SubscribeMore Thoughts on Conversion
I’ve blogged about conversion already here and here, but some additional thoughts swept into my mind late last week. This is the first time since then I’ve really had time to share them.
In matters other than religious conversion, people are generally advised not to make major life decisions during times of extreme stress. For example, just after the death of a close family member would not be a good time to consider selling a house and moving. Another; people are encouraged not to make rash decisions and extreme, sudden changes in life direction immediately after a divorce. Stress inhibits impulse control, and makes one’s vision and perspective less reliable.
On the other hand, the very point of most religious conversion experiences are at a low point in the life of the individual. To reach toward conversion, most people must define their life situation as, in some sense, “to have reached bottom.”
If that isn’t a good place to be making decisions about relationships, major purchases, career changes or moving, why is it a good time to make decisions that affect eternity?
Well, in a sense “reaching bottom” is the most likely time that we reach out to God. We have to, most of us, anyway, come to our wit’s end to ask for help. It isn’t as if God just happens to find us at our low point, but at such a low point is the place most of us finally open our eyes to see God waiting there.
The reason we are ill-advised to make major decisions or life-changes when under extreme stress is that we would then have to live with such decisions even when life settles down, stress moderates, and the world becomes clearer once again.
Perhaps the reason religious conversions don’t seem to fit well in this category is that, at least in our society, one does not have to live with any religious decisions or commitments made.
Hence, according to the interpretive grid that is normal for our culture, people just continue to have conversions whenever the moment calls for them, knowing that soon they can go back to life as usual.
The rub is, of course, God doesn’t want for any of us to have to go backwards into “life as usual.” God has a far better life available for us than any of us could have found on our own.
Making the decision for conversion when one “hits bottom” isn’t the problem. That the church (the people of God) doesn’t offer a robust introduction into the new life thus entered is the problem.
I think this is a pretty strong argument for discipleship.
Filed under: Pastoral issues, United Methodist Church, Youth Ministry, christian culture, ecclesiology
great observation steve!
we need to be more effective on the rehabilitation (transition back to normal life) level than the simply comforting level.
Part of the difficulty is assuming we know what we’re talking about, when what we have are, in fact, abstractions. “Stress,” “Hitting bottom,” “conversions,” need more specificity. If my car is hurtling toward a traffic blockage, the thought of having a wreck might produce some stress. It would be highly irrational in that case to reason, “Oh, this situation is stressing me out. I’m going to wait until I feel less stress to convert from pushing the accelerator to pushing the brake.” I suppose the time of less stress might come sometime between coming out of your drugged stupor in your hospital bed and being presented your hospital bill (or being taken to court for reckless driving).
Or hitting bottom. Which bottom? Relative to what? If you’re eating some of that yogurt that has the fruit at the bottom, it would be a good thing to hit bottom as you get yourself a bite.
If we want to keep the abstractions, let’s try looking at it this way. Perhaps when we experience stress (whatever that might be) we find that our analytical faculties tend to weaken. Our minds are focused on other things. In that kind of situation, whether we judge a conversion or change to be good depends on the context of the stress. If we are stressed over the death of a loved one and find ourselves exposed to the marketing message of a car salesman, we might not have as much resistance. Of course it might be that we’ve needed a new car for some time (since our current car is a gas guzzling death trap), but have been unable to do anything about it because of the busyness of life - or the sickness of the loved one.
Or perhaps we’re in the driving too fast behind unmoving traffic. We become stressed over a potential wreck. A passenger in our car cries out, “Hit the brake!” Our foot makes a conversion. Our analytical faculties may not take much time to analyze the options, but it seems like an ok outcome if a wreck is averted.
Can we say that stress is some sort of discomfort manifested in the emotions? If so, can we say that our desire is to alleviate the stress - the discomfort? When Saul of Tarsus was stressed (”kicking against the goads” sounds stressful and uncomfortable), the stress seems to have been a useful instrument of God in his life.
Will the conversion stick? If the problem (stress inducer) is something like a traffic blockage, the conversion from accelerator to brake should be temporary. It’d be pretty silly to say, “I’m keeping my foot on the brae because there were cars stopped in front of me yesterday.
What we’re looking at then, is the nature of the Gospel. While it seems that the Gospel will address some of the discomforts of ordinary life, there are several discomforts it leaves unaddressed AND several stresses it seeks to open our eyes to. “My shoes don’t fit, so my foot hurts.” I don’t think the Gospel says anything about that. But the discomfort of being a sinner in the eyes of a holy God? Ordinary life seems to know little of that stress.
It is in this last area that the current American church has been very weak. Thinking that stress (discomfort) is only bad (like we think pain is only bad), we do everything we can to keep people from feeling it. “God loves you. God is nice. Feel good about yourself. Everything will be ok.” Most of those things can be abstracted from scripture. But if that’s what we preach we’re committing Gospel malpractice, much the way a doctor who suppressed test results (showing cancer) would be.
Finally, if we imagine that the only stress produced by the Gospel is the fear of hell, then we incline people to want to take care of that stress - via a ticket to heaven. But once you have your ticket, why worry about anything else? We who lead Christians need to find ways to identify relevant biblical discomforts and allow them free reign in our lives, so we can then exemplify those discomforts to the people around us.
Thanks for expanding upon my point.
[...] brother has been blogging about conversion lately. Today he posted on conversion and stress. Here are my initial [...]
Liminal periods are those times when we are at a boundary line between two periods. Engagement is that liminal time between being single and married. Funerals are a liminal time for the family and friends moving from the time with the person to a time after. There are lots of liminal times in life. These are where change (including conversion) is most easily possible for liminal periods are always times of change anyway as one period will be different from another.
The church has marked liminal periods in peoples lives with meaningful worship for weddings, funerals, baptisms. There are others we won’t mark like a service when someone gives up drugs or alcohol for good (which time would we hold the service?) or at retirement or divorce or when finally leaving an abusive relationship, but these liminal periods matter too.
As a pastor, I work in those liminal times to help people find meaningful change, the life that is in God’s will for their life. It doesn’t always happen, but sometimes it does and sometimes that change is conversion and sometimes it is some practical way of living out the faith that is in him or her.
Perhaps major life distress is a good time for “conversion” because it is then that we perceive we are weak and need the strength that comes from God … but overall, I’d say that the true “conversion” comes when the change sticks even when we feel stronger. When we continue to perceive our weakness and neediness even beyond the acute distress.
I agree with Kim’s comment that we accept conversion when “we perceive that we are weak…”
People accept God’s impact on their lives when they realize that they cannot reach fulfillment or happiness on their own. It is acknowledging that (1) God is infinitely powerful and (2) God can and will work in your life when people have a conversion.
I think that part of the reason, especially in the US, that we have people who come into God’s power and then walk away (many several times) is because we live in a society that continually pushes strength in the individual. We celebrate individual acheivement more than team or societal acheivement. We tell are children that THEY can succeed.
Perhaps if we start telling people that they, in fact, cannot do everything themselves, then we will have people make life-long conversions.