IT'S NOT WHAT I SAY, IT'S WHAT I DO
A few years ago a couple that was a part of our church asked to meet with me. The following week we sat together over lunch. We did the usual small talk about where we grew up, went to school and talked a bit about our families. When the food came, our conversation took a hard turn toward seriousness.
They told me they had some questions about our church's theology and what I believed about, what they considered to be, several “key issues.” The wife said, “What you believe, in particular, is very important to us as we consider whether or not we will stay at this church.”
They proceeded to ask a multitude of questions, and listened intently to every response I gave. This was not the first time something like this has happened. In fact, as a pastor I am routinely asked what I believe about … the Bible, poverty, hell, Jesus, politics, same-sex marriage, salvation, divorce and the list could go on.
At one level I can understand why belief is important. Yet, as important as that may be there is another, far more important question than asking what a person believes. That being, “What do you do?” And I am rarely asked about what I do. And it’s not just me; many who have considered joining our church have spoken of “reading our statement of faith.” Few, however, begin by asking, “How does your church care for the poor, the widow and the orphan?”
This represents a widespread obsession many Christians have with what others believe. For some reason, one’s theology or beliefs about certain issues has somehow become the single most important thing for many.
Not long after I began working as a pastor I was asked to consider being ordained. To help me in my decision making process I was invited to sit in and observe an ordination council. A few days later, I was in a room full of more than twenty men. In the middle of the room was the pastor who was to be ordained.
For nearly three hours they grilled him with questions about every single aspect of doctrine. They even spent an unusual amount of time questioning him about his theology of angels. At the very end of the time of questions and answers, one man asked the pastor being ordained about how he lives his life. He gave a brief answer, several in the room nodded in approval, and they were done.
That’s it. Three hours about his theology. Three minutes about his life.
I left that day wondering how many people could have sat in the middle of that room for three hours giving brilliant answers to all the questions being asked – regardless of what their life was like. I could not reconcile a group of people who cared so much about right theology, while caring comparatively little about right living. Since that day I’ve learned there are few who seem to care more about right living than right thinking. I'm sure some will disagree with me. But just take a moment to listen to others, read some blogs, peruse a few books and page through some Christian magazines. What do we see more of? We speak most of the things we care about the most.
There have been a handful of times when I have sat with people who want to know what I do. They ask questions like: What kind of husband and father are you? How do you practice generosity? What do you do to care for the poor? How do you pursue the heart of God in everyday life? How do you remain open with your life to others? What’s interesting is when I do have these conversations with people, they typically figure out what I really believe. And this reveals a great truth: What I say I believe matters very little compared with how I live. As the saying goes, talk is cheap.
The lyrics in the in the new song by The Fray titled “Love Don’t Die” say it all: “If there is one thing, that's true, It's not what I say, it's what I do.” It’s an echo of James, who wrote similar words nearly 2,000 years ago, “I will show you my faith by what I do” (James 2.18, my paraphrase).
Still, we focus our attention on belief. Just look around and you will see Christians grouping themselves under the banner of common theology. And, even worse, we draw lines and boundaries based on our particular beliefs as a way of revealing who is in and who is out. We engage in wars of words over theology. We throw our brothers and sisters out, and dismiss many simply because they have hold different theological convictions.
All this has caused me to wonder what could happen if instead of grouping ourselves around common theology we came together around common mission. What if our centering point was living selflessly, in imitation of Jesus, for the good of others? What if we did not draw boundaries but forged pathways marked by love, justice, mercy and compassion? What if we took all the energy we spend defending our particular beliefs and put that energy toward doing kingdom work in our world? What if we really cared about how we live in this world and understood that our lives will tell others all they need to know about what we believe?
If we were able to do this, it's likely the Church, and, most importantly, our world would be in a far better place. And, in the end, we just might learn that when we truly give ourselves over to living, we will understand what it truly means to believe.
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