What Does a Congregationalist Believe?

We get clues to the answer from the apostle Paul. He wrote to the Ephesians (4:1-16) “I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, beg you to lead a more worthy life of the calling you have…” Christianity for many Congregationalists is a “way of life”. St. Paul wrote to the Philippians (2:12) “Therefore…work out your own salvation…”

These two texts spell out in a general way what we believe…of course, you must realize we do not pick and choose those which best fit us and our thought. What we believe comes from a history of inquiry into what the people of God have believed over the thousands of years which make up the history of the people of God as recorded in the Bible.

We believe in faith, freedom, and fellowship and these have far-reaching definitions. Faith in God; freedom to discover God’s way for your life and the freedom to walk in that way; and fellowship with all the followers of Jesus Christ and their churches.

These beliefs are often expressed in a covenant which comes from covenants made with and by God many years ago in the Old and New Testaments. A covenant is an agreement made between individual members of the church.

The earliest such agreement (covenant) was made in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1629. A creed, on the other hand, is a statement of belief, and tells what one believes about God, Jesus Christ, the church and salvation. Faith is not belief. Belief is passive. You don’t have to do anything to believe. Faith on the other hand is discipleship. Faith is the action of following Jesus Christ as a disciple while belief has to do with believing a certain creed or dogma. Faith implies doubt instead of certitude, while belief implies certainty. While we as individuals have creeds, in a Congregational church we have no such thing.

Without a creed you would think we did not believe anything! But this is not so…out of necessity, we would happen to have very strong beliefs. We believe that it is not possible for a creed to tell all that a group of people believe. Neither is it possible for a church to control what the individual believes or thinks. Nor, do we wish to control ones’ thinking for this would violate the freedom to think for yourself. While we defend the right of a church to write a creed, we feel it may be confining to the freedom of individuals and their own particular interpretation of the Bible.

There are, however, some common beliefs we can all share: God is and God is made known to people. This is most often an implied belief. We believe that the Christian church is a voluntary fellowship of equals (you are equal to everyone else in the church, you have a vote just like everyone else, and your faith is just as important someone else’s). Thus, a Congregational church creates the atmosphere of openness and respect in which you and I can find eternal values for ourselves, based upon faith, freedom, and fellowship.

From the Covenant Class note book by Rev. Thomas Richard with additions by Rev. Dr. Mark Dunn, Sr.