Dave Dunbar, President of Biblical Seminary, at which I’m taking some theology classes, sets out in his current Missional Journal Biblical’s understanding of the Missional posture as an evangelical institution devoted to a generous orthodoxy. I like this description of generous orthodoxy:
The intention of the phrase “generously orthodox” is to describe the playing field for our school. The boundaries of the field are the boundaries of “right teaching” which is what we understand by the term “orthodox.” I will speak more about this in a future article focusing on conviction three in our statement: The Indispensable Significance of the Christian Tradition. The point to be made is that we believe there is right teaching and wrong teaching, there is orthodoxy and heresy, and we know the difference. In other words, there are boundaries to the playing field and Biblical Seminary plays in-bounds.
On the other hand, we believe in a generous orthodoxy which means that we treat one another charitably as we play on the field. We certainly recognize that people sometimes step out of bounds–intentionally or accidentally–and yet our primary concern is not to function as referees but as players. It is one of the unhappy legacies of Christendom that many Christians have chosen to function as referees calling other Christians “out of bounds.” The result? Too much time has been spent precisely defining the boundaries and pointing out the faults of other players. Generous orthodoxy means that we will concentrate more on being the players that Christ would have us be.
At Biblical we believe that God is calling the church in North America to understand that the culture around us is post-Christian. Ours is again a missionary situation which calls for an all-hands-on-deck effort of Christians across denominational and confessional lines. The point of generous orthodoxy is not just greater harmony among believers–not a bad idea!–but greater effectiveness of united witness for the sake of God’s kingdom.
This posture is exactly why I decided to work on my theology classes at Biblical.