One of the primary differences between Church Plant Media and other web development companies is that our team has made a commitment only to serve gospel-centered churches and church-based organizations. After years of serving churches from different denominational backgrounds and heritages, we felt that a litmus test was needed to define our partnerships. So in early 2009, we decided to draw a line in the sand and we created a Statement of Belief.

That statement was originally defined by 5 simple points of doctrine with a few clarifying statements. We are happy to see how those points served to fence in our partnerships with certain gospel truths. However, we had a growing concern that the brevity of the original statement did not go far enough.

As we discussed what changes to make, we approached our friend, author and blogger, Justin Taylor for some advice. With sage counsel, Justin encouraged us to add a few things to beef it up. And when Justin Taylor gives you advice on writing, you listen. He strongly encouraged us to to do 3 things: (1) add more teeth to clarify what we mean, (2) make it unquestionably evangelical, and (3) to piggy back on recognized statements that have a proven track record. So that’s exactly what we did.

We changed our “passive” Statement of Belief into an “active” Gospel Agreement. This new agreement embodies much more than simple semantic changes. We fully revised the original statement to be unquestionably rooted in historic, biblical, Christianity. We also took a few pointers from our good friends and sponsored partners over at the Acts 29 Network. Their page on Doctrine explains that they are first Christians and second Evangelicals. They clarify those words with the Apostles’ Creed and the doctrinal statement of the National Association of Evangelicals. We thought this was a brilliant foundation, so those words and creeds are now part of our agreement.

You’ll notice that we use a version of the Old Roman form of the Apostles’ Creed, which does not include some of the terms or phrases that you may be familiar with. This is because we decided to make use of an earlier, shorter version of the Creed that was published circa 140 AD – 390 AD. The missing pieces that you may be aware of were actually added to the Apostles’ Creed in either the 5th or 6th centuries and they have varying interpretations. We just wanted to keep it simple, so we went with the 2nd century version to avoid confusion on points of interpretation.

Although the Apostles’ Creed and the NAE Statement of Faith provided solid bookmarks to our agreement, we wanted to go a step further to be crystal clear. After much prayer and many long discussions, we decided to add the 5 historic truths of the 16th century Reformation (a.k.a. the 5 Solas minus the Latin). We think these 5 slogans clearly showcase where people need to place their trust and how a sinner can be saved through the finished work of Jesus Christ.

Even though we use the word “Protestant” we know that some Anglican and Baptist churches will identify with each of the 5 truths, but they may not consider themselves to be “Protestant” per se. Thus the reason for the asterisk (*) and the footnote. So we hope the word “Protestant” will not be a stumbling block to them. As we state in the footnote of the agreement: Let it be known here and now that we welcome any gospel-loving, humbly-orthodox, body of believers who will stand in full agreement with the creeds… even if they don’t care for the labels.

Lastly, since the definition of marriage has been tossed around like a hot potato in our culture, we felt it necessary to make a stand for what we believe on that issue. One man and one woman. We think God made it pretty clear in creation.

Please understand that this is all about the gospel for us. Basically, our hope is that everyone on our system will preach and teach a biblical gospel. We think the Gospel Agreement will help to better serve towards that end. Charles Spurgeon summed it up best when he basically said, “go big with the gospel or go home.”

“The motto of all true servants of God must be, ‘We preach Christ; and him crucified.’ A sermon without Christ in it is like a loaf of bread without any flour in it. No Christ in your sermon, sir? Then go home, and never preach again until you have something worth preaching.” [CH Spurgeon, 7/9/1876; sermon #2899]

Amen to that, brother!