Conversion or Transformation? (Part 2)

In his book Transformation, Bob Roberts presents five different myths about conversion:

1. Conversion means making a better me. He sees this (rightly) as a contradiction to the biblical teaching on our lostness and depravity apart from God.
2. Conversion means praying the “sinner’s prayer.” No, it’s more than words – it’s about coming to know God.
3. Conversion is the epitome of spirituality. He says it’s just the beginning. He writes, “Churches who gauge themselves by baptisms, attendance, and membership do not emphasize what we are producing as much as how fast we are producing it.” He challenges us to think about which numbers we talk about most often.
4. Conversion means going to church and jumping through hoops. His focus here is on the extrinsic rewards we often use to help people grow in faith (awards, certificates, pins) and how these tactics often undermine our real goal of transformation.
5. Conversion is nice but not total. This is the old sacred/secular split. He uses Islam as a contrast to this Western dichotomy.
6. Conversion is primarily fire insurance. This is a benefit, not a motivation.

One of the things we picked up when first moving to Bakersfield was the prevalence of this-kind of event-driven spirituality. For people with an evangelical background, that event was conversion; for those from a charismatic/Pentecostal background, the event was the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

We encountered a number of people who would say things like “The problem is obedience. If Christians were just more obedient, we wouldn?t have a problem with ______.” Or, “Ever since I accepted Christ I?ve never really had any problems dealing with ______.” Somehow, justification got elevated far above sanctification. This kind of truncated faith has left a lot of people here frustrated, feeling like they can?t be real about their struggles and challenges. And it’s neglected the role of the Holy Spirit in the transformation process.

Not everybody, of course, believes this. But it does seem to be a negative effect of a culture with a strong evangelical tradition. That’s why we’ve chosen to place greater emphasis on what we call “journey thinking” – helping people determine the very next step that God wants them to take in their faith journey, both before and after conversion.

The Conversion or Transformation? (Part 2) by Church Planting Journey, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.