StemCell Therapy

"Nice to meet you. And when were you saved?"

Umm I hesitated.

"I remember the exact date" he interjected while I was still thinking. "August 3, 1972!"

This was the date that he had attended a revival, felt a stirring, and "accepted Jesus as his personal Lord and Savior." He told me about this holy experience and then turned back to me, expecting me to now have an answer.

I wondered if I was to tell him about the year I started to attend church, or perhaps he wanted the date of my baptism - was that the day I was "saved"? Or perhaps I should cite the time I felt a call to ministry (the first time), the radical deconstruction of the first faith in college, the emergence of renewed faith formation in graduate school, or the second calling into ministry that I had now pursued, or the incredibly recent moment that I was introduced to theologians who possessed the language I had been seeking all my life???

I settled on the time of sensing a gravitation toward ministry and responded, "I guess it would be the summer of 1999?"

"Oh." He was bewildered. And because I could not offer a particular date, he was suspicious.

The idea of immediate and radical conversion has become quite prominent within the Christian tradition. Where one "was blind but now one sees," as the hymn goes. Where the "scales fall from the eyes" and the entire identity changes to the degree that it requests a new name - Saul to Paul. I do not intend to discount the power of experience to reshape and reform us instantly and drastically, but I think that the dominance of this image of conversion is more influenced by human desire for effortless change and convenient resolution rather than sincere reflection on the experience of human transformation.

When we look at the example of the conversion of Saul to Paul in Acts 9, even there we read that the story of the conversion was not instantaneous. Instead, Saul has a revelation, is blind for three days (symbolism), has a mentor assigned to him, and dwells within the learning community "for several days." This is the pace of the most prominent image of conversion within the tradition, and there is wisdom and grace with this image for us today.

Within the white church, there is a great awakening to the pervasive presence of racist ideas and racist power. White Christians are awakening to the power and reality of racism within America and also within the systems and structures of the church itself (white supremacy and substitutionary atonement theory are a hell of a toxic combination). While there is blessing in the revelation and the desire to repent and change (convert), this is certainly not the time to uphold an image of immediate conversion.

Instead, now is a time to remember the pace of conversion that is more common to lived experience and described in the journey of Saul to Paul. There is a revelation that cannot be dismissed, there is a time of blindness (of acknowledging that we do not see clearly), of listening to mentors (those who do see clearly), and a time of entering into community with those who are striving to live in a more faithful way. As white communities and white Christians are coming to understand the calling to anti-racist work and living, we must be clear about the process of this conversion and what it will require.

This is and will be a lengthy journey of conversion - there is much to understand, repent, heal, and transform within the body and within the nation. So let us hold the urgency of change before us, and the pace of conversion within us, that we may remain prepared and committed to the process of transformation.

The Rev. Chris McCreight is ordained in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and currently serves as minister of the Hiram Christian Church and chaplain of Hiram College. He is on Twitter @revmccreight.

Go here to see the original:
The Pace of Conversion - Suburbanite

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