Seekers and Believers

Over the last little while, I've been continually running into communications about church things that use the language of seekers and believers to distinguish two apparently different and separate groups of people.

To be sure, I've heard this language for ages. But the more I think about it, the more I just don't get it. As I mentioned to a friend the other evening, to use these terms in this way seems to demand that we consider that seekers don't believe and, even more significantly, that believers don't seek. We're probably all used to the first inference, and can probably find reasonable grounds to justify it on some basis, but the second is really scary.

There have been many times when I've wondered if we haven't somehow promoted the idea that believing in Jesus becomes a completed task at some point — after a conversion experience, some catechesis and baptism, perhaps. After that the believer no longer has to seek after God, no longer has to work at making her faith her own, no longer has any need to deepen the relationship. That at least would make some sense out of why so many longtime Christians of my past acquaintance seemed so dis-interested in being challenged in their beliefs or going deeper in their knowledge of God.

I've come to the belief that we are profoundly shaped by the language we use habitually. If that's true, then it's quite possible that long term use of concepts of seekers and believers in the sense I started this post with will eventually lead us to stop seeking after God. Maybe the real problem with "churchy" language isn't that the unchurched don't understand it. Maybe the real problem is that it shapes the churched into something far less than what God intends.

Thank God that at least once in awhile one encounters some different use of language in our churches — language like that in this morning's prayer, acknowledging that we are all still need to seek earnestly after God. And thank God for reminders that deciding to follow Jesus is never just a one time thing, but that it really requires a fresh decision every day, maybe even every minute — in this particular thing that lies before me, whom will I follow? Jesus, or someone else?