Words matter. They are the only way we can accurately communicate what we mean. So, what does the expression, 'Coming to faith', mean? Where has it come from, and is it helpful?
Scour the Bible text, and you will find it totally absent. The verbs, 'to believe' or to 'put faith in', abound. The noun 'faith' (the trust believers have put in Jesus), or 'the faith' (as a synonym for the gospel of Christ), are in the New Testament. But there is no 'coming to faith' anywhere in the Bible.
The expression may roll off the tongue, and it is certainly culturally inoffensive; but it is not a Biblical description of evangelism or conversion. It suggests a passive journey, much as a rail passenger is transported to a destination. By contrast, believing in Jesus requires the active choice to repent and receive Him, sometimes in the face of opposition.
'Coming' presumes a process. True faith is formed as the Holy Spirit stirs repentance in those who hear the Word of God, and that may take time. But do we encourage unbelievers to feel they belong to the church and assume that they are 'getting there', because they adopt Christian practices, yet without knowing Christ?
And then there's 'faith'. The concept of faith is not specifically Christian. It can refer to many 'faith systems', be they religious or philosophical, or even the way we run our everyday lives. Everybody makes what they believe are the best decisions. We demonstrate faith when we get married, decide on a holiday, choose a school for our children, or agree a place to live.
Faith is not a static position that we come to. It is an active choice to trust ourselves to someone or something. The decision may be almost immediate or take a long time to understand what is involved. But the issue is: where is our faith directed; in whom do we place our trust?
And what about Jesus? Why does this phrase, about the most important decision of our lives, leave Him out of the picture? He never said, 'Come to faith'; He said 'Come to Me'. So why do we prefer the culturally inoffensive expression? Is it because we are too embarrassed to use the Name of Jesus in our normal conversation, and are unpractised in doing so?
Some may push back, "Come off it, that is just semantics ... we all know what we are talking about, stop nitpicking!" Well, if we do know, why don't we say it as it is? We are surrounded by an estimated 97% of the population who do not know Jesus. If we are not direct in speaking about 'trusting Jesus' to other Christians, how will we ever be ready to speak to the unbelievers around us? They urgently need to put their trust in Jesus as Saviour before they meet Him as Judge.
Although some of the Apostle Paul's teaching was in synagogues and lecture halls, much of the recorded evangelism in the New Testament was in the market place, in palaces, in homes and in prisons. Of course, it is good for unbelievers to come to church and hear the gospel, but we meet most unbelievers outside of any church. That is where our normal conversation should include Jesus. In Paul's day and ours - each listener must decide to trust in Jesus, or drift away from salvation.
Why is 'coming' to faith' a comfortable expression today? Well, no crisis of conversion is expected; there is no urgency to take the gospel to the majority in our communities. Surely, good teaching inside the church is sufficient to be 'faithful to the gospel', ignoring the myriads outside. No urgent prayer is needed, no training in evangelism is planned. There is no personal longing that lost souls might be saved through believing the gospel.
But that is not how the apostles worked and prayed; that is not how the Wesleys, Whitfields, Spurgeons and Booths of history stirred the world; nor the Billy Grahams of yesterday. Neither is it how the persecuted church grows today.
Let us be clear-thinking and clear-speaking, like BeaconLight partners in Malawi, Malaysia, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal and Nigeria. Let us keep our focus on Jesus - speaking clearly about Him to each other, and to the unbelievers we meet.
Our mission is to present the crucified and resurrected Jesus before a dying world ... so that unbelievers might repent and be forgiven.
It is active, intentional, and often painful and self-sacrificial hard work. Jesus is our example.
Let us get used to speaking His Name to each other, and then call on others to choose to come to Jesus and be saved.