#18 Something about Nouns and Verbs.

I have been thinking quite a bit lately about the interaction between belief and action.  I often say that in order to change a way you do something you need to change your beliefs.  So if you change the way you think about something it will change the way you act.  For instance, if you believe that all of creation is precious to God then maybe you would treat that creation differently based on that belief or assumption.  But if you hold the belief that God created the rest of the world for us, and in the end it is all going to be burned up or something, then you might treat the environment as something to consume.

But I have been wondering how do people actually change their beliefs.  Sometimes it takes a really persuasive argument, but in all actuality that is rare.  Most people don't change their beliefs because someone made a really valid and interesting point, but because of the relationship and integrity of the person who made that point.  It is in the doing of the relationship that beliefs are changed.  So maybe changing belief requires that you do something that is out of the norm.

Instead of arguing about the nouns of our faith we should be doing the verbs and let the nouns have meaning in light of the verbs (check out this HBX for more on that).  Indoctrination is the specialty of most religious movements.  But maybe we go about it all wrong.  I used to teach Confirmation at a pretty large affluent church.  This was always a really great experience because I love talking about our faith and laying out the various beliefs of the church.  I tend to take an approach of laying some various beliefs in front of the students and allowing them to wrestle with them.  Because I think you come to faith through wrestling with meaning not through being told what is the right way to believe.  I think I was doing it wrong though.  We spent almost the entire time talking and discussing the beliefs of the church and we spent almost no time actually doing these things.  We did a mission project, but we should be continual mission projects.  We should be always doing the verbs of the faith.  Go, preach, baptize, love, pray, give, clothe, visit, eat, etc.  These are the things that show what you actually believe.  These are the things that change what you actually believe.  These are the things that bring meaning to the nouns of the faith like Christology, Eucharist, Eschaton, etc.

Belief and action are wound together so tightly that they inform each other.  Belief doesn't always dictate our actions and actions don't always change beliefs.  But intentionally revising both based on the other seems like a great way to form your faith.  It is kind of an action reflection model, only with the awareness the sometimes it is a reflection action model.  Verbs and nouns inform each other.  They create meaning for each other.  They make more sense when placed together.  Also, don't forget about the power of the prepositional phrase and punctuation...