What we believe is important. This is celebrated in evangelical circles with absolute ideas. However, there is more than just the what of faith. There is also a how of faith and a whatfor of faith. I use these three terms to briefly define the situation.
Where should this website go from here? I asked this question here on this website and also on the YouTube channel. I am in the process of determining where I stand. Where do I come from, where am I going? In between: Where do I stand? I have already created a video about this on YouTube.
What, how and whatfor
Three aspects of faith
An assessment of where you stand helps you to evaluate the path you have taken so far. When I started this website in 2014, I was simply trying to capture the many conversations I still have today, with the hope that these ideas and insights would help others. In over 10 years, the website has steadily expanded and there is now a wide range of topics and several hundred articles. With this diversity, I think it is important to focus better today.
Evaluation is not just about individual theological questions. It is also about how we want to shape our faith. Such a question about character is not a simple question about what I may and may not do, as if it were merely a guideline. It goes much deeper and much wider. It is essentially about how you want to organize your life and your faith. You can think about that.
Three terms seem helpful to me. These are the three questions:
- What do I believe
- How do I believe
- Whatfor do I believe.
These questions do not define the details, but ask about the direction. In which direction do you want to develop? What should help, what is perhaps not helpful? Such general questions serve the purpose of self-reflection. This can be important for individuals, but also for a community. Personally, I could ask what my faith should feel like, what I could do with it in everyday life. In a community, it can be about what kind of community you want to be, which people you want to have an open door for and what you could be as a community for people inside and outside.
In general, questions about what faith actually is, or whether I am just imagining it, could also be considered. As threatening as this question is for some people, it is just as important for others. These are existential questions that should have a place in a lively community. They also deserve attention in the expression of personal faith.
What we believe
One can be tempted, especially in evangelical circles, to define one’s faith in one’s knowledge. It is then about doctrine, about knowledge and about believing the “right” thing. What we believe are doctrines, ideas, theologies. These are things that go into your head, but what happens to them? Should we get stuck in doctrines and ideas? I sometimes observe that a fixation on the Bible all too easily leads people to set themselves apart from others, to become rigid in their views and not infrequently to be opinionated about others. I don’t think that makes much sense. That’s why there are two more terms.
How we believe
A healthy doctrine is not unimportant, but it is only an aid to proving oneself in this life. How we believe can make this possible or prevent it. How we believe has something to do with form. People who were once oppressed by restrictive teachings, threatening messages and the like find it very difficult to let go of them. How we believe has to do with what we believe on the one hand, but also asks about the culture in which this belief is lived. The question “How?” describes the way in which we give shape to our lives and this faith.
When the subculture of one’s own congregation no longer seems viable, people leave the community or the church. It is too short-sighted to immediately smell “unbelief” and use this unbelief to exclude the “apostates”. Unfortunately, this happens again and again. Condemning or denouncing others is a refusal to engage in debate.
Are there no better options?
Whatfor we believe
The third term relates to “Whatfor do we believe?” This has to do with the impact and outlook of what we believe in. Faith has a use in this world, even if many things do not seem tangible and indeed are not tangible today. What we believe for is not just to do with the fact that we should be kind to one another. There’s nothing wrong with that, but many people who don’t believe are also kind to each other. It is not a special characteristic, a special effect that only exists among Christians or believers. But what can I recognize as “Christian” and cultivate as an “identity”?
One can think of the concept of confidence that can develop on the basis of the Bible. Confidence is in the here and now, but with one eye on the horizon. This confidence can give you strength and endurance. Knowledge of the Bible can help us see the world in a different light. What we believe in is an orientation of expectation. It is the certainty or the motivation with which we act in the present.
The refocusing
Since the beginning, there have been many contributions around the question “What we believe”. In it, I address topics that shape faith. It’s about doctrinal concepts and the like. To this day, these are the articles that are read the most. Logical, because that is how evangelical thinking is shaped. People want to be “biblical” and live “true to the Bible”. Therefore, when you begin to question customs, doctrines and an understanding of faith, you first open the Bible. They are looking for answers there. That’s what the articles are written for.
One could conclude from this that I am interested in «correct teachings». However, this is not true. Teaching is important, but teaching is not a goal. That’s never been the case for me. It is also particularly not about “right” and “wrong”, as if the distinction were the core of things. It isn’t. Teaching is merely an aid to a goal. Just like a map helps you to find your way around the landscape.
What I believe and the understanding I build up is actually important. However, it is not about understanding, but about what understanding contributes to life and faith. In other words, it’s about how the message proves itself in my life and in this world. I have to set off with a map in my hand, so to speak. Only then can the card prove its worth.
If I take a closer look, I have to admit that my life can’t just be about me. Here is the reformulation for the next stage: Can I live my life in such a way that it can bear fruit for the glory of God? The what, how and why contribute to the growth of this fruit.
Bear fruit for the glory of God? This is not pious waffle, but a language to extract the essentials. I can also, perfectly imperfectly, merely pose it as a question about what is being discussed. And if it needs other words, another language, so that it can continue to grow in your life today, then it needs such new words. Perhaps this is then a deconstruction that one day dares to reconstruct with such new words. However, it can never remain just a question or a thought. Faith has an urge to become visible in the world. Being able to believe is human. Consciously shaping faith can be a spiritual decision. How and why I believe then expands what I believe.
What I believe is therefore important, but it has a subordinate, serving significance. As an aid to a better understanding of life and faith, it can help me to organize my thoughts. That is important and should not be underestimated. However, what I believe is very imperfect when viewed in isolation. It is essential, but it is not a finished product. There is more.
Today I want to set my focus clearly. Today, I don’t see “what I believe” as decisive, but rather “how and why I believe”. This gives the knowledge a direction. This asks how the ideas prove themselves in the real world. Difficult and uncomfortable questions should and can be asked, because the how and why are shaped from the debate.
Where are you in your life? Have you ever dared to reassess your position and refocus?