A Church confession as a remedy for selfish theology

I grew up in a church that never made a nod or reference to any historic Creed, Confession or Statement of Faith. I got my knowledge of the Apostles Creed from a Graham Kendrick song. I don't think I am alone in this.

The Background
It's probably similar for a whole bunch of us British Christians born in the eighties that have grown up within a modern evangelical setting. Our theological beliefs up until adulthood are probably based mostly on the beliefs of our pastors, preachers and youth workers. We also may have received other insights from popular Christian authors (Lucado and Yancey were big in the late nineties) or worship songs (thanks again Kendrick). But that's about it. We were told to think for ourselves, to weigh up everything someone says by our uninformed opinion of what the scripture says.

This left us with basically two sources for our Christian education: the beliefs of our Church teachers, and the beliefs of our own fanciful thoughts. And without knowing it these two methods (and probably a whole heap of wider cultural influences) has produced a generation with a largely subjective and individual concept of Christian belief. My beliefs are personal and unique. No one quite relates to God in the way that I relate to God. My understanding of Christianity is valid, and so is yours whatever it might be.

The Problem
The gospel proclamation that was preached to us, that of a personal relationship with Jesus, has mutated into belief in a personalised relationship with Jesus. Not only can we customise the colour of our iphone, but we can tailor our own beliefs to suit our personal interests. As long as we uphold the three virtues of: scripture, preaching and guitar-led worship then we can believe pretty much whatever we want, for as long or as short as we want. 

"Those who see the Christian life in individual terms, who see themselves, or their individual congregation, as the centre of the theological universe, are doomed to make their personal issues, or those of their particular congregation, the most important problems facing Christianity... [We] do not want to submit ourselves to any form of public authority or scrutiny, preferring our own individual, frequently ill-informed, and not uncommonly idiosyncratic interpretations of scripture. The result is too often a pick-n-mix Christianity where each believes what is right in his or her own eyes." (Carl Trueman - Wages of Spin)

And Trueman goes on to say "If we took more seriously the great creeds and confessions of the church over the centuries, we would at least have some insight into what the church has over millennia considered to be important and necessary to a correct understanding of the Bible." 

The Remedy
So a Church 'Statement of faith' might be exactly what we need. A written document that we willingly subscribe to that not only proclaims a truth to us, imposed from an outside authority, but it also tells us that we are not alone. That our opinions and beliefs are shared with others.

As Trueman suggests, we might want to pay attention to the historic confessions such as the Westminister Confession (1646) or the London Baptist Confession (1689). But even if we paid some serious thought to something like the Evangelical Alliance's Basis of Faith, we would still come face to face with a helpful remedy for our selfish theology and our commercialised, bespoke beliefs.