Talk:Affinity (Christian organisation)

Affinity Theological Position

I think the middle paragraph needs re-wording, i.e. the paragraph that starts "Affinity considers "Bible-centred Christianity" to be..."

• "...non-charismatic"... - The Apostolic Church is a member of Affinity [1], and is pentecostal - so I am not sure that Affinity insists on non-charismatic theology. The majority of Affinity's member churches are probably non-charismatic.
• "...They regard churches with differing viewpoints as being in error and refuse to associate with them..." -- Differing viewpoints is too vague a term. There is a study guide on the Affinity website on Ecumenical Relations [2]. Quotes from the article may be more helpful to describe Affinity's view - although that article may not reflect the position of all churches linked to Affinity.

-- BenStevenson 10:41, 8 September 2007 (UTC)

Hi Ben, I think I composed the paragraph you are referring to - thanks for your comments. I would agree that Affinity's doctrinal basis doesn't exclude charismatics and pentecostals, but the vast majority of its member churches would hold a cessationist viewpoint and tend to preach strongly against charismatic/pentecostal doctrines of the holy spirit. So the Apostolic Church's membership is anomalous and rather unusual (more information here would be good). On the ecumenical side, do note that the sentence you quoted refers to the practices of the member churches and not the organisation itself. I am keen for this article to place Affinity within the wider evangelical context, which does mean considering the distinctive features of the churches that affiliate with it (which are primarily calvinist/reformed, separatist, and cessationist). However, the whole paragraph is a concise generalisation and, whilst I feel it is reasonably accurate and NPOV, I'd be more than happy for you to edit it if you you feel it can be improved. Sidefall 13:12, 8 September 2007 (UTC)

Maybe an extra sentence could be added to the statement on separation to give examples, e.g. the Fellowship_of_Independent_Evangelical_Churches have released a statement on ecumenicalism [3]. This statement identifies some issues that FIEC (the largest member of Affinity) would separate over, but there are other issues that FIEC churches do not think are serious enough disagreements to mean they will refuse to associate with those who disagree. For example, FIEC is in Affinity with many presbyterian denominations (a different view of church governance). That is what I mean by saying "differing viewpoints" is a bit vague. Some issues are considered worth separating over and some are not. FIEC has about 500 member churches. 76 of them are also affiliated to the Evangelical Alliance.[4] Incidentally, I go to a FIEC church. -- BenStevenson 10:09, 10 September 2007 (UTC)

"Bible-centered?"

"Bible-centered Christianity"? Whatever happened to being Christ-centered? FiredanceThroughTheNight (talk) 22:33, 23 February 2014 (UTC)