In a couple of previous comments, John has mentioned “set theory” and how it applies to evangelism, etc.

Here is a good summary by Steve Collins. Give it a look and leave a comment if you want to discuss it further.

Part 1
Part 2

As the following graphic shows, thinking of our faith in terms of good and bad as well as right and wrong makes for some intriguing possibilities.

It’s possible to have wrong faith that’s bad; as well as a wrong faith that’s good; and right faith that’s bad; and of course, right faith that’s good.

What I think people are saying when they say, “it doesn’t matter what you believe as long as . . .” is that they are tired of seeing bad faith in action. Especially when it comes from those who claim to have the right faith. They are not impressed by Christians who hurl obscenities at women as they walk into abortion clinics, or Buddhist parents who kick their son out of the house when he tells them he has decided to become a Christian, or radical Muslims who are willing to kill in order to make a point.

What I hear them saying is, “I would rather be in a relationship with someone who has the wrong faith, but has a good attitude about it, than someone whose right faith isn’t accompanied by goodness.”

If that’s really what they’re getting at, then I have to agree. Although Id like to revise their statement to say: “What you believe is not nearly as important to me as is whether or not you are sincerely seeking the truth.” On a long enough timeline, the quality of our faith will eventually influence its content. Bad faith always leads to wrong faith, even when its starting point is right. Good faith, as I’ve described it in Part 2, will lead wrong faith continually closer to the Truth. That’s why it’s better to have wrong faith that’s good, than a right faith that’s bad. The more good faith we have, the more Truth we will find.

If the Truth we’re searching for were elusive, this might not be the case. Good faith pointed in the wrong direction can’t help us find truth that isn’t there or doesn’t want to be found. But if the gospel story is to be believed, then not only is the Truth out there, but the Truth we seek wants to be found. In fact, the Truth looking for us! If we have good faith, and if there really is Truth to be found, then good faith will lead us to it, or at the very least, it will put us in a place where the Truth can find us. As philosopher Peter Kreeft says: “An honest atheist in search of truth will find it; a dishonest Christian won’t.” Good faith leads to right faith; bad faith will only lead us away from it. If this is true, then as we think about the issue of clarifying and deepening our faith and helping others do the same, our first priority should be to make sure we are cultivating a good, honest, open, sincere faith that longs for a greater and deeper understanding of the Truth.

Churches wanting to reach people who say, “It doesn’t matter what you believe….” with the good news of Jesus Christ must become incubators of good faith. This will always be a challenge (Please don’t say it’s an impossibility!). A friend told me early on in my ministry: “Church people aren’t interested in the truth, they just want their present beliefs and convictions to be affirmed regardless of whether they are right or wrong.” And all of Israel’s prophets said, “Amen.”

I guess I’m an idealist. I believe it’s possible for a church to have some firm convictions about the absolute issues of life and at the same time be free to ask questions about those convictions, to nudge them, to test them, to give emerging generations the space to examine them on their own, without feeling coerced by the preceding generations to affirm them.

A church that hopes to gain a hearing from its neighbors is not a church that says, “We have all the answers, and we’re certain all our answers are right.” Rather, it’s a church that says, “This is a safe place to ask dangerous questions. This is a safe place to seek the truth. This is a safe place to practice good faith.”

In a culture where more and more people are regarding institutional Christianity with greater skepticism and disdain, the biggest obstacle impeding the spread of the gospel is not Atheism, Buddhism, Humanism, or even Harry Potterism. No, Christianity’s biggest obstacle is bad Christianity. It’s Christians with bad faith. (Thanks again to Brian McLaren for this line.) I don’t care how right our faith is, if it’s not accompanied by goodness, then ultimately it’s wrong.

If we want to see our neighbors become Christ-followers, we need to spend less time obsessing about right faith, and more time demonstrating good faith. We need to spend less energy trying to correct the wrong faith of others, and more energy affirming the good faith we see in them, believing that wherever good faith goes, right faith is sure to follow. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t share our beliefs and convictions with those with whom we disagree. It means we need to make sure our claims to be “right” are always nestled in good faith. Which also means that we must be willing to learn something from those we’re trying to teach.

By cultivating good faith in ourselves, our families, and our churches, we not only become better neighbors, but also better disciples, which hopefully means we will have a better chance of persuading our neighbors that the one we follow is the one to follow.

It seems appropriate to wrap this up with a proof-text:

If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.

If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing.

If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.

1 Corinthians 13:1-3 (The Message)

Part 1 . . . I want to torque your thinking a bit by suggesting that in the long run quality trumps content. In order for that last statement to make sense, I need to define what I mean by the “quality” of our faith.

Our faith can be right or wrong (content). It can also be good or bad (quality).

It’s easy enough to differentiate what’s good about faith from what’s bad. In a word or two: bad faith is closed and good faith is open.

In a paragraph or two: people exhibiting bad faith are usually afraid of questions, or at least afraid of the new truth questions might expose. Bad faith is based on the unquestioned authority of the church, the Bible, a preacher, or parents. Bad faith says, “I’m not sure why I believe what I believe, I just do. If it was good enough for mom, then it is good enough for me.”

People with good faith have a curious wonder about life and are unafraid of its big questions. They are consumed by a passion for seeking, finding, and exploring the truth, even if it means challenging the assumptions of conventional wisdom. They are courageous enough to explore what those with bad faith will not even talk about.

Bad faith often makes its hosts arrogant and unteachable. They refuse to change anything about their faith, as changing would be an admission of being wrong. They’d rather make up a ridiculous answer to a difficult question than say, “I don’t know.”

Those with good faith are usually humble and eager to learn. They realize they don’t have it all figured out and are comfortable enough with mystery to gladly say, “I don’t know. I’m not sure. I’m still searching.”

Several years ago, in Time Magazine, George Lucas explained the spiritual themes in Star Wars by saying:

I put the Force in the movie in order to awaken a certain kind of spirituality in young people-more a belief in God that a belief in any particular religious system. I wanted to make it so that young people would begin to ask questions about the mystery. Not having enough interest in the mysteries of life to ask the question, “Is there a God or is there not a God?”-this is for me the worst thing that can happen. I think you should have an opinion about that. Or you should be saying, “I’m looking. I’m very curious about this and am going to continue to look until I can find an answer, and if I can’t find an answer then I’ll die trying.”

We don’t have to agree with Lucas’ theology in order to appreciate his efforts to stir up good faith in those who watch his movies (Which, remember, is just about everybody on the planet!).

Ultimately, bad faith produces bad fruit. People with bad faith are often bitter, hyper-judgmental, and mean-spirited. They crucify those who expose the limits and contradictions of their faith.

Good faith produces good fruit. People with good faith exhibit love, joy, and peace. They inspire and encourage. They make people around them better.

As the following graphic shows, thinking of our faith in terms of good and bad as well as right and wrong makes for some intriguing possibilities.

This is where the fun starts. . .

Continue to part 3.

At a time when most spiritual conversations are charged with the electricity of suspicion, many of us are asking how we can lovingly tolerate the religious beliefs of our neighbors, while at the same time remaining true to ours. On one hand, we don’t want to be Christian Bin Ladens, believing our goal is to conquer the world for our God, no matter how many people we have to alienate, hurt, or destroy in the process. On the other hand, we don’t want to scrap the missionary thrust of our faith and act as if those who don’t know Jesus as Lord don’t need to. We want to be good neighbors, and whenever possible live at peace with those around us, but at the same time we want to be good disciples and remain faithful to the great commission. Can we do both? I believe so. What follows are some suggestions to help us pull it off.

First, as we engage in spiritual conversations with folks with whom we disagree, we must give them the benefit of the doubt. When someone says something we believe to be wrong, instead of immediately stamping the word heretic on his forehead and stomping off, or pronouncing him to be the evil spawn of Satan, we should withhold our judgment and keep listening. Even if they say something that sounds totally foolish, we should give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that in reality they are smarter than they sound-at least until they give us irrefutable evidence otherwise. I begin here for two reasons. First, for a people saved by grace, there is no other place to begin. Second, I’m trusting (hoping?) you will give me the benefit of the doubt as you consider what you’re about to read.

My thoughts here are based upon a couple of assumptions I have about faith. My first is that faith is not a choice. Everybody has faith. Don’t believe the propaganda of skeptics who would have you believe that faith is only for the weak-minded. Everyone, and I mean everyone, has put his or her faith in something. It takes just as much faith to be an atheist as it does to be a Christian. It takes just as much faith to believe that this world is purposeless, random, and therefore meaningless as it does to believe that this world is the creation of a purposeful God who has grand intentions for it.

I find it helpful to evaluate the faith we already have by breaking it down into two different categories. First, there is the content of our faith-what we believe. Second, is the quality of our faith-how we believe. (I owe this distinction to Brian McLaren whose thinking in the book Finding Faith has stimulated and influenced a great deal of what you’re reading here.)

When evaluating the content of our faith, the result can be one of two kinds of faith: right faith or wrong faith.

This statement reveals my second assumption about faith, which is that there are some things in this world that are true whether we believe them or not. This means that it’s possible for our faith to be right or wrong. Take the question of God’s existence as an example. He either exists or he doesn’t. Based upon our answer to the question: Do you believe in God? Our faith is either right or wrong. What about the identity of Jesus? Was he the Son of God as he claimed to be? Or was he a brilliant kook, a messianic pretender with a flair for public relations (at least up until the point he gets himself crucified) or was he an innocent teacher of wisdom who would be mortified to find out that his overzealous disciples started a world religion by exaggerating his legend? Again, depending on whom we believe Jesus to be, our faith will either be right or wrong.

Most, if not all of our discussions about faith typically focus on its content. We love to talk about what we believe and why. When we share our faith with those whose faith is of a different sort, what we’re usually doing is seeking to convince them that our faith is right and theirs is wrong and they need to change. To most evangelical Christians, especially those whose heritage is rooted in the Stone-Campbell Restoration movement, the content of our faith is very important. In fact, for most of us weaned on Restoration Movement rhetoric, making sure our faith is “right” is an irrepressible obsession.

Many of our neighbors, however, don’t necessarily believe that the content of a person’s faith is all that important. That’s why you’ve probably heard the following spiritual slogan reverberating throughout our culture: “It doesn’t really matter what you believe, as long as you are sincere.” In a culture desperately trying to be politically correct, making this statement, while at the same time smiling and gently nodding your head in the manner of a knowing Tibetan guru, is proof positive that you have reached the pinnacle of religious enlightenment. Or at least it was until September 11th.

On that day, when sincere hijackers, as a result of their religious convictions, started flying planes full of people into buildings full of people, this politically correct slogan, steeped in the virtue of tolerance, was judged and found to be wanting. Rather than do away with it altogether, the pundits have added another qualifier which makes this statement-and those who believe it-safer for us all. You’ll be glad to know that we’re still free to believe whatever we want as long as we’re sincere and as long as our beliefs don’t cause us to hurt other people. It doesn’t matter if you want to be a Christian, a Jew, a Buddhist, a Muslim, an Atheist, or a Muggle as long you are sincere about it and as long as you promise to leave the rest of us alone.

In other words, the content of our faith doesn’t matter. All that really matters is its quality. Overstated? You bet. Completely without merit? Not so fast. There may be a kernel of truth hiding somewhere in the hyperbole. What we believe matters, but it is not all that matters. The quality of our faith counts as well. So much so, that I want to torque your thinking a bit by suggesting that in the long run quality trumps content. In order for that last statement to make sense, I need to define what I mean by the “quality” of our faith.

I’ll get into that in the next post.

Continue to part 2.