What is a deepening of faith?

I once worked for a Reformation church. Here, someone in a respectable position described to me, almost plaintively, that some people were always striving to deepen their faith. That alienated him, because he couldn’t imagine anything. Churchgoers who only go to church out of tradition, who perhaps praise a few good social aspects there but have no connection to faith themselves, are sometimes somewhat helpless in the face of expressions such as “deepening faith”. In free churches, however, this is a good basic tone. This is because it is preceded by a personal reference to faith. Logically, they are also more likely to take care of it there.

In free churches, people are involved because it is precisely this personal connection that is important. A “deepening of faith” is then a matter of course. One should take care of one’s own faith, and cultivate faith as one cultivates one’s own health. A deepening of faith is then part of this culture of faith. Deepening and care belong together. That’s how I’ve always understood it myself. Faith and biblical content interest me, inspire me and I enjoy dealing with them. They help me to find a positive direction in my life. The good news of God’s grace, combined with a clear goal, helps me to live my life gratefully and regularly realign it.

The beginning: More of the same

The direction of the deepening seems obvious at first. In a nutshell, it’s about “more of the same”. You deepen where you have already landed. This is also where you realize what you have dealt with the most up to this point. If, for example, Christian ideologies and subcultures are in the foreground, then the deepening is probably precisely in these areas. It does not automatically mean that you broaden your horizons, nor that you examine the biblical foundations of your own assumptions. It’s navel-gazing. The temptation to do so is particularly great and no one is immune to it. It seems to be a human reaction to first seek confirmation for one’s own assumptions. The closer the community, the narrower the possibilities for deepening.

The self-image: Biblical or traditional?

More and more of the same is particularly influential in evangelical circles because a strong black-and-white mindset prevails, in which the Bible is placed above all else, but practice testifies to the fact that people primarily adhere to ideologies (“rigid guiding principles”). This manifests itself in moralizing demands for a certain lifestyle, for pronounced opinions about what is right and what is wrong. There are also doctrinal hobbyhorses, such as things like “hell”, “free will”, “immortal soul” and the like, which absolutely have to be believed as “biblical” if you want to believe “correctly”.

Those who propagate such things have never examined the Bible for them, but are part of a certain tradition. Why? These terms are not mentioned or explained in the Bible. Moreover, they were never taught by the prophets, Jesus or the apostles. They were often written centuries after the New Testament was completed. It would be correct to confess that one “adheres to traditional ideas”. This has nothing to do with “biblical”. This distinction is not about judging the respective statements, but about realistically assessing yourself and your background. Everyone is allowed to believe what they want for all I care, but it helps in conversation if you use appropriate labels for your own assumptions.

Here is my hypothesis:

“The deepening of the evangelical self-image must only take place within one’s own four walls.”

The emphasis is therefore on “deepening”, “being allowed” and “your own four walls”. The image of deepening is that you grow more deeply into your own tradition. However, many do not realize this and experience it as a “deepening of faith”. It is often just confirmation of what has been learned so far. When you are at the very beginning, all learning is a great wealth. This should definitely be recognized. It doesn’t matter which tradition you grow up in. You can learn something everywhere. When you learn that something is “biblical”, this is initially part of what you have learned. This has still not been tested.

A new self-image

What you believe and why you believe something is learned. Some come from very personal life situations, sometimes directly from traumatic experiences. Everyone has a certain character. For me, it was the search for a reliable God that shaped my orientation. For someone else, it might be something else. Once I found it, I naturally delved deeper into it. The deepening of faith took place in the direction in which I had my questions. The self-image and understanding of faith grew from these insights. However, the growth only lasted until I reached the limits of the respective understanding, the respective teaching.

Once I reached the limits of doctrinal understanding, the following happened: I faced a headwind and some encouraged me to get back on track and stay within the accepted ideas of the community. However, I had exposed some of these ideas as ideology and tradition and was more interested in what else was mentioned in the Bible on topics that were important to me. I would like to see an open-ended exchange. The desire to think outside the box wasn’t always accepted with gratitude. I realized that standing in a certain tradition can cloud the view for a broader horizon.

A new self-image was needed. I was encouraged to do this by the Bible itself, which I had never encountered anywhere as narrow or restrictive. How could I deepen my faith without falling into the trap of self-sufficiency and without being confined to the four walls of the doctrinal building of my faith community? I realized that sincerity does not protect against mistakes. That’s why a different understanding was needed to keep things going.

A new way of looking at things

A new self-understanding, and thus a true deepening of faith, does not come through more of the same, but precisely through something different. The view must become broader in order to have a deeper impact. I received a deepening through a new way of looking at my concerns. Of course, this included a better understanding of myself, but also something else. This was the view that all real life is encounter (Martin Buber, in “I and Thou”). I began to understand all the themes of the Bible, the concern of Scripture, from the concern of the encounter.

I started to formulate my understanding of the Bible, my questions and possible answers from the perspective of the encounter. I now understand that a deepening of faith can only take place through encounters. In doing so, I recognize that God will one day be “all in all” (1 Corinthians 15:28), which can be interpreted as an encounter. He will not be “something in a few”, but “all in all”, which points to a special quality of this encounter. That is the direction. This gave many Bible words a common, clear direction.

What about a deepening of faith? How does that work? The understanding, the heart, must become wide. This is the only way to achieve a deepening. Those who think narrowly must become broad. Paul tells the Corinthians, for example, “Become broad!” (2 Corinthians 6:13).

“Our mouth is open to you, O Corinthians; our heart is enlarged. You are not narrowed within us, but you are narrowed within yourselves. But to the same retribution (I speak as to children) you also become broad.”
2Cor 6:11-13

Those who become broad in heart deepen their faith. Paul’s concern is to contribute things for “furtherance and joy in the faith” (Phil 1:25). A deepening of faith has to do with this. More joy is part of it. If there is a lack of joy, support falls by the wayside, as does the strengthening of faith.

Nowhere in the Bible does one read about a “deepening of faith”. There you are more likely to read things like this:

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.”
Rom 15:13 Elberfelder

A deepening of faith, if you like, is not measured by more knowledge, but by joy and peace in faith as well as a concrete expectation. A deepening of faith therefore has more to do with “growing up” than with special knowledge (cf. Eph 4:11-14). You could also say: “What should increased Bible study lead to? What should we pay attention to as fruit?” This would then be an indicator for the deepening of faith. It is therefore not about a feeling, not about specific insights, not about a checklist of achievements, but about joy and peace, as well as a confident outlook. We should become broad in heart and mind in order to be able to go deep. This does not manifest itself in know-it-all attitude, arrogance and isolation, but in joy, peace and perspective.