At what point does someone become Christian - permanently?
My brothers and sisters have been engaging a question about Conversion. Read the article, Mission Frontiers: Are There Church Planting Movements in North Amercia?
1. We are not seeing the conversion growth rate that Church Planting Movements are seeing in other parts of the world. This is true, but I question if that is cause to disqualify what is happening as a CPM. While I would wish that we would see more conversions, we are in a country where the predominant faith of the people is Christian. That has to change the way we view CPMs in the US when compared to nations where the gospel is a new idea introduced to a people with centuries of bondage to false ideas. While I am not really wanting a renewal movement as much as a true spiritual awakening of lost people, I for one, am not going to tell Christians that they cannot join us. To see the conversion growth rate found in China or India we would have to exclude Christians from joining the movement, and that is not healthy or realistic.
Neil Cole writes, founder of Church Multiplication Associates
What do you think? Is America saturated with people claiming to be, or to once have been, Christians? Have they already been baptized? I find that to be largely, but not exclusively of course, true.
But I think the question is missed. Of course, the United Methodist Church along with many others has viewed “conversion” as that once baptized time, and consequently (since something has to be counted), they count baptisms or professions of faith.
However, perhaps this is one of those “Do what I say, not what I do” situations. Our theology speaks differently. United Methodist theology, founded upon John Wesley’s understanding of salvation, knows faith as an ongoing process of salvation, and that justifying faith although a moment … is also repeated again and again.
Here is the question missed: Can conversion happen more than once? When someone does not practice the faith, even though baptized and claiming that faith previously, some would say they actually never were quite converted. A United Methodist, however, understands faith as an active process that can be left by the wayside … and that someone can actually lose their salvation. They left the journey when they quit practicing active faith.
Can then conversion be seen as an act of Christ for that person when they repent and turn around from non-practicing faith to actively seeking faith? Can a non-practicing Christian whose heart becomes strangely warmed and faith becomes active in their life through that experience with Christ be converted – again? I would argue this is conversion – conversion from what was to what is – from inactive to active – from dead faith to live faith.
