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Bulletin 146 Date : 27th Oct 2008
Behave, believe, belong

In bygone days the church tended to operate on the basis of ‘Behave, believe, belong’. In other words, only people whose life-style conformed to a certain standard and whose beliefs were within certain boundaries could belong to the church. The upshot of this was that people were either ‘in’ or ‘out’. There was a clear definition of what it meant to be a Christian.

In our present day situation, church leaders are recognising that this formula is harder to apply. For a start, life-style choices are much wider than they were 50 years ago. Society no longer sees marriage as the only acceptable family model and many Christians who came to faith 50 years ago or more find that their offspring are choosing more contemporary life-styles which would have been frowned upon in their youth. The divorce rate has dramatically increased and church leaders are faced with difficult decisions over whether or not to re-marry divorcees. If you add issues relating to sexuality and other faiths or spiritualities, the situation becomes even more confusing. But this is where we are at and we can’t turn the clock back.

You may have heard the terms ‘bounded set’ and ‘centred set’. These relate to two ways of looking at churches. The ‘bounded set’ is a church which has clearly defined rules regarding life-style and beliefs. No one can be a member if they cross outside of either boundary. This makes it simple for the leaders and a comfortable place for those who are within the boundary walls. However, it makes life very uncomfortable for those who have fallen into difficult situations which have caused them, through no fault of their own, to fall outside of these boundaries. For instance, if a person undergoes a divorce or they have a crisis of faith, or their children get caught up in drugs or crime, they may end up being shunned by the church they belong to and, instead of finding it to be a place of spiritual nurture, they find it to be a place of constant challenge.

In contrast, a ‘centred set’ is a church which centres itself upon Jesus but recognises that its members, although aiming for the centre, are journeying at different speeds and may be at different stages in their journey. In a ‘centred set’, the title of this bulletin would be reversed and would read, ‘Belong, believe, behave’ in recognition that belief and life-style will be affected by first belonging to a community of Christians rather than having to conform first.

When we read the gospels we can’t fail to see that Jesus was regularly being criticised by the religious leaders for not conforming to the regulations laid down in the law. Jesus in contrast mixed with people who would definitely be excluded from a ‘bounded set’ in his time. Jesus never said to people, ‘this is what you should believe’, but said instead, ‘come, follow me’. The word ‘disciple’ means ‘one who is learning’.

Christians are also recognising that faith is not about a single ‘conversion experience’ but about a series of life-changing events on the spiritual journey we call ‘life’. I know of Christians who look back upon what they once regarded as their ‘conversion experience’ and, after many years, view it somewhat differently. Whilst it was a real experience which started them on the road to faith, it was by no means the only such experience and may not have been the most significant. Testimonies which talk about what happened 50 years ago are not testimonies but history lessons. A real testimony tells of what God has done in your life this week – how you have matured in your faith and become a more effective Christian in your family, work place and society at large.

So what kind of a church do you belong to? Also, what kind of church is most effective in reaching out to our 21st century society with all its confusions, hurts and hotch-potch of life-styles?