The church is not held together by doctrines or creeds.
I want to say that carefully, because I know how it sounds.
I'm not saying truth doesn't matter. I'm not heading toward the kind of theological looseness Rob Bell described in Velvet Elvis, where doctrine is like springs in a trampoline: pull out a few and it still holds. A lot of people predicted that thinking would lead somewhere bad. They were right.
I believe creeds and confessions matter. The historic confessions are the accumulated wisdom of people who wrestled with Scripture before us and, in many cases, bled for what they found. "No creed but the Bible" is itself a creed, and a weak one. We shouldn't throw that inheritance away.
But here's what I keep running into: we can build a well-erected theology and spend the rest of our energy defending it. And miss the whole point. I did that for years. I studied and defended doctrine (often without any desire for love or the good of others) and it led to exhaustion and anxiety and a low grade tension with everyone because they were a threat to the doctrinal structure I was building and maintaining.
"Defend the Bible? I'd sooner defend a lion. You don't defend the Bible; you open its cage and let it roar." — Spurgeon
Defend the community of God. I'd rather know Him and enjoy Him and live life with people in the mutual enjoyment of Him than spend my time arguing about a man made interpretation and representation of Him.
The goal of following Jesus is not a correct statement about God. The goal is life with the triune God. Relationship. An abundant joy that can only be known and experienced in actual proximity to the living God.
Doctrine formulated toward that end is a gift to God's people. But when doctrine becomes the destination the whole thing is corrupted. The church becomes a society defending a position rather than a people who have found what they were made for. And you can feel the difference. It produces a low grade tension of people protecting a position.
Living in relationship with God produces something different. It's life giving and open, not threatened.
We don't want a church without doctrine. We want a church with better priorities. A better starting place. A better conclusion.
Doctrine serves life with God. Not the other way around.