Jesus Cropped from the Picture

The Satisfying End of My Journey

The Church’s Sacred Roots One of my favorite movies is Back to the Future , 111 where Marty (Michael J. Fox) is inadvertently taken back in time to discover the origin of his family and, his friend, Doc Brown. Marty’s experience with his past shapes his entire identity upon his return to his own time. In the same way, churches need to reconnect with their ancient identity, as People of the Story . As they retrieve the Church’s common, sacred roots (Rom. 11.16), they can re-orient themselves around Christ and his Kingdom Story , just as humans orient themselves around the weather and the seasons. Identification with the Church’s Sacred Roots suggests that Christians must submit to the Holy Spirit’s version of the Story in his authorship of the Scriptures (Canon) and in the formation of the Creeds , articulated in the first five centuries of the Church. 112 The Holy Spirit guided the Church to spell out what is to believed throughout the centuries. This was done before Postmodernity, Modernity, the Reformation, evangelicalism, or any other cultural or philosophical event. Apostolic, orthodox, and authoritative faith was given to the Church in the first five centuries, and is called the “Great Tradition” (not to be confused with the Traditional Method which formed 15 centuries later). Dr. Don Davis clarified the significance of the Great Tradition: Indeed, the Church of Jesus Christ is the “ People of the Story ”: we are a people birthed, formed, and established by the narrative of God’s work in history in the Patriarchs, Israel, and its climax, the incarnation, death, and resurrection of the

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