Overview Questions

What denomination is The Core?The Core is independent, and not affiliated with any particular denomination, though we do have friends and supporters among many denominational churches and Christians. We believe denominations are not inherently a bad thing, and can be used productively, for good purposes. But when Christians are not careful, denominations can cause undue division, competition and misplaced loyalties which work against God, not with him.

What are you rebelling against? Sometimes we speak rather negatively about what the Western Church has become, and we do so in order to challenge others, and ourselves, to abandon erroneous ideas and practices, and embrace the organic truth of God. Having said that, however, we must emphasize that we are not rebelling against anyone. Even those Christians who are most at odds with our ideology or methodology, are still our brothers and sisters. And if Jesus calls us to love even our enemies (which, to our knowledge, we do not have) then how much more should we love and respect our siblings? Ultimately, we recognize that, although we are passionate about the call we have been given, there are many “right” ways to serve God, and it is possible that those groups that baffle us the most may actually be doing a better job than we are.

How can all these things be true about The Core? God says that he sometimes calls things that aren’t as though they are. In this website we have enumerated our vision for The Core, which includes many things that have not yet become a tangible reality. We do so to possibly inspire you to help us bring them about. We do not call people to join us in order to become larger… the fact is that we need your help to become what God wants us to be! Perhaps you are not a follower of Christ, and you often criticize the Church for failing to live up to its rhetoric. Have you considered the possibility that we cannot fulfill our potential without your help? What if you were that missing piece?

Why do you have to be Christ-Centered? What about diversity and tolerance? Diversity and tolerance are both positive things, if they are approached in a positive way. But to make them the focus of society is a mistake. Without Jesus—his life, death and resurrection—none of us would have any hope. We would be lost, without a purpose or a future. Therefore, he is the very center of life… and has been since humankind first sinned in the Garden of Eden. Society has the ability to conceive of many beautiful things, such as diversity and tolerance, but if they are conceived apart from an understanding of Jesus, they have no real power. In other words, we believe that people should strive to love those who are unlike themselves (diversity) and show respect to diverging expressions (tolerance) but this change can only happen at a heart-level when Jesus is the power behind that transformation.

Sounds like a pretty heavy agenda... are you all really that intense? Some people take themselves too seriously, and God too lightly. This is backwards. Most of us need to be more serious about God, and lighten up a little about ourselves (although God definitely has a sense of humor, and we shouldn’t miss it.) It’s true that we are passionate and intense about the call God has given us. But we also think it’s short-sighted and, honestly, boring, to just talk and think about God all the time. To do this is to fail to notice all the beautiful and cool things he has created all around us. And when it’s all said and done, it should just bring us back to being more in love with him.

Values Questions

Does "The Circle" imply weak leadership? Not at all. It implies respect for the gifts and insights God has given each person. To limit input or decision-making to one or a few people is to dismember the Body, and guarantee that the life of the Church will be painfully two-dimensional. God has called certain people to provide over-arching vision and guidance, and to equip the rest of the Body, but this should always be done with a servant’s heart, eager to include as many people as possible in the process.

Does "Unity" imply inclusion, or exclusion? A little bit of both, actually. We consider every person we come in contact with a “family member” because we want to make it clear that we welcome everyone, and exclude no one from our community. In that sense, we are very inclusive. If that was all there was to it, Unity would be easy. But when it comes time to work together to accomplish something for God, there will naturally be some people who are on board with the plan, and others who aren’t.

For example, if you wanted to found a charity to help the homeless, you would have to exclude from the team anyone who believes that helping them is pointless, and they should just get jobs. That person is not on the same page as you, and therefore cannot work in unity with you. It is in this vein that we seek like-minded individuals to join our team, and work effectively alongside us.

One more word about Unity: one thing that bothers us is when Christians divide over secondary issues. There are many doctrines which are up for debate among honest, intelligent Christians, and differences in these areas should never serve as cause for ridicule, division, suspicion or neglect. That is why The Core keeps its official list of beliefs as broad as possible, while still containing the necessary elements to define essential Christianity.

Does "Truth" imply intolerance? You may find it helpful to read the answer above this one first. “Truth” is not a popular word in our post-modern society. But more and more people are coming to reject the post-modern idea that absolute truth is non-existent. It’s just not a sustainable idea. If each person gets to make up truth for him or herself, that is the end of community, of productivity, and of society as a whole. In fact, to even suggest this is to imply the existence of at least one absolute truth. So people are coming to terms that something must be true. The question, then, is what? Who gets to decide what’s true? It is logical that no human has enough perspective or authority to determine absolute truth for everyone, so it must be someone who is above humanity, aka God. But who is God, and what kind of truth has he laid out for us?

These are definitely not easy questions. And we sympathize with those who are wrestling with them. Indeed, we often wrestle with it ourselves. Nevertheless, we have decided that the Bible is 100% true, that the true God is the God of the Bible, and that Jesus is the Son of God. Consequently, we strive to live our lives to grow in understanding of what the Bible expects of us, and to carry it out to the best of our ability. Granted, this can easily lead to an intolerant attitude, but to be disrespectful of differing worldviews is actually very unbiblical, since the Bible calls us to treat everyone with love.

Does "Mystery" imply mushy-headed thinking? This question can be partially answered by scrolling up to read the above answers. However, in all our certainties about the nature of God and the world around is, we cannot become so arrogant as to believe we have access to all truth. There are many things not intended for our understanding. It would indeed by “mushy-headed” to write off all uncertainty to Mystery, and give up on our search for tangible answers. But it is the heart of wisdom to understand that there is a line over which human comprehension was not intended to cross… especially when we are seeking detailed explanations of the motives or methods of God himself.

Beliefs Questions

Why do you have a list of beliefs? Similar to our answer to the question about “Unity” above, we have to emphasize the importance of a team working off the same playbook. The purpose of a list of beliefs is to lay that foundation, to be sure that the house we are building will be well-supported.

Why is it so inclusive/exclusive? Some will read The Core's list of beliefs, and conclude that we have been too inclusive. Generally, this is the opinion of denominationalists, who have decided that diverging opinions on secondary issues should not be tolerated. Or else they have labeled secondary issues as primary, feeling that there is a long list which must be agreed upon in order for Christians to work together. We disagree with this mind set. Others will decide we have been too exclusive, and that we are guilty of discriminating against certain people simply because they believe differently than us. To them we would maintain that we can value everyone equally, while still standing up for the foundational beliefs that are close to our hearts. No one is lesser than because he or she disagrees with you. However, if we are to believe anything at all, there is no reason to be shy about it.

Why is it all scripture? When setting out to codify one's essential beliefs, it is easy to allow such a document to supercede the Bible in importance. Often it is assumed that we, as humans, are able to write more clearly and succinctly than God, and thus we fall back on that which we have written ourselves, to the detriment of scriptural faithfulness. This can have tragic results, including a widespread rejection of the mystery and beauty of scripture, in favor of a creed that resembles legalese. Although it is essential, ultimately, to explain what we believe, we choose to lead with scripture because we always want scripture to be in the lead.

Why is it so short? Some may not think it is short at all. But those who do probably think that we should have more detail, and include more issues in our list of beliefs. To them we must say that we have intentionally kept the list as short as possible, while still containing what we hold to be the essential elements of historic, orthodox Christian faith. And most historic, orthodox Christians would agree that the list need not be longer than this in order to determine the basic definition of "Christianity."

What if I disagree? You are more than welcome to disagree. And if you do, you are invited to say so. If you wish to dispute some claim contained in our list of beliefs on biblical grounds, simply e-mail Ryan and make your case. Or if you don't believe in the Bible at all, that's ok, too. We still want to hang out with you, talk with you, work with you, and learn from you. Nevertheless, it must be understood that, when we endeavor to follow Christ, we must work closely with others who share that goal.

Are you liberal or conservative? In order to answer this question, it is important to re-establish the meaning of these two terms, and put politics aside. (E-mail Ryan if you have politically-oriented questions.) In the spiritual and Christian sense, a conservative is someone who seeks to understand the original meaning of the words of the Bible, whereas a liberal is someone who feels that those words are "living" and open to a new interpretation by each generation, or by each individual. The Core is conservative in the sense that we believe it is crucial to understand the original message being communicated by scripture. And we are liberal in the sense that we believe scripture is multi-faceted, and that once the original meaning is grappled with, the Holy Spirit may well be speaking a separate, personal interpretation to each individual. However, we believe that God will not allow personal interpretations to conflict with His original message conveyed by scripture, and this position may distinguish us from some theological liberals.

Why don't you capitalize divine pronouns? Most Bible translations do not capitalize "he", "him", etc when referring to God. Also, once you capitalize these pronouns, it is difficult to know where to draw the line. Thirdly, there are certain passages in scripture that use such pronouns in poetically ambiguous ways, and may refer to both God and others simultaneously, or where it is not fully agreed upon whether the reference is to God or not. In this case it becomes a matter of interpretation, rather than translation, to capitalize a pronoun or not. Overall, we believe it is simpler and more consistent not to capitalize, and does not amount to any kind of disrespect.

What translation(s) do you use? Some churches choose a single translation to endorse. The Core has no problem with this, however we choose not to do so ourselves. On this website some of the more casual translations are often chosen to relate more effectively with those who are unfamiliar with the Bible. But there are many good translations available, and any serious student of the Bible should familiarize him- or herself with more than one.

Purpose Questions

By "Glory" do you mean that your heads are always in the clouds? Glory is a word not commonly used today, but when we talk about giving God the glory, really we are talking about giving him the "credit" for all good things, and there is nothing other-worldly about that. We all sing the praises of that which we truly believe in, whether it be a certain sports team, rock band or hair spray. But when one individual is responsible for the creation of everything single thing on earth, and attributable for every virtue and hope, giving him the credit is much more than a testimonial, it's a lifestyle.

Are you a "Purpose-Driven" church? What do you think of Rick Warren? The Core does not label itself a "purpose-driven church" and does not have an official position on Rick Warren or Saddleback Community Church. It is not hard to see that Mr. Warren does things quite differently from The Core, yet we have no quarrels with his methods. In fact, we believe he was wise to re-focus the Church at large on its sense of purpose, and so we have adapted our list of purposes from his. The main difference is that we have eliminated "Ministry" from his list, reducing it to four instead of five. We have done so because we believe Ministry to fellow believers would fall under the purpose of "Fellowship" and Ministry to unbelievers falls under "Outreach". To re-categorize Ministry this way is to provide a fuller understanding of what true Fellowship and true Outreach should look like.

I thought all churches did these things... what makes you so special? Everyone wants to be special, but it's really not that important. We want to do things right, and if that makes us terribly unique, we think that's actually pretty sad. There are definitely other churches doing these things, many of whom are doing them far better than we are, and others who talk a good game but always come up short. Although we are deeply flawed human beings, we are trusting God to take over in our midst to help us become all those things he has inspired us to be... and hopefully to be an inspiration to other groups of believers, so that Christ-likeness becomes less and less unusual.

Been there, done that. What you're really saying is that your four purposes are 1) Entertainment, 2) Indoctrination, 3) Potlucks and 4) Sales Pitches, right? In our lesser moments, yes. Unfortunately, as long as we inhabit these human bodies, our worship will sometimes deteriorate into entertainment, our discipleship into indoctrination, and so on. But our hope is in two things: 1) that we recognize the danger, and want to be authentic and accountable about avoiding such an outcome, and 2) that we can do none of this in our own strength, and that God has promised to help us, and be with us to the end of this age.