(Special note ... our dear friend and pastor John Samples is in hospice. I just found out this afternoon.  I have no more details, but please keep him, his son John W. and wife Bobbi in your prayers.  I spoke with Amy B. from E91 a few minutes ago. May we all be at peace. – Bob)

Friends: What are the basics of what you believe as a Christian? Creeds are an answer, but what is your heart telling you?  It’s kids’ stuff, really. See Part 1 of the column below. Have a great week!

Blessings, Bob

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October 6, 2026

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

The Simple Stuff, Part 1

By Bob Walters

“I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth … and in one Lord, Jesus Christ … who for us men and our salvation came down from heaven …” – from the Apostle’s Creed, Book of Common Prayer, Episcopal Church, 1789

I am going to talk about the faith and witness of Christian high school students, not the history and esoterics of creedal Christian faith, but let’s review some basics.

Basics of the faith, I mean, along with some post-Reformation church history.

Bible-based evangelical Christianity, by and large, does not depend on the ancient creeds (list of beliefs) for its understanding of Jesus, church, or scripture. We read the Bible, study the Bible, pray with the Bible, and we ingest all the preaching and teaching and Christian church fellowship we can consume. Ideally, we live daily and perpetually, with faith in Jesus Christ, love for God, love for others, reliance on the Holy Spirit, and the imperfectly understood but absolute truth and authority of the Bible. Sola scriptura.

The above quoted bit of the Apostle’s Creed, dating from the second century AD, and it’s slightly longer and younger cousin, the Nicene Creed, fourth century, have differences but say pretty much the same thing. If you’re inspired to do so, Google both and enjoy the deep dive.

I grew up in the Episcopal Church, where Bible literacy among the congregation was far subordinate to a congregant’s trust in the church, its priests, its traditions, and its authority.  Prior to its arrival in the American colonies, it was the Anglican Church, founded in 1534 by Britain’s King Henry VIII. This followed a tiff with Roman Catholic Pope Clement VII regarding Henry divorcing his wife, Anne Boleyn. You can Google that one, too. The upshot? England gained a church; Boleyn lost her head.

Like the Catholic Church, the Anglican and then Episcopal Church in its worship practices is creedal, with established liturgies (weekly worship plans), litany (prayers), and hierarchies (leadership). That big book on a Catholic or Episcopal Altar is not a Bible, it is a Missal, or what I grew up knowing as the Book of Common Prayer. While the Bible is a direct conversation with God, in my experience, the Book of Common Prayer is more of a training-wheels version of what church is supposed to be like.

Meaning, it contains the curated basics of the church, including much scripture, prayers, Psalms, and rituals (e.g. baptisms, weddings, funerals, etc.). My point is that knowing Church basics is not necessarily knowing Christ. And here’s where I wanted to share something about my Christian teenage students and “the basics.”

Our Mission Christian Academy in Fishers, Ind., where my wife Pam and I teach high school English (her) and history / civics (me), have plenty of students who know the Bible pretty well.  Many of them can cite all 66 books from memory, know the Old Testament from the New, know the Gospels from the Pauline letters, and attend weekly extracurricular Bible studies and church youth groups. By and large, the students know Christ.

That makes teaching Western literature and civics a more complete enterprise because Christianity is the foundation of Western culture the past 2,000 years.  We can include the reality of God, the truth of Jesus, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the authority of scripture, and the communion of the saints (church), Were there other influences? Of course – Greek, Roman, and Jewish philosophy before Christ, and the Enlightenment and modernism that has tried to re-define God the past 400 years or so.

Plus Islam, since the seventh century, which has tried to erase the whole thing.

But it is the simple stuff of Christianity – the orthodoxy and doctrines – that our students need to have on hand without hesitation or confusion. More next week.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) still has his mangled Book of Common Prayer from his Episcopal confirmation in 1965, which his dog Kramer Too chewed up 15 years ago.