I grew up in Canada, so I didn’t get the experience of saying the pledge of allegiance every day. But as in the US we did sing the national anthem every morning, facing the national flag in the room as part of our daily routine. Every morning we sang the words, “God keep our land, glorious and free!”. While Canada certainly could learn a thing or two from that line right now, I’m not here to comment on that. Nevertheless, we all have these common things that bind us together in a certain identity. We know that they know, and because of that there is a shared understanding of who we are.
Then we get to the world of Christian worship, and the plethora of styles that exist in the world today. This isn’t wholly a bad thing. Before becoming a lead pastor, I led worship in a contemporary context, and there were certain things I loved about it. But one thing that nagged at the back of my head was, “what is the connection with what we are doing with the rest of the Church?”.
For most in the modern American evangelical world, more traditional styles of worship can often be looked at with suspicion (often being suspected of “being too Catholic”), or maybe kind of laughed at as antiquated. But there are many things that we in evangelicalism can learn from the faithful worship of our brothers & sisters in ages past.
One of these key elements of worship is the reciting of an ecumenical creed. Even since the earliest days of the Church, a variety of concise statements of belief have been used as a part of preparation for baptism, and in worship. The two main creeds that are often used are the Apostle’s Creed, or the Nicene Creed. Both of these creeds accepted by all orthodox Christian throughout history, contain the core truths of the Christian faith.
Why is reciting a creed even important?
First, historically the creeds have been placed in the order of worship for churches as a check on the clergy. In Anglican liturgy, the creed follows the sermon. This is placed there as a statement and question, “does what was just preached line up with what we just said?” In many churches there can be problematic theology that is presented from the pulpit, and having the core creed of Christian doctrine help work as a ruler that the sermon can be compared too. Though sadly this is not a sure fire way, because there are many more traditional denominations and traditions that are wholly caved the liberal and woke ideology, despite saying the creeds weekly.
Secondly, creeds provide a foundation of right belief, and an inoculation against bad ideas. A good friend of mine was raised Roman Catholic. He learned the creeds from a young age, and even during his teen years when he wasn’t really following Christ, he encountered a preacher who was sharing aberrant theology. Despite not actively living the Christian life, my friend was still inoculated from these ideas, because he instantly recognized that what was being said did not line up with the creed in certain areas. Now again, as stated above, this is not a 100% sure thing. You can know the creed, and choose to ignore what it is actually saying. But, I would argue that for most Christians, knowing the creeds would be a beneficial thing.
We live in an age with a million messages hitting our brain every singly day. Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Reddit, Youtube and the list goes on and on…not to mention traditional advertising on billboards and TV commercials. We are constantly being messaged to.For us as followers of Christ, the creeds provide to us messaging that we can get on board with. Something that we can remember and look to, as a sure thing as to the truth of the Christian faith.
Below is a photo showing the Scriptural references that are found in the Nicene Creed. The creeds are not just “concocted words of men”, but are synthesized and condensed truths from Scripture, organically presented to systematically present the truths of, and the general flow of the Gospel message. The creeds help ground and center us in a crazy world.
The creeds help provide a guard rail against bad theology. You see, the tricky little secret that many don’t think about, is that heretical ideas use the same Scripture. Yes, ideas are over weighted in their importance, or incorrect translations or ideas are added to the text, but nevertheless the Bible is used as a proof-text for bad ideas. The creeds help us in telling us that as we read God’s holy and inspired Word, the correct interpretation and understanding of them will be found inside of the bounds of the creeds.
But how can all of this work in a contemporary setting? Good question!
As I had mentioned, I had been leading worship in a contemporary worship setting up until the beginning of 2025. For the entire last year I led worship, we recited the Apostle’s Creed every single week as part of our time of worship. And other than a little confusion about the word ‘catholic’, it integrated really well.
It can, and I would argue should be done. As Christians we have a beautiful and rich heritage in the creeds, but for many Christians there is complete ignorance that they even exist. But so much benefit is being missed out on. There are so many different ways for contemporary worship settings to use the creeds.
In recent years there have been a bunch of fantastic contemporary worship songs coming out based on or directly quoting the ecumenical creeds of the Church. I Believe by Phil Wickham, We Believe by the Newsboys, The God We Love (Nicene Creed) by CityAlight, This I Believe by Hillsong just to name a few. Use these songs, often! If a worship leader or pastor doesn’t feel that reciting a creed regularly can work for some reason, sing these songs.
But in the end, I believe firmly that EVERY church should in some way shape or form should recite a creed every single week. I always led it at the beginning, before going in to the worship set. But that is just one example, there are a multitude of ways that they can be added in, and practically it can take 30 seconds. The Apostle’s Creed is an easy one because it is shorter, but for most the Nicene Creed is the “gold standard” that the Church historic has used.
In our day and age having a good handle on the truths of the Christian faith is more important than ever, which means we need the creeds more than ever. Their usage will be enriching for all, because not only are we being taught and reminded of the Gospel, and the work of Christ, but we are being connected to Christians all around the world, and throughout history. There is continuity, there is connection, there is family.
One Lord. One Faith. One Baptism.
