Belong, Believe, Become?

“We have a safe place for people who are looking for answers to their spiritual questions and simply want to check out Christianity without anyone pressuring them. It's also a place where those who have decided to follow Jesus Christ can learn and be encouraged in their spiritual journey. You can relax when you visit, knowing that no one is going to single you out, put a visitor sticker on you or otherwise embarrass you. This is truly a safe place to find answers at your own pace. Expect to be greeted and loved!”

“The Belong Believe Become model says that anyone can belong, regardless of their orientation, regardless of their beliefs, regardless of whether they are even Christians.  They are included, loved, embraced and welcomed into a community of Christians.”

“…exists for people to have a community to belong to: people to celebrate with, people to cry with and people to grow with.”

“Belong....Anyone can be a member of a church, but not everyone truly feels like they belong.  We desire that everyone who comes in becomes a part of the… family.”

“We are a people who are loved by God and one another. … is a place where you can BELONG to God, one another and the Community.”

The above are just a sampling of the thoughts that are out there about a common catch phrase that many congregations are adopting.  It seems that the reasons for using the catch phrase are as diverse as the congregations that are using it.  Some have modified it to Believe, Belong, Become, which seems more theologically accurate.  However, some of the congregations using Belong first are actually promoting the fellowship of believers only.  The matter that I have been pondering is the group that seems to want to bring believers and unbelievers into fellowship.

In the beginning, based on the Word of God, everything lived in harmony.  After the fall, some evidences of the harmony remained, but after the flood, both animals and men became “meat eaters” and animals began to fear man (Genesis 1:29-30, Genesis 9:2-3). 

Creation evidences three broad types of relationships: symbiotic, commensalistic, and parasitic.  In a symbiotic relationship, both organisms derive a benefit from the relationship.  In a Commensalistic relationship, one organism derives a benefit and the other is neither helped nor hurt.  In a parasitic relationship, one organism derives a benefit and the other is harmed.

The ekklesia (church), when operating properly, is to function as a body, each part benefiting from and providing a benefit to the other, all being directed by the head, which is Yeshua (Jesus) (Romans 12:4-21 I Corinthians 12:12-31, Ephesians 4:16, Ephesians 5:30-32, Colossians 1:18, Colossians 2:17-19, Colossians 3:12-15, Hebrews 13:3).  To be joined to Yeshua (John 14:11-20, John 17:21, I Corinthians 8:6, I John 2:15-16, 24, II John 1:9), we must repent (Matthew 4:17, Matthew 9:13, Matthew 11:20, Mark 1:4, 15, Mark 6:12, Luke 24:47, Acts 26:20, II Corinthians 7:9-10, II Timothy 2:25, Revelation 2:5), be baptized (Acts 2:38, Acts 19:4, Hebrews 6:1-6) and obey the commandments of God and have the testimony of Yeshua (Revelation 12:17, Revelation 14:12).  I know there is much debate about salvation and the process, and that is not my focus right now.  The point is, you cannot be a part of the body by just coming through the doors of a building.  While our works will not save us (Ephesians 2:8-10), faith without works is dead (James 2:14-26).  Therefore, the body will be comprised of individuals that are not practicing (walking in) sin but are practicing (walking in) obedience to God (I John 1:5-10).

Those that are in the world (not a part of the body) will be walking in darkness (Matthew 6:23, John 1:5, John 3:19, John 8:12, Acts 26:18, Romans 13:12).  They will love the darkness and will be uncomfortable around the light (John 3:19).

Those that are walking in the light are discouraged from being yolked with those in darkness and from having fellowship with works of darkness (II Corinthians 6:14, Ephesians 5:11).  Our fight is not against flesh and blood (I Corinthians 10:20, Ephesians 6:12), and we must share with those that will hear, but for those that will not hear, if we live in the light, they will not feel comfortable around us, because the light will convict them even as it convicts us (Matthew 5:16, Matthew 6:24, John 1:4-5, John 3:19-21).  For those who do not believe, the Word of God that we speak will judge them, we should not (John 12:46-50). 

Having said all of that, I am not sure how Belong, Believe,Become can work.  What does it mean to “belong”.  There is an old tv show where the theme song is:

Making your way in the world today takes everything you've got.
Taking a break from all your worries, sure would help a lot.

Wouldn't you like to get away?

Sometimes you want to go

Where everybody knows your name,
and they're always glad you came.
You wanna be where you can see,
our troubles are all the same
You wanna be where everybody knows
Your name.

In a 2011 Readers Poll in Rolling Stone magazine, "Where Everybody Knows Your Name" was voted the best television theme of all time.  The idea, the show, it resonated with many people, and perhaps some believers, but the overall thought is that belonging is a place where you are accepted just like you are and that everyone else is, for the most part, in the same boat you are.  Though I watched the show for many seasons, I caught it on reruns a few years ago and the appeal wasn’t there anymore.   It worked for me when I wasn’t a part of the body, but now…it’s sad.  I no longer fit in the “bar crowd”, but back then I would not have fit in the “church crowd”.   It would have been too uncomfortable.  The light would have shined into the darkness and I would have run as fast as I could, and I did, except in churches where there was as much darkness in them as there was in me.

To make unbelievers feel like they belong, someone will have to change.  They are not a part of the body and cannot be without changing.  The body can love them, encourage them, try to teach them, but where is the common ground.   All that the one stands for, the other rejects.  Either the non-believers will derive a benefit and the body won’t be harmed or helped, or the non-believers will derive a benefit and the body will be harmed.  I cannot conceive of a circumstance where there will be mutual benefits, since what the one has to offer the other does not want.  Light and darkness can have no fellowship according to scripture.  Indeed, in the body, when sin is allowed to go unchecked, the whole body will be harmed (Matthew 13:33, Matthew 16:6, Luke 12:1, I Corinthians 5:6-8).  So, based on scripture, the only one of the three broad models in nature that could support Belong,Believe,Become , if the unbelievers feel like they belong without changing, would be the one that would result in great harm to the body.

In essence, belonging is what Acts 4:32-35 is describing, but it only existed because they believed.