Faculty from the College of Biblical Studies released a video series, “We Believe,” earlier this month, outlining 13 key beliefs of the faith.

The series was created and hosted by Dr. Jeff Childers, professor in the graduate school of theology, and by Dr. Carson Reed, dean of the college of Biblical studies. It was built as a teaching tool for churches and Bible studies to help Christians understand what they believe.

Topics of the series include:

• God and the Trinity
• Creation and creator
• Sin and the fall
• The incarnation
• Atonement and salvation
• The resurrection and ascension
• The Holy Spirit
• Scripture
• Church
• Baptism
• Worship
• The Lord’s supper
• The second coming and eschatology

Childers and Reed said what fueled the process was that faith leaders kept coming to them for guidance and resources on teaching core doctrines.

Childers said he hopes this helps believers gain a deeper understanding of what they believe.

“As Christians, we tend to take a lot for granted in terms of what we believe,” he said. “And because of that, we don’t spend a lot of time rehearsing that, reinforcing that or delving deeply into that.”

He said that often this presents as people claiming to be Christians but not understanding how this belief should change how they act.

Each of the videos in the series is an interview with one or two professors who are experts in the topics from the Bible department.

He said the project was made with the Learning Studio and took about a year and a half to develop, plan each episode with the content experts, film the videos, edit and test with different people at the university.

When it comes to choosing the topics, Childers said they chose widely accepted beliefs and were not specific to a denomination.

“These are things you will find in the Apostles’ Creed,” Childers said. “You’ll see them as things that get mentioned and emphasized repeatedly in scripture.”

Each of the videos is 15 to 20 minutes long and is accompanied by a study guide with four to six discussion questions. Reed said that while someone can watch the videos alone, they are specifically made to start conversations in churches or small groups.

“We hope that they provide some basic introduction to these core teachings,” Reed said. “With this video, I think I could sit with a friend who doesn’t really know much about the Christian faith, and they could go away saying, ‘I understand why the cross matters or why Jesus had to die.’”

For now, Reed said this is all of the videos they plan to do, but he also said he could see them adding more in the future as they continue to think of topics and experts.

To watch the series, visit webelieveproject.org