In the early church the leaders of the church would write down the basic doctrines they believed and then as part of their corporate worship they would recite their list of basic doctrinal believes. These often ended up being one of the early church creeds. Repeatedly declaring what we believe to be true is a good way to grow in our faith. There were several creeds that were recited by the early church. One of the earliest of the church creeds was the Apostles Creed.

I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth: And in Iesus Christ his only Son our Lord, Who was conceived by the holy Ghost, Born of the virgin Mary, Suffered vnder Pontius Pilate, Was crucified, dead and buried. He descended into Hell, The third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended into Heaven, And sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty. From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the holy ghost, The holy Catholick Churche, The Com̄union of Saints, the forgiveness of sins, The resurrection of the body, And the life everlasting. Amen.

There was also the Nicaea Creed, the Nicene Creed, the Chalcedonian Creed, and the Athanasian Creed. They were pretty much the same in basic content but as the years went by the wordiness increased and there were many pages of theology that went along with creeds defending what was written.

The main point of Creeds is that the essence of what we believe can be written in a fairly small number of words and that reading every day what we believe will cause our faith to grow.