Christianity at its core is a religion of Conversion.
The word conversion, as most of my readers already know, comes from the Latin conversio which means to turn, or a
turning, especially a religious or moral turn of direction. While this can begin with a significant event
in a person’s life, such as Saul who became Paul on the road to Damascus, it
most fully refers to an on-going process.
I would argue that conversion is the distinguishing characteristic of
Christianity and of the life of a disciple of Jesus.
Of course, we Episcopalians are not often the Damascus
Road kind of Christians. Most of us prefer to think about ourselves more like Barnabas;
quietly faithful folks who are kind and want to help and encourage others. However, we do know that Christianity does
begin with conversion. Even when we
baptize an infant, we believe that this child will have to come to a moment when
she or he turns to their faith, claims it for themselves, and must take on what
was promised for them in Baptism.
Over the years, I have come to understand that
Episcopalians do not have a very clear understanding of conversion and what the
process involves. I believe it is one of
the primary tasks of clergy to help our people understand conversion and what
is being formed in us through this process.
The place to start is with is the realization that
Christianity involves more than accepting Jesus as Savior and Lord and
certainly more than becoming a member of the Church. What we fail to understand
is that Christianity actually includes three conversions. What do I mean by
this? Let me lay out what I understand these three conversions to be.
Turning to
Christ
There is, of course, a conversion to Christ – to
embrace him as our Savior and to consciously choose to follow him as his
disciple. The Episcopal Church’s
official definition of evangelism communicates this. “Evangelism
is to present Jesus Christ in the Power of the Holy Spirit so that men and
women are led to accept him as savior and follow him in the fellowship of his
Church.”
All of the Church’s official and historical
formularies, whether we refer to the Creeds or the 39 Articles or the Baptismal
Covenant, affirm this definition. In the
Risen Christ we find both a Savior who by his death and resurrection has given
us a new life and a Lord who calls us to a new way of living. Dean Urban Holmes rightfully caught the
fullness of this in his extremely important book Turning to Christ.
In North America, Evangelicals often put most emphasis
on the first part of this, “being saved.”
Some even say that this being saved is the main thing because it
guarantees us eternal life. They even
equate salvation with eternal life.
Jesus and his early followers, however, called people to discipleship;
following after Jesus in a disciplined and intentional way. “Come and follow me” was both Jesus’
invitation and that of the early Church.
Making accepting Christ to be only about going to heaven is a serious
theological fault and one that lessens the fullness of Salvation which begins
when we do turn to Jesus.
Turning to
the Church
For Christians, there is also a necessary conversion
to the Church. In the New Testament, the
writers make no distinction between being in Christ and being a member of his
body the Church. Of course, following
the establishment of Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire
and the idea of Christendom, we see the sad development that people can be
members of the Church, but not really followers of the Christ. In our time, it is safe to say that such “nominal
Christianity” is a major obstacle to non-Christians experiencing the full reality
of real disciples who have a converted life.
This artificial creation of “membership” should not
deflect us from the call to conversion to the Church. Christianity is a communal religion. It is meant to be lived in a meaningful and
on-going accountable set of relationships with other disciples. “You are the body of Christ” Paul affirmed,
“and individual members of it.” The
organic image of the body of Christ that Paul uses for the Church is a powerful
expression of life lived in mutual love with others. When one suffers, then we all suffer. If one rejoices, we all rejoice. It is certainly true that much of Church and
congregational life that we see today falls far from this ideal, but that does
not negate the reality of what the Church is called to be. One cannot grow beyond a certain point in the
Christian faith without this conversion.
And this conversion is not to an “Idealized Church,”
but to a local congregation of real human beings. Yes, this means sinners with all our
imperfections. Yet, it is also true that
it is in living into this calling to community that our path of holiness of
life and our vocation to the world is grounded.
Bonhoeffer’s book Life in
Community about the underground seminary that he led before his arrest by
the Nazi’s is a testimony to the power of such a life. There are many other examples of rediscovered
community as a means of revival throughout the history of Christianity. One need only think of Benedict or Francis to
find how community brought a revival of the Christian experience.
One of the encouraging signs of our age can be found
among a movement of new church plants that take on this more organic calling of
community. Sometimes they take on names
like “the Abby” or use “fellowship” or “Community” to express something deeper
than the word “Church.” For these planters, Church has come to mean much that
falls short of this conversion. Truthfully, many of our members see Church as
more like a club of like-minded individuals.
The Church is not such an organization.
It is a called community.
Turning to
Mission
Third, there is also a conversion to Christ’s Mission
to our world. Jesus told his disciples
that “as the Father has sent me into the world, so I send you into the world.” But
how did the Father send the son?
God sent him to Love the world, to give his life for
the world, to bring hope to the broken, lost, hurting and alienated of this
world and to work as our Baptismal Covenant says, “For the dignity of every
human being.”
I have known many in the Church over the years who
genuinely seem to know Jesus and who are faithful Church members, but who are
stunted in their spiritual growth because they fail to understand this third
conversion. Many Church members see acts
of charity or participation in a ministry that touches hurting people as some
sort of optional activity that some members might choose to take on. Is this not what the word “outreach” often
means? Yet, any reading of the New Testament makes it clear that to turn to
Christ means to take up his work.
And this work also includes working to have our world
more in alignment with God’s Kingdom.
This is a Kingdom and Reign of justice and peace. The early Christians stepped over every
racial, ethnic, and cultural barrier to make Christ known. Converts, who were slaves, women, outcast,
and even some who were from the upper classes, lived, loved, and even died with
one another. It is true that the “blood
of the martyrs were the seeds of the Church”, but it is also true that many saw
how these Christians “loved one another” as a testimony to the transformative
power of God to change lives – to convert the hearts of men and women.
Let me end this piece with a few observations that
flow from what I have said about the converted life.
First, we often see people who have experienced one of
these conversions, but not all three. For
example, some Evangelicals are good at proclaiming the conversion to Christ,
but often take a very casual view of the Church, and almost no interest in the
work of Christ’s mission among the poor and needy.
There are also those who deeply love the Church, its
liturgy and worship, the beauty of classical music, and even it organization
and structures, but whom at the same time “know not Christ.”
In our current setting, we must also acknowledge that
there are many in the Episcopal Church among our Progressive leadership who are
sacrificially dedicated to Christ’s Mission in the world, but who hold a kind
of disdain for the local Church, and who forget whose mission this is, whose
reign we proclaim, and for whom we do this work.
The answer then is not to criticize those who hold
such positions for after all they are partially right, but to fully embrace
that Christianity must involve a three-fold conversion for the fullness of this
new life to live in us. All of us
should seek a fuller turning to Christ, to his Church, and to his mission to
this broken and hurting world?
