Preamble  

The GST is a community that seeks to reflect in its active investigation of the resources of Christian theology a lively commitment to the life of faith in the Triune God.  We take seriously the dynamism of Scripture and the church’s ongoing life over centuries and around the world as indispensable resources for the church as it carries out its mission in the world.  We also value our long history of service to Churches of Christ and other like-minded traditions that share the practices of spiritual growth that enliven congregations and individuals in their lives together.  We seek to serve the church in its enormous diversity as it pursues the apostolic mission of announcing the coming of the Reign of God.  In order to do so, we work to foster within students’ deep attention to the legacy of faith preceding us, preserved and generated by Scripture and the church’s long experience around the world.  We also fan into flames their desire to serve this mission in the numerous concrete ministries that the church has embraced as its calling.  To these ends, we prayerfully seek both the guidance of God and the cooperation of our fellow Christians.

The Commitments that Shape Us 

Our history in the Stone-Campbell tradition (Churches of Christ) and our sense of the future shape our view of the church in several concrete ways.  These characteristics mark out both the path that has brought us to our present location and that which will take us forward.            

    First, we believe that our life comes from the Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, into whose life of mutual love we are invited.

    Second, we believe that Christian doctrine and practice come out of the central Christian story of God’s saving work in the life, death, resurrection, and exaltation of Jesus Christ.  All Christian teachings flow out of that story and explicate its trustworthiness as an account of God’s work on behalf of humankind and all creation.

    Third, we believe that Scripture witnesses to the divine Word Jesus Christ, and is therefore always generative of the church’s spiritual maturity and authoritative in our life as congregations and individuals.

    Fourth, we believe baptism and the Lord’s Supper are vehicles of God’s grace to humankind and as markers of Christian identity and solidarity.            

    Fifth, we believe all Christians are called to mission on behalf of the world. Thus theologically informed education in one form or another is needful for the church because all bear a responsibility to faithfully witness to God’s work among us.

    Sixth, we believe that Christian practices are learned experiences that deserve careful cultivation. Those practices include but are not limited to corporate worship, care of self, family and friends, almsgiving, prayer, and service to the least.             

    Seventh, we believe that the church’s mission takes shape in lives marked by penitent attitudes and prayer.  We seek the spiritual maturity of each Christian, and therefore embrace that idea that each Christian will experience growth.           

     Eighth, we believe that each congregation of believers, however large or small, has received what it needs from God to be the church.  It rightly takes responsibility for its own spiritual growth, effectiveness in mission to its community, and service to the larger body of Christ.  While the church must develop relationships beyond the local congregation, the resulting organizations exist provisionally as ways of serving the larger mission, not as ends in themselves.

    And ninth, we believe that the pursuit of the visible unity of Christ’s church and the ultimate triumph of Christ’s kingdom leads us forward, in part because its realization remains incomplete, awaiting the final consummation of all things by God.  To that end, we stand in active, watchful expectation of God’s renewal of all creation.            

    These basic commitments, which have informed Churches of Christ and therefore theological education at ACU for its entire existence, underlie all our practices and those that we envision for the future.  In carrying them out, we press forward.