Allelon stands within historic Christian orthodoxy. We affirm the great creeds and faith statements of the Church. In particular, we affirm The Apostles' Creed as a summation of the beliefs which we hold.

However, we also seek to restore a sense of the "whole" that emphasizes history and story as God's method of revealing himself to us. We believe that Story is the beginning or entry point of a life of belief not the conclusion of belief. Thus we have attempted to state our "living" beliefs in the form of a condensed version of the Story of God-the ongoing drama of what God has done, is doing, and will do in human history. It is our belief that as we are genuinely shaped by God's story we will naturally give rise "to a new plausibility structure, a radically different vision of things from those that shape all human cultures apart from the Gospel" [5]-a structure that naturally forms our identity, community and mission as God's divine presence on earth.

 The Story We Are Living In

Why is the concept of Story important? Because Story is the design God picked to call us to our vocation of partnering with him in the redemption of his creation. Scripture provides God's Story of creation and re-creation. It is within that Story we look to discover how to improvise as we become "truly human" as God intended his human creation to be. We seek to live within the Story that understands the Triune God as Creator and Ruler of all things.

One helpful way to see God's Story is by thinking of a five-act play (Tom Wright). Beginning in Act 1 of the drama "there was a time when God spoke all things into existence... (Genesis 1-2). However, humankind, the crown of God's creation, decided to worship, in order to become more godlike, what God had created instead of worshipping the Creator of the Universe (Genesis 3). True humanity became distorted and could no longer see God's image clearly (Act 2).

As the Story continues (Act 3: the rest of the Old Testament) God creates and calls a people, Israel. It was God's desire to have a people that would be the light of the world, to demonstrate what God was like within a pagan society. The unveiling of Israel's vocation, bestowed by a missionary God, occurred through four great events. First, the Exodus/Redemption of Israel in which God bought a slave from the slave market. Second, the Covenant, a national charter to help Israel to understand how to be the people of God regardless of circumstances so they could demonstrate what being truly human was all about. Third, the Kingdom; where vocation was passed from nation to individual with a forward view toward the coming one who would be "truly human." Finally, the Exile/Return from Exile, a time when Israel had all but lost her sense of vocation. For the next four hundred years, Israel understood herself as living in exile waiting the "promised one" who would bring them freedom.

In the fullness of time, Jesus arrived on the scene of human history proclaiming the Kingdom of God in this present evil age. God honored his covenants with Israel and his promises by sending his Son Jesus into the world, born truly human, as God intended humanity to be. The Story of Jesus is the apex of God's revelation, Story (Act 4: the Four Gospel). Jesus called Israel to "Repent and Believe" and stop trying to be God's people via quietist, military means, or compromising ways and begin living as he would show them to live by his words and works. Jesus came telling the Story in his words (what it means to be an authentic disciple) and demonstrating the Story with his works (healing the sick, casting out demons, and raising the dead).

Act 5 Scene 1 of the Story of God is the creation, by the Spirit, of the church as God's re-created humanity living in the community of the Spirit. The church's focus, like Israel before her, is to be the light to the world empowered by the Holy Spirit who releases his gracelets to accomplish his work. The story of her struggles to be the people of God are shared in the New Testament's Acts of the Holy Spirit and in the rest of the New Testament.

There are a few clues about how the Story ends. (Act 5, Last Scene: Olivet Discourse, 1 & 2 Thessalonians, Revelation, etc.)

We are now living between Act 5 Scene 1 and the final scene of Act 5, between the times as it were, as the people of God who need to be thoroughly impregnated with the Story of God from which we now creatively as God's instruments improvise as his "new humanity" so that we can be effective agents of his Kingdom "good news" to this present evil age.

To this end we at Allelon, therefore, deeply desire to root ourselves in the larger story of God and its essential role in the formation of a newly constituted people-a story which invites all of us to participate in God's mission to reclaim and restore the whole of creation, to bear witness to the world of a new way of being human for the sake of the world.

AUGUST 2003
EAGLE, ID.