Some great thoughts from one of my favorite authors, Michael Horton, professor of apologetics and systematic theology at Westminster Seminary California (and former non-Reformed person like myself):
"If deeds without creeds is possible, how about creeds without deeds? While it is certainly possible to have a church that is formally committed to Christian doctrine--even in the form of creeds, confessions, and catechisms, without exhibiting any interest in missions or the welfare even of those within their own body, I would argue that it is impossible to have a church that is actually committed to sound doctrine that lacks these corollary interests . . .
"Within my own circles, I have seen a difference between churches composed mainly of those who have come either from non-Reformed or even non-Christian backgrounds and churches that have come gradually to take their doctrine for granted. The former tend to be animated by doctrine freshly discovered, while the other tends to assume, in a variation of the rich young ruler's response, 'All this I have believed since my youth.' Losing the joy--the doxology--of our salvation is the result not of 'dull doctrine,' but of dull churches that have begun to forget the wonder of it all. They need to start over again with Paul's famous letter [the book of Romans]: moving from doctrine to doxology, yielding grateful lives. [If Paul were to write a letter to churches only formally committed to orthodoxy today,] he would begin the letter . . . with the assumption that if people understand the gospel better--which is to say, doctrine better, they would get caught up in it all and it would make a difference in their lives, their relationships, their witness, and their loving service to their neighbor."
From "Creeds and Deeds: How Doctrine Leads to Doxological Living," from Modern Reformation, November/December 2006
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People are scared of that word because they probably don't know what the word means. All doctrine means is "teaching." I am so thankful for hearing Catechism preaching each Sunday. We recently went through the Canons of Dort (aka TULIP, for those who don't know what that is. But it's more properly ULTIP), and a couple years ago went through the Belgic Confession. I'm about to start on a book called "Living in the Joy of Faith" by Rev Clarence Stam of the Canadian Reformed Churches. It's a book of Heidelberg Catechism sermons he preached.
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