To belong in order to believe is the experience of being accepted and valued as one made in God’s image, which provides a holistic and personal community environment for coming to faith.
In our primary discipline of assembling as the Church, Basileians integrate the practice of belonging in order to believe with cultivating colonies of heaven on earth and creating thin places. In contrast to the “believe in order to belong” approach to life in general and to the Church in particular, we invite people to belong in order to believe. This applies as equally to our guests as it does to our members. We invite all, guests and members alike, to start with a day then commit for a lifetime to experience the transformation that comes simply by belonging with others who have not arrived but who are also on the journey. This reflects our view that salvation is a process of transformation (i.e., Theosis, deification, sanctification, etc.) that begins in this life and continues on without end throughout the ages to come. If we held to a view of salvation that was limited to the idea that the only thing we needed from God was forgiveness for the guilt of our sins, then we would require people to believe first before they could belong. It’s true that we all need forgiveness. But God forgives and accepts us before we accept Him. It’s true that in light of what Christ has done for us that we in turn need to accept God’s forgiveness and repent. But it is by His kindness that God leads us toward repentance. So while we certainly need and must accept God’s forgiveness, we ultimately need, want and are destined for more than just forgiveness.
We are destined to belong and can start experiencing this even before we believe. In fact, we must belong first or what we’ll end up believing will be at best a warped version of God’s highest and at worst a lie. We are not created to believe in order to belong but to belong in order to believe. Believing does not invent reality; God does. He takes the initiative and destines us for unity with Himself, unity within ourselves, unity with others and unity with all creation. We can believe it or not, but it doesn’t change a thing. Sure, there are serious consequences for not believing. But even when the Prodigal was in the pigpen he knew which way was home. To belong is natural; to believe naturally comes next. Sin did not change the fact that we’re hardwired to belong. It just perverted that fact.
The guilt of sin is serious precisely because sin enacts false beliefs that unnaturally attempt to reorder how we relate to God, ourselves, others and creation. Sin autonomously demands in some twisted way that all believe in order to belong to its vain version of reality, a reality whose only future is death. So we refuse to play by sin’s rules. We refuse to get sucked into the game of trying to beat sin by coming up with subculturally or counterculturally better ways to beat sin at its own game. What’s the use of trying to get people to believe in our version of reality in order to belong? The very thought of that is nauseating. It only perpetuates sin all the more by misrepresenting what the Church actually is. The Church is Christ’s community in which He invites people to belong in order to believe. Even after the disciples had been with Jesus a long time, Jesus asked one of them, “Do you still “not believe…in me” (Jn. 14:10). Jesus did not revoke this disciple’s invitation to belong because he was still struggling to believe. Therefore we beat sin in a kingdomculturally alternative way that accepts that in the mystery of God’s will He has already destined us to belong to Him, ourselves, others and creation in ways we have yet to image.
The Father is already at work uniting all things in Christ. That’s the larger reality into which we are born and to which we belong. But because of sin we all struggle in various ways to accept this reality at ever-increasingly broad and deep levels of our being. Thus struggle itself is part of the journey. We accept that struggle is normal. But believing in order to belong struggles against struggle. It tries to minimize the struggle or even eliminate it altogether. But no amount of “believing” can save us from the struggles of life. A believe in order to belong approach to life is for mortals afraid to die. It’s an approach that creates temporary and artificial safe places and relationships and ways of “doing church” where people think they can live out their small view of God, themselves, others and creation with little or no struggle. Really? Some would define that as Hades.
The alternative – the kingdomcultural alternative of belonging in order to believe – calls forth in us a bold humility to die to all that is false and then trust in Christ to resurrect us anew. Bold humility comes to those who belong, to those who formally first accept this alternative in Baptism and then formally renew their acceptance of it in every celebration of the Eucharist. To belong is a struggle, but even so it is the joy of coming to believe in ever greater ways, of receiving forgiveness until light floods into every dark corner of our being, of experiencing healing in ever deeper ways, of making restitution until every debt is paid, and of working out our salvation to shine ever-brighter like the sun. Believing that all this is possible starts and then continues with belonging. Belonging to believe is Basileia’s mode of evangelism (i.e., discipleship).
Also see Assemble | Belong to Believe Resources | Soul Friends