Setting the stage.
I grew up in the church. Sunday services, midweek programs, and countless committee meetings shaped my entire world. For years, I assumed this was the way how faith was lived: inside the walls of the institutional church, supported by the structures and traditions handed down to me. Ministry felt like maintaining that rhythm and keeping the machinery running smoothly.
The tension/realization.
But somewhere along the way, I began to notice cracks in the model. Too much of my energy was spent reinforcing what insiders already believed, while those outside our doors remained untouched and unseen. The more I focused on “keeping the faithful faithful,” the less room there seemed to be for those who didn’t yet believe but were longing for connection. The institutional church was doing what it had always done, but I was beginning to sense that the Spirit was pressing me to see something more.
The turning point.
That vision came into focus about halfway through my pastoral career. In 2003, I resigned from the safety of an institutional congregation and in July 2004 I planted the London Freedom Church. Our heartbeat was simple: belonging before believing. It wasn’t about tearing down the church but about opening space for people to discover faith through relationship, community, and authenticity. The pandemic eventually forced us to close in 2020, but the lesson remained with me: belonging is the doorway through which believing can flourish.
Belonging Before Believing.
Belonging before believing isn’t just a clever phrase—it’s the pattern we see in Jesus himself. He invited fishermen, tax collectors, and skeptics to walk with him long before they understood who he was. Their transformation came through relationship, not prerequisites.
For too long, the church has often reversed that order—requiring belief before belonging. But in a culture longing for connection and authenticity, I am convinced we need to recover the way of Jesus. The gospel is good news that creates a community where people are welcomed as they are, and where belief grows naturally in the soil of shared life.
This is the journey I’m still on, and the vision behind what I’m writing here. My hope is to plant seeds of a new kind of community—one that resists the machinery of the institution, yet remains deeply rooted in the story of God. A place where generations gather around the table, learning to belong to one another before we try to persuade one another.
That’s what I mean by belonging before believing. And maybe, just maybe, that’s how faith will take root again in our time.
Thanks for reading. If this resonates with you, I’d love to hear your thoughts—feel free to leave a comment or share this with someone who might be asking the same questions.