In Search of Kingdom Living

(these are notes based on Prof Gordon T. Smith’s – lecture 1) 

Most people have language of conversion that DOES NOT speak meaningfully for themselves. Instead, this language of conversion is rather based on revivalism. This language has, in the end, not served us well. For the following reasons.

1. Conversion and Salvation

• Revivalism used the language to make conversion and salvation is the same
• Equating the two – the failure to maintain a distinction
• These two words have two different actors. Actor in Salvation is God, only He can save. Actor in conversion is human. Thus, unequivocally Calvinist and Arminianist. ‘working out your faith with fear and trembling’ and ‘looking towards the day of my salvation’.
• Revivalist heritage tend to use ’saved’ in past tense, what I have done. It push 2 things: 1) God’s initiative and our response, 2) God’s salvation is much bigger than our conversion

2. The Emphasis on Human Volition

• Revivalist tradition is to lay everything on way in which we speak. Especially impactful through Billy Graham org and Campus Crusade.
• So conversion is a matter of making a decision – ie. how many acts of volition were made - act of volition is fundamental choice.
• How are we transformed? Are we transformed by the surrendering of our will? No, we are transformed by the renewing of our minds. But we also (Rom 12:1) surrender our bodies as living sacrifices but not as both beginning and end
• What’s the point in your preaching/teaching ministry? The text is not preached for the renewal of heart/mind, but on the exercise on human volition – which isn’t the end all of human volition
• This is a faulty understanding of the significance of human volition – one dimensional. Which leads to a denigration of intellect of the mind and the suspect of emotion or incidental
• Emphasis on human volition captured one thing right: it asks, who will you serve. We have an understanding that a strong will is against the will of God. We live in a religious culture that values compliance = submission. For instance, I am called to be subject to God, subject to laws, etc. But I am not a compliant person, my will should not be broken. Rather, I should be submissive, not compliant.

3. Conversion is Punctiliar

• Conversion is singular, simple and momentary. Conversions can be dated and recorded (measurable). Assumes this happens when a person prays a particular prayer (sinner’s prayer – acknowledgement, confession, etc.)
• However: the complexity of religious experience and of the actual conversion experience of most if not all
• Used to be the case that NT recounts 2 different conversions: Paul (punctiliar) and 12 disciples (process). Was Paul’s conversion punctiliar? How long did it take for Paul’s conversion? At the very least, it happened over 3 days. It depends of course on how you define conversion.
• This is still wrapped up with the understanding that conversion should be the end result. We must confess that conversions cannot be counted, too complex. What can be counted are baptisms

4. Ambivalence about the Intellect (if not actually anti-intellectual)

• Speaking about a movement that is about 200 years old, primary influence is from Charles Finney. If we bracket out Charles Finney, we see early revivalism through John Wesley and John Edwards who were intellectuals
• The scandal of the Evangelical mind – devoted scholar an oxymoron?
• The sentimentalizing of faith and worship – lack of integration of heart and mind
• If our preaching is considered too scholarly, we should not dumb it down because we must still build the renewing of the mind
• Consider the genius of Charles Wesley’s hymns, the marriage of great music and great theology
• Emotion becomes a tool to foster a particular outcome
• Urgent need: evangelism that is characterized by intellectual honesty. Don’t downplay what we don’t understand. Ie. the problem of evil – we want to be unambiguous about it, explaining away war, death, etc. We should long for hymns that address the ambiguity of life.
• Some have responded to revivalism by going hard with evidence (Josh McDowell), but evidence and intellectualism has never converted anyone. Only an encounter with Jesus has changed people
• Evangelism that speaks of the full scope of redemptive history and anchors the proclamation of the Christ in the creedal faith of the church. In a post-Christian secular environment, this will mean that coming to faith may well take some time

5. Conversion is an individual experience (between you and God)

• Religious experience as an individual, subjective and personal transaction has failed to appreciate the communal character of conversion, and the plan in the cosmos
• The problem is that if a person can be saved without a reference to community/creation, then why should they be involved with community/creation. You will not grow up in your salvation alone - maturity, transformation are all part of the communal process

6. Ambivalent about if not actually anti-sacramental

• An emphasis on inner, subjective, experience – meant an ambivalence about the acramental action of the church. Baptism for many is option and secondary to conversion. Baptism as a witness to one’s conversion rather than as integral to what it means to come to faith (contrast Acts 2:38, for example). Peter says ‘repent and be baptized’ for the forgiveness of sins. NT comes so close that it links baptism and conversion, it’s not optional, and not merely a matter of obedience

7. Conversion is easy and painless and certainly not costly

• New faith in Christ not viewed as a costly decision – contrast the language of the NT with the ’sell everything’ or ‘they left everything’. Is this faithful to the message of the NT? Some are called to give up everything – rather, it will cost you everything you have – maybe not money, but family, job, etc.
• Until you understand costliness of discipleship, maybe shouldn’t pick up the cross. Jesus says simultaneously that the cross is tough, but Jesus’ yoke is easy, perhaps the cross is easy as it forms to the contours of your back
• Give people time to count the cost, then stop using the word ‘disciple’ as a verb (I will disciple you), should treat it as a noun (are you a disciple) – a disciple were first called Christian at Antioch. If you’re not a disciple, then you’re not a Christian
• The minimalism that is oriented towards the after-life rather than transformation in this life

8. Evangelism is a technique

• A language that resulted in a formulaic approach to evangelism, rather than practices that spoke of human participation in a process that honors the rhythms of the Spirit’s work
• Concern that an evangelist is a user of technique with a good point of salesmanship
• No one should say that one person led him to Christ, one person waters, plants, etc. God is the farmer. There are people who play crucial parts but never knew they did

9. God has no grandchildren

• The lack of a language with which to speak accurately about the spiritual identity of the children of believers. Faith cannot be transmitted from one generation to the next. Does this mean that spiritual experience is not different for children of believers vs. non-believers? Consider exchange in 1 cor 7, in the matter where one parent is a Christian and one is not, the children are sanctified. Need to put more attention on 2nd generation Christians

10. The church’s mission: getting conversions

• This has all resulted in a one-dimensional understanding of the nature o the church and its mission. A failure to see evangelism as an invitation to participate in a missional community.
• The end should be transformation – where we are growing in faith, hope, and love
• Great difference between John Wesley and George Whitfield (contemporaries) where Whitfield was considered better preacher. And yet, Wesley had greater impact – he was after the ‘perfection’ of the church

Conclusion

The need for a language of conversion that is more congruent with the language of the NT and more accurately reflections how the Spirit is actually bringing people to faith in Christ: this will require intentionally and care.

• Recognize that language of revivalism is deeply embedded in psyche of north americans, we need to integrate heart and mind, body and soul, individual and community, affirms tension between initiative of God and human response, affirms both beginning of authentic christian experience and relationship between beginning and what follows
• Define conversion as human response to saving initiative of God
• Need to find new language by re-reading NT