major doctrines vs. minor doctrines

Elders/Pastors have the responsibility of delineating which doctrines are clear and necessary to believe for church membership/leadership and which doctrines are less clear and less critical.

Wayne Grudem offers a helpful guideline for making those distinctions:

"A major doctrine is one that has significant impact on our thinking about other doctrines, or that has a significant impact on how we live the Christian life. A minor doctrine is one that has very little impact on how we think about other doctrines, and very little impact on how we live the Christian life" (Systematic Theology, p.29).

Obviously, that is is still subjective--we have to decide how to measure "significant" versus "little" impact--but I think it's a helpful start in trying to sort through it all.