Faith: An Action Verb or a Passive Noun?

Over these last few weeks I’ve been preaching from the Letter of James. The author of this epistle is concerned about the people of his community and what it means for them to live as people of The Message, as followers of Christ. Mostly he is concerned that they don’t seem to realize that their faith is an action verb, not a passive noun. They seem to want to just listen and nod, smiling benignly at the sound of God’s Word; James urges them to put God’s Word into action.

And last week I went to hear another James: Jim Wallis, founder of Sojourners (sojo.net). He declared that pastors these days aren’t asking too much of their congregations, in fact, he says that we’re asking too little. So what do you think?