Connecting with God through Community

My previous post on the Celtic Way caused me to reflect on the shift that has taken place within me over the years in relation to communicating the good news of Jesus. 

Long before I began to grapple with formal categories of epistemology*, I observed differences between those who came to faith in Jesus through belief in propositional truths and those who came through the experience of God in Christian community.
 
Both groups expressed clear faith, but those who first believed through intellectual assent often found it hard to ground their discipleship in a faith community, while those who experienced the love of God through community usually persevered in their faith journey.  Conversion without integration in a faith community sometimes resulted in seeds that sprouted quickly but did not survive the thorns and rocky paths.

I write this as one who came to faith through propositional apologetics.  Prior to "Belonging before Believing" finding its way into popular parlance, I observed the phenomenon in my congregations.  Welcome, acceptance, and a safe place became keys to the process (not event) of conversion.  So I want to suggest that relational, community based evangelism is contextually appropriate for today not only because it relates to post-moderns but also because it is more likely to result in fruit that remains.

*Defined narrowly, epistemology is the study of knowledge and justified belief. As the study of knowledge, epistemology is concerned with the following questions: What are the necessary and sufficient conditions of knowledge? What are its sources? What is its structure, and what are its limits? As the study of justified belief, epistemology aims to answer questions such as: How we are to understand the concept of justification? What makes justified beliefs justified? Is justification internal or external to one's own mind? Understood more broadly, epistemology is about issues having to do with the creation and dissemination of knowledge in particular areas of inquiry. [Source]

If you enjoyed this article, or found it interesting, vote for it at PlugRug so others can read it as well.

Comments

[Anne]

"Welcome, acceptance, and a safe place became keys to the process (not event) of conversion."

Can you explain? I thought conversion was something we should be able to pinpoint?

[Anthony]

I would suspect David is referring to the process of "fertilising the soil" prior to conversion, following by cultivation of the new Christian's faith afterwards. I maybe wrong.

Although conversion is a point in time, as the bible teaches that Christians are "born again spiritually" when they commit their lives to Christ (even though some Christians say they're not sure exactly when that happened in their lives doesn't take away the point that it did happen), to look at conversion as a one off event alone could easily give rise to so called new believers not ensuring the roots of faith are deeply planted, leading them to being swept away by the winds of opposition that soon comes.

Horticulturally metaphorical explanations aside, in summary, Christianity is a journey protected and nurtured within the context of relationships. That in itself is a lifelong process even thought the point of conversion is an event.

[Paul]

Anne, I think one of the mistakes we evangelicals make is the emphasis upon a "point in time" salvation. I think God deals with each of us in different ways. Indeed, some come to Christ keenly aware of their sin and their need for God's salvation in their lives. These accept Christ's work on their behalf and turn from their old ways. This is the doctrine of salvation we evangelicals feel comfortable with and I would argue that, in reality, this is 'technically', if that's the right word, what happens in the heart of every person whom God redeems.

However, for some, the awareness of this is less certain; less tied to a moment in time.

For example, a child does not have to understand all the complex issues that are part of the doctrine of salvation. The Bible often encourages us to have faith like a child (Matthew 18:4; Mark 10:15; Luke 18:17). Whilst it is important that parents assist their children to understand the basic issues, the promise of Acts 16:31 is equally true with regard to a child or an adult: "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved." It is no more complex than that.

Personally, raised in a Godly Christian home, I cannot pinpoint when I first became aware of my sin and my need of a Saviour. I do recall a number of occasions when, with my parents, I prayed to accept Christ into my life.

Do I now believe that Christ came into my life on multiple occasions? No. I believe he looked upon me as a little child when I first uttered simple words of repentance and saved me when I gave expression to a childlike simple faith.

But my 'salvation' has certainly been a process, not an event. Perhaps we are playing with words. Some would call the process 'sanctification'. For me the word 'sanctification' implies becoming more Christlike, set apart, holy. Well, whilst I hope that is the end result, it does not describe the process. It denies the periods of backsliding, rebellion, indifference, guilt, confession, and repentance.

I understand that at whatever time God heard my prayer of repentance He forgave me, and the Holy Spirit completed my redemption and indwelled me.

But in another sense, the work of redemption is an ongoing process and will be until the day I go home to be with my Saviour.

[Don]

Good post, David.

I'm in Canada and yesterday watch a Christian TV broadcast about many Iranians who are putting their faith in Christ. Gathering in churches is difficult for these brothers and sisters, so new forms of 'community' have been created to address the dangers they face. The presenter spoke of men and women who would crowd into mini-vans and drive around the city of Tehran worshipping God, studying the Word and singing hymns in the privacy and safety of their vehicles; a church on wheels.

When Jesus sent His disciples out, He sent them out two by two (Matthew 10:1). When we read about the missionary journeys in Acts, they did not go out one at a time, but in groups of two or more. Jesus said that where two or three are gathered in His name, He is there in their midst (Matthew 18:20). We are commanded not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together as was the manner of some but to use that time for encouraging one another in love and good works (Hebrews 10:24-25). We are told to confess our faults to one another (James 5:16). In the wisdom literature of the Old Testament, we are told that as iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend (Proverbs 27:17) "A threefold cord is not easily broken." There is strength in numbers (Ecclesiastes 4:11-12).

Some that I know have found brothers and sisters in Christ who get together by phone or in person and share how they are doing in their Christian walk, how they may have struggled, etc. and commit to pray for each other and hold each other accountable in applying God's Word to their relationships, etc.

I think it is very difficult to thrive in our walk of faith without the support of community.

[Julia]

Great posts so far! Good question Anne and thoughtful responses from both Paul, Don and Anthony. My thoughts on the matter of conversion, however, are a little different from those mentioned so far.

I do think that there is a place for us to consider conversion as an "event" such as when people decide to do something like "pray the prayer". However, I do not think it appropriate to consider conversion an "event" in the majority of cases. While this may sound unorthodox, events such as "praying the prayer" seem to have taken on significance that, firstly isn't really biblical, and secondly squashes many different voices on how one can come to know Jesus. No where in the bible is there a specific ritual designated for coming to know Jesus. Rather, there appear to be a variety of ways of getting to know God that aren't necessarily one-off events following a specific formula.

For example, Peter is someone who definitely didn't have one moment of conversion for as soon as he declared Jesus to be "the Christ of God" he then showed so little understanding of Jesus' identity as to warrant Jesus rebuking him, "get behind me Satan" (Matthew 9.18-26). Similarly, those on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24.13-35) seem to not be able to understand who Jesus is through scripture but rather meet Jesus through sharing some good tucker! Many entire "households" somehow became intertwined with the faith decision of the head of the family and were all baptised on the spot without mention of them even hearing the message of Jesus (cf. Acts 16.14-15). Moreover, the baptism of the Ethiopian by Philip (Acts 8.26-40) certainly doesn't follow stock-standard evangelical practices! This all goes to show that there are many different ways of meeting Jesus; some involve a moment of saying "yes, I believe" while others may never involve so definite a moment. I know in my own walk with God I have not had a moment of conversion, but I believe myself to be spirit-filled. I have found that the process of knowing Jesus takes a whole lifetime, and hence it is probably a bit too black-and-white to try to pin point a definite moment in which we officially became "believers" in the majority of cases.

I know that this all may seem grey and ambiguous, but the powerful God that I know is certainly big enough to handle such diversity and ambiguity in people coming to know him! So, I agree with David that the entire process of Christian community might be one's conversion experience and is perhaps a goal that is more biblical to work towards, rather than simply getting people to have a one-off conversion experience such as "praying the prayer".

[Anthony]

May I throw in another angle... We have been talking of conversion as a point in time or a process or both. As I mentioned earlier, I personally believe it is a point in time, whether we can recognise the specific time or not, yet the the Christian journey is a life long process with God preparing our hearts prior to accepting Him as Lord and Saviour and helping us to become more like Him as we stumble through the challenges and trials of life.

I think it's fair enough to say that from human perspectives we usually tend to be blinded with confusion or ignorance. How often do we look back in hindsight to realise something about ourselves or something in general which we didn't realise at the time. Anyway the angle I am throwing in is this, what do we "think" it looks like from God's perspective? I mean we are finite in our thinking and understanding. However God sees through all the fog to KNOW what the true state of our heart is and where we stand with Him.

As Julia pointed out God is a powerful god and it's a real blessing to see how many people come to know Him as their Lord and Saviour - I don't think the 'method' of salvation should be conveniently packaged into a box. But the expression "born again" suggests that there is a point in time when we present to God blameless because of our "spiritual birth" through Christ. Peter implies this in 1Peter 1:3 when he says that we have been given a "new birth" through Christ. Jesus says we can only go to heaven if we are born again (John 3:3). John 1:12-13 says "to all those who received Him, those who believed in His name, He gave them the right to become children of God - children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God."

Whether we recognise the point in time or not in our own lives, I believe the bible teaches that there is a point in time when we become a Christian, even though this point in time may understandably not be able to be pin-pointed by many. But from God's perspective wouldn't it be clear, very clear? I mean the Shepherd knows who His sheep are. If we persevere in our faith I believe that we can come to a deep appreciation and realisation that we are in fact children of God (Rom 8:16), even though our journeys to knowing God through Christ maybe very different... but just as significant and special.

The process part of it is being true to our belief in Christ and living out our commitment to Him, growing in maturity through our mistakes as we encourage one another in the safety of Christian community. We are a work in progress and won't realise our finished selves until the coming of Jesus again.