October 2026 Connection

For the last couple of months, I have been sharing some thoughts around what I’ve been calling the “Three B’s” of church engagement and discipleship: Belonging, Behaving and Believing. If you haven’t had the chance to read the first two articles from August and September, please take a moment to do so. It will definitely help what follows to make some more meaningful sense.

Okay, good! You’re all caught up.

Let’s dive into the second of the “B’s”: Behaving. Or is it Believing? Truth be told, I would argue that it could be either, and it’s not just me being indecisive. You see, behavior in this sense isn’t about someone falling in line with how well they follow rules. For instance, this isn’t about “no wearing hats in church.” This is more a matter of asking, how do we behave as Christians? In other words, how are we to act, live, speak, share, etc. as Christians (think: “loving my neighbors and praying for those who persecute me”). For the longest time, churches sought to attract and disciple those who already behaved as Christians. Likely, they did this because belief was already present, and so the most important thing remaining was to help someone find a church home where their beliefs and subsequent actions could find belonging.

Speaking of beliefs, not surprisingly, we’re talking about beliefs that lead someone to claim Jesus as their Lord and Savior. For the longest time, the church made three assumptions: (1) there are people who believe and go to church, (2) there are people who don’t believe and don’t go to church, and (3) there are people who believe and are either estranged from the church or searching for their church home.  

These assumptions led churches to believe that those who visited their church on a given Sunday already believed and behaved as Christians, but were simply looking for a place to belong, making belonging the last step in the discipling process. The problem with this assumption is two-fold. First, it has a tendency to form homogenous congregations. Churches extend welcome and belonging to those who meet an unstated litmus test of “sameness.” People who share similar beliefs and behaviors stick together, and those who don’t…don’t. The second problem with this assumption is that it tends to ignore or leave out of reach those who have not yet come to know the love of Christ – the gospel. For a denomination whose mission is “to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world,” to not seek to reach those who don’t yet believe feels like spiritual malpractice, if you will.

So, let’s look at our reordering of the “3 B’s.” What if we first seek to help people feel like they belong, regardless of their beliefs or behaviors? What if we extended belonging to people simply because they are children of God? What might happen?

Well, they might discover what the gospel – the good news of Jesus Christ – looks like when it’s manifested in Christians who are genuinely living out the life Jesus calls us to live. They might start to see that being a Christian and being judgmental are not synonymous with one another. They might start seeing that the approach to belief and discipleship is a lifelong process and not something that can be practiced once a week or perfected overnight. In other words, they might see the church for all that it can be and not for the regrettable reputation it sometimes deserves. And suddenly, once someone belongs – truly belongs - you can start to see how believe and behave can to fall into place.

One last note: I mentioned earlier that belief and behave are interchangeable in our new ordering of the 3 B’s. I say that only because of advice that John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement, was given during a time in his life when he was struggling with his faith. Peter Böhler, a Moravian missionary, told John, “Preach faith until you have it; and then, because you have it, you will preach faith.” In other words, belief can eventually follow the lead of our behavior! Praying to God even when we’re not sure why we’re doing it can lead to a realization that God is already listening. Going on mission trips even when we’re not sure of our faith may cause us to see the presence of God we weren’t expecting to encounter. When singing the hymns and songs, reflecting on Scripture, and feeding the hungry, we might stumble upon the grace we didn’t know we were worthy of.

Ultimately, belief can follow behavior, and behavior can follow belief. But both are most likely to be experienced in the midst of a supportive and loving community called the church when genuine welcome and belonging come first.

You belong,
Pastor Brian