I'm a little reluctant to talk about this, not so much for the content but because to do it correctly I need to name someone and in effect give them free advertising.

Recently I've been having a bit of a discussion (read: disagreement) with the owner of xmin.org, this is a website that advocates something I agree with, but goes about it in the wrong way.

xmin is short for Christian Minimalism and bills itself as "The Final Denomination", a very large claim but I'm calling it for what it is, Universalism and that's heresy!

From their website:

    What is Christian Minimalism?
        Christian Minimalism is the thinnest possible Christian denomination.

So what do I agree with?

Like it or not we are moving into a post-denominational world, one where our affiliation with a particular brand of church no longer holds a sway over where we go on a Sunday. My parent's in-law are a good example of this. They were both brought to faith in the Church of Christ and have spent nearly 20 years at the church I now attend. When they took their sea-change and move many hours away, they sought out the local Church of Christ and found that it was a stale and dying place. Instead they ended up at the local Salvation Army church, something completely different to Church of Christ.

This presents a great difficulty for the Emerging Pastor. You now have people entering your church from another Christian tradition who is rebellious against (for instance) your insistence of adult baptism as a means for membership, and will not take it well when you say their baptism as a baby or 50 years of attendance in an Anglican church will not qualify them for full membership within your church.

So I like the idea of getting to the core of the matter, to rooting out the fundamentals (that's not a dirty word) of our faith and coming together in a true spirit of unity. To strip away everything to the barest of bones so that ones political, theological and social opinions are secondary is excellent. From that basis we can add everything else in liberty and grace.

What I don't agree with is opening up our understanding of our faith to be so broad that anyone, even those who would deny Christ crucified could be included in the "tribe".

So where do we start? Where do we draw our line our understanding.

The early church fathers ran into this very problem, they were fighting heresy on every front, from the Gnostics who separated out the flesh and spirit naming the former evil and the latter good, to the universalists of their day. To get through this rough spot, the Emperor Constantine did something useful (instead of nearly killing the faith by popularizing it, but thats another story), he locked all the parties in a room and made them argue it out. The output of their discussions is what we call the Nicene creed.

I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made.

Who, for us men and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; He suffered and was buried; and the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures; and ascended into heaven, and sits on the right hand of the Father; and He shall come again, with glory, to judge the quick and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end.

And I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of Life; who proceeds from the Father and the Son; who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified; who spoke by the prophets.

And I believe one holy catholic and apostolic Church. I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins; and I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.

I'm going to leave this post here, it's already getting pretty long, but I'm going to follow it up soon with what I think is a better idea than xmin, and that is true Christian minimalism, core faith!