(See Acts of Synod 2007, pages 654-655, art. 67
8. That synod assign the Faith Formation Committee the responsibility of sharing the seven universal themes prepared by the Reformed Ecumenical Council with the churches at its discretion:
a. There is only one category of membership in the church. All members of the church are full members of the church. While some members of the church may not have all the same privileges as all other members of the church, nevertheless, anyone who is a member of the church is fully a member of the church. When God made his covenant with his covenant people, he made a single covenant with Abraham and his descendants. After Pentecost, the apostle Peter confirmed that this covenant promise is to believers and to their children.
b. Baptism is the mark by which covenant youth are identified as members of the church. While baptism does not in itself bring youth to salvation, it is the divinely appointed mark by which the children of believers are identified as members of Christ’s church.
c. The means of grace function together to build one community of faith. Some in the community of faith may not fully understand the preaching of the Word or actively participate in the Supper of the Lord. Nevertheless, both the sacraments together and the preaching of the gospel, are given to build up the one body of Christ. Neither the preaching nor the sacraments should ever be used to bring divisions into the body.
d. The sacraments are given to nurture the entire community. Both baptism and the Lord’s Supper serve to nurture faith in different ways at different stages in a person’s growth and development. However, both sacraments nurture the faith of the entire church, not just certain members of it.
e. Participation in the sacraments calls for a response of faith as well as involvement in the community of faith. Both baptism and the Lord’s Supper are given by the Lord to call forth more and more faithful obedience to him. This obedience includes public confession of Jesus as Lord and a life that evidences a heart of faith.
f. Instruction of Christian youth is designed to structure the response and growth of faith. Within the covenant community, instruction is not designed to initiate faith but rather to cultivate and structure the ongoing response and growth of faith. Formal instruction assumes that faith is already present within covenant youth and continues even though public expressions of that faith may have been made.
g. Christian youth should be called to exercise the office of believer. Youth should be given the opportunity to exercise their office as believers appropriate to every stage of their growth in maturity and faith. The gifts of youth should be recognized, affirmed, and employed in service both to the Christian community and to others.
(Acts of the Council, Grand Rapids, 1996, pp. 12-14, 44-47)
Grounds:
a. These valuable statements have originated in an ecumenical context and could be confusing if not explicitly related to the specific issues we are confronting.
b. If shared with the churches either as a whole or in part by the committee, along with helpful and appropriate comments, the churches will benefit more fully from this document.
