Last fall I taught an 11-week series through the Proposed Revision, beginning with an introductory lesson, followed by a lesson on each article. This was also recorded - if you are interested in the recording, please let me know as a comment (the notes have been tweaked a bit since I taught through the material, so that would be good to know about the recorded teaching).

This is intended to be another resource for you as you prepare to teach through or to ponder the changes being proposed in this Revision. This is certainly not a "finished product" but it should prove to be another helpful resource for you and others as you prepare to discuss and possibly vote on this Revision this summer at the National Leadership Conference.

To acclimate you to the notes, here is an overview of the key components of what the notes contain:

*List the Proposed Revision article and the parallel SOF article
*Address the differences between the two articles
*Teach what the Proposed Revision article means
*Speak to the ways in which the article has been strengthened
*Respond to reasons why it is important today to emphasis this truth
*Additional resources are included, e.g. questions for further study, longer Scripture texts to preach, memory verses, hymns and choruses
*Appendix 1 includes the commentary on the particular article
*Appendix 2 includes FAQs for each article, which are actual email questions and answers

These notes are now posted. You can get to them directly at

http://www.efca.org/about/doctrine/sof-documents.html

or by going to www.efca.org/about/doctrine (the SOF page) and clicking on "Teaching series and notes on the proposed revision to the Statement of Faith (by Greg Strand)"

In the near future, likely within the month, the BOD will be sending out some "special rules" for this process leading up to our discussion and possible vote of the Proposed Revision this summer. One of the items contained in these "special rules" is how to go about recommending amendments. These "special rules" will be sent to all pastors of churches, it will be included in an EFCA broadcast email, and they will be posted on the EFCA Website. We will also post it here, along with a link to the document.

We are excited, and have been since we began this process in 2003, when the task of looking at our SOF was initially given to the Spiritual Heritage Committee. As you may recall, it became a denominational-wide discussion in 2005. We remain excited to see what the Lord will do, and because the Lord is leading, we are hopeful!

At last summer's National Leadership Conference, the Proposed Revision of the EFCA Statement of Faith was presented as a motion to the Conference. This means that at this summer's 2008 NLC, we will be discussing and possibly voting on the Proposed Revision. This is a reminder and an invitation to post your comments or questions on the blog. We are hoping to address many of your questions prior to the Conference, and this is one of the ways we can do that.