fellowship Community’s Presiding Board, overseeing our Advisory Team and currently serves as Associate Professor of Pastoral Leadership and Evangelism at Gordon Conwell Seminary. Prior to his current post at Gordon-Conwell, Jim served as senior pastor of churches in Texas, Washington and most recently, First Presbyterian Church in Colorado Springs. He has taught at several seminaries around the world, including ones in Virginia, Texas, Washington, Moscow and Zambia. In addition to teaching and preaching, he has participated in cross-cultural missions in places like Mongolia, Ecuador, Cuba, Mexico and India, to name a few. He also serves on the board of trustees at Ecumenical Service Ministries and Whitworth College, where he is vice chair of the Academic Affairs Committee and chairman of the Committee on Trustees. Jim is an avid fan of baseball statistics, history, hiking and cross-country skiing. He and his wife, Sara, have a son, James, and a daughter, Rachel.