Trevin Wax: Christians Are in Danger If We Stop Being Thrilled by Orthodoxy

“You may think, ‘Well, we can remove this wall or change this smaller wall or alter this wall and the structure can stay standing.’ But over time it will be very obvious that the rest of the structure of orthodoxy cannot hold.”

“I don’t think the question really is about sexuality. I think the question is about anthropology. And anthropology is certainly lifted to the level of orthodoxy.”

“If you’re not actively opposing drift, at some level you’re likely to be drifting.”

“And sometimes this happens in denominational life…There will be an issue that’s sort of the presenting issue. And if you actually affirm this position, it means you actually are in line with all sorts of other beliefs that are closer to what we would say would be the heart of orthodoxy.”

“I think what we have to be really careful of is raising political disagreements, prudential disagreements of wisdom, of how we live in the public square to levels of orthodoxy.”

“Most of the time when I see people complaining about warning about drift today, it’s not because doctrinally they’ve actually denied one of the core essentials of the faith or even downplayed or even moved in that direction…it’s because of the sort of the tribal categories that have come over from the world have been, you know, brought into denominational life.”

“What are those elements that are non-negotiable for any denomination, any church that’s claiming the name of Christ? That’s the defending the faith once for all delivered to the saints. There is something to be said, though, for denominational integrity.”

“We could look at our denominations like a neighborhood, and we’re all in different homes and there’s beautiful things about visiting other people’s homes.”

“The hard job of the pastor is to go deeper into the pools of orthodoxy, but then to emerge from that showing the church that a lot of these foundational doctrines are practical and relevant in ways that they didn’t realize.”

“The challenge for us as church leaders is to be able to explain and articulate and teach well Christian doctrine, but in a way that captivates the imagination and draws the heart closer to God.”