Belong Before Believe over Believe before Belong

At Sandy Ridge, we believe a healthy church is a place where seekers, skeptics, whoever can find this a safe place to ask questions, work out what they really believe as they seek to know Truth. This may take weeks, months, or years. For many people in our culture will want to join a community before affirming the beliefs of that faith community and through their involvement in that community that is what God uses to transforms their whole lives to Jesus. This is in contrast that some churches set up fences that unless a person can subscribe to a certain beliefs, they are not welcomed.

Practically speaking, belonging at Sandy Ridge means one can participate in a community group, serve in several capacities, depending on the purpose go on short-term missions trips while still working out what they really believe. At the same time, through relationships and messages they will be challenged to give themselves fully and without hesitation to Jesus, to embrace His terms. We see this modeled by the life of Jesus where He invited thousands of people into the community of Jesus and once they joined the community, He challenged them to not just be part of the community but to commit themselves to Him (see John 6:26-29, 43, 53, 66).

So creating a sense of belonging is important, but at some point to become a child of God one has to believe. So we don’t downplay belief at all for it is essential yet by having this practice in our philosophy of ministry we want to love and welcome people who are not like us in beliefs or lifestyles into the broad community of Sandy Ridge.