I have a confession to make. I spend too much time obsessing about having the correct beliefs when it comes to, well, pretty much everything. Unfortunately, even “belief in God” and getting people to “believe in God” is an unhealthy obsession. Conventional Christian thought would say that the obsession with getting people to believe in Jesus is a good thing — because believing in Jesus is the way to be saved (and I’ll resist unpacking the word “saved”). However (you probably saw this coming) I’m going to question if our Christian obsession about getting people to “believe” is a good way to share Jesus with people. It’s the word “believe.” In western culture, we associate belief with “right belief” or “wrong belief,” “true” or “false,” historically accurate or inaccurate. It’s one or the other, it’s black or white. Believe in Jesus — it’s like asking someone to become a Republican or a Democrat, but even bigger. It’s a huge belief commitment and a huge mental leap especially for someone that’s not raised as a Christian. For a lot of people that do not know the variety of doctrinal differences and opinions on Biblical interpretation it means that you have to believe in talking snakes, God-ordained genocide, 6-24 hour days of creation, the death penalty, and numerous other NON-essential doctrines that they’ve heard about. That’s what can happen when we focus on “you just have to believe” lingo. It comes across as making following Jesus a black or white decision — whether it's true or it's not true — either you believe this Bible stuff or you don't. With a focus on “just believe” it also can lead people to stress and worry when you have doubts and questions about God. I used to stress about this. I would literally have thoughts like “Argh I just have to BELIEVE HARDER — I want to be saved and I don’t want to go to hell — aargh!!!” Evangelism that is all about getting people to believe the right things can easily create a “try harder” way of doing faith (I need to be more certain of my beliefs — argh!) and a “you’re in our you're out” church culture (if you don’t have the right beliefs, you’re out!).
Instead of focusing so much on “belief” I advocate for using a different word — follow. Jesus asked his disciples to follow him — he didn't walk up and say “believe in me." Jesus said "follow me." Let's go for a walk. Following someone involves going on a journey with them and building a relationship. It’s not a transactional decision. To follow someone is to partake in an ongoing commitment that involves a growing level of trust. Believing something especially in our culture can be more like “yep, I believe that” and then out of sight out of mind. It’s like believing Paris is in France — it’s trivial knowledge that is just stored in the back of your brain. When someone is told that being a Christian is about following Jesus, it’s inviting them on a journey, and into a relationship.
God is love — love is a relationship — and a relationship with anyone, including God isn’t a one-time transaction. Just like your relationships with your loved ones, you don’t want them to just “believe” that you exist and you are their brother, sister, mom, dad or whatever relationship you are to them. You want them to journey with you. In our culture the word “believe” is a word with baggage. If we want people to have their lives changed by believing in Jesus, let’s invite them on a journey.
P.S. The Greek word that we translate to “believe” is pisteuĊ — which is definitely an unquestionably solid translation. I'm not arguing this. I believe that to follow Jesus you must eventually believe in Jesus and put your trust in him. I simply want to create the right context for what belief actually is.
