What We Believe

RUF… What we believe

 

RUF has been at AU for 13 years yet many people ask what we at RUF believe. Sometimes the questions are asked in these ways: What are the theological distinctives? What does Reformed mean? Are those issues even important? Do we, in our theological tradition, care about evangelism and discipleship?

 

While this document may not answer every question, the staff and members of RUF want to answer every question and help people learn about RUF and its mission and distinctives. We are convinced that RUF must not be so broadly open that it fails to make vitally important distinctives, which the Bible itself makes; nor are we to insist that every member share the same precise set of theological convictions.

 

RUF is and will be characterized accurately with the following terms:

 

We are Evangelical

To say that we are evangelical means that we take our stand with all those who believe in what used to be called the “fundamentals”: the existence of the triune God, the deity of Jesus, the virgin birth, the substitutionary atonement and the vicarious atonement of Christ, the physical resurrection of Christ, the sure return of Christ and the divine authority of the Bible which is a faithful and true guide to what we are to believe and how we are to live. We joyfully affirm our unity with those from every tradition and denomination who hold to these fundamentals, and the other various campus ministries in which we joyfully agree with on the essential issues.

 

We are Evangelistic

This means that we take seriously the Great Commission, “Go and make disciples of all nations.” Without compromising the sovereignty of God, we affirm the responsibility of each person to repent and believe in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord and our responsibility to extend the Gospel (see the link to What is the Gospel) invitation as a call to salvation to everyone who hears its message. We invite all, without distinction, to drink freely of the Water of Life and to live eternally with God. In this way, we see to “extend the transforming presence of the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ.” You will see evangelism taking place in large group, small group and one-on-one settings in the various forms available to us. Since the Gospel is everything to us, it will permeate everything we do.

 

 

We Love Discipleship

This is the other aspect of the Great Commission, “Go and make disciples of all nations.” Discipleship is a term that is “in” these days. At RUF we seek to disciple believers by equipping them to know Christ ever deeper, to seek repentance as the norm of Christian life, to understand and commit to the Scriptures (in large-group, small-group and one-on-one settings), to become involved in the ministry and mission of RUF and the church, to learn to read the Scriptures and pray in personal times with God, to engage with culture with a Christian worldview and a gospel lens, to invite others to the living water that only Jesus provides their thirsting souls. These things take time and cannot always be evaluated easily. People who wish to “be discipled” tend to look like this: they pursue time with John and or time with other older believers in RUF and in the church, they attend church regularly, they read the Bible, they attend RUF as a place to grow and also as a place to minister to others, they have non-believing friends, they repent often because they realize they are enormous sinners, they display the fruits of the Spirit as Christ works His life through them, they jump in an help out to meet the needs of others an of the ministry, they made difficult choices in order to glorify God, they are growing in their understanding of who God is on a theological level and that is melting their hearts so they love Him and others more. You can see that discipleship isn’t really a program, but a way of life. It isn’t an hour a week, but an attitude of placing yourself at the feet of Jesus and following what He says. We seek to be disciples and to disciple others to have this kind of lifestyle.

 

We are Reformed

The word “reformed” can be defined simply in two ways: 1) It is a reference to our historical link to the Reformation of the 16th century and intends to describe us as heirs of that tradition which comes from Luther, Calvin, Knox and other reformers. 2) The word “reformed” is used most commonly to refer to certain theological distinctives which have marked reformation believers.

 

These distinctives can be summarized by our glad affirmation of the responsibility of every person to repent and believe, and that it is God who, by His sovereign electing grace, draws men and women, otherwise dead in sin, to faith in His Son, Jesus Christ. By this faith alone are God’s people justified.

 

Reformed distinctives include the sovereignty of God in His creation, providence and election of believers apart from any merit of their own, the effective grace of God provided for and preceding the faith of the individual; the sufficiency of God’s grace apart from which man is dead in sin and wholly defiled in all his faculties of soul and body; the efficacy of Christ’s death for all those who believe in Him by grace; the life-guarding of all those whom Christ died for eternal life.

 

We are Kingdom-Centered

We believe that the Kingdom of God is not only a future hope but is also a present reality. We believe that the ascension of Jesus Christ means that He is presently reigning from Heaven and therefore, we are called upon to honor Christ’s Kingdom rule in every area of human endeavor. We believe the church is the institution through which God is building His kingdom and is renewing every aspect of life. Every Christian has a unique calling and a unique giftedness to serve others in his or her community. Christians should demonstrate this by serving others and working with excellence, for God’s glory, in all that they do.

 

We Seek Transformation

We believe that the Gospel has the power to change us. That as we seek Christ and not ourselves, that profound changes take place in our understanding of who God is, who we are and how we are supposed to interact with the world. God saves us. But why? Paul writes in Ephesians 2:8-10, “For it by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this is not from yourselves. It is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” God has created us, saved us from the bondage of sin, in order that we might bring Him glory in everything we do. That is quite a lot. At RUF, we will continue to seek the practical application of the gospel to every area of life. However, we do not want to slip into a legalism, thinking that our applications are THE applications that every Christian should and must make. We want to seek out what God says and then hold that up, instead of manmade rules and criteria. We want to steer the middle, Biblical course between being able to do anything we selfishly want to do, and erecting too many rules that shield out true Christian freedom. Admittedly, this is not easy, but we seek to engage each other without a judging spirit, in true discussion about applying the Bible, and admitting our own sinfulness and need for the Gospel.

 

We are, and Our Campus Minister is, Confessional

This means that we have a written confession of faith which our campus minister, John Boyte, believes to be a good and accurate summary of the Bible’s teaching. Our confession consists of the Westminster Confession of Faith and the Larger and Shorter Catechisms. They are in no way considered infallible; yet we believe they do contain carefully worded summaries of the Bible’s teaching in a systematic way. It is important to note that every church and campus ministry has a confession, formal or informal, even though some claim they have “no confession but Christ” or “no creed but the Bible” or are “non-doctrinal.” Every church and campus ministry summarizes its convictions in some form in order to distinguish its members from those who are not believers or who do not believe in its distinctives. Though this discussion may seem inconsequential, it is actually very important. Because you know John Boyte and other pastors who are confessional are held accountable to the Westminster Confession and to a strict standard for ordination, you know what it is you are getting when you sit under their teaching. Though there are differences in each pastor’s gifts and personalities and there are also debatable issues within the Scriptures, there is an extremely large are of uniformity in understanding and acceptance because of the confessional approach to ordination and continued pastoring.

 

We are a Community

RUF is not a place where you should expect to “attend meetings.” We believe that the teaching and preaching of the Word of God are at the core of what we do, but that those activities take place in the context of a community. This community involves authenticity, admitting our sinfulness, asking questions of ourselves and others, taking risks in initiating and continuing relationships, forgiveness, an appreciation of our and others’ gifts and using them in the body of Christ, in inviting others to join us, in having fun and taking road trips, in rejoicing and crying together.

 

This is important because...

It is important to know that these distinctives are good ones; that is to say, it is profitable and health-producing for Christians to believe these things. We believe that as we come to appreciate them, we will grow to love and honor the Lord Jesus more fully and understand more richly what it means to live by grace.

 

Nevertheless, acceptance of all these distinctives is in no way required for participation in RUF. One can be involved without holding to any of these distinctives (though we will seek to promote the evangelical distinctives over all the others).

 

In the Reformation era, Martin Luther had a sponsor whose name was Fredrick of Saxony. Fredrick was a prince and a 16th century entrepreneur who funded many of Luther’s projects. He was a man of warm heart and deep conviction. On his coach, he had emblazoned these Latin words: suaviter in modo, fortiter in re, which means, “gentle in manner, strong in truth.” This is what RUF at AU desires to be: warm, gracious, inviting, open and non-judgmental; yet holding strong convictions that we seek to always come directly from the Bible. It is our absolute and unwavering conviction that to be strong in truth without being gentle in manner is unbiblical. It is also our profound conviction that to be gentle in manner while not adhering to scriptural truth is also unbiblical. By God’s grace we will be both as we press on in the Lord’s grand design for RUF at AU to be used at AU, in Anderson and to the world.