Becoming a Christian

BECOMNG A CHRISTIAN

Can you recall when you first decided to become a Christian? Was it a sudden or gradual decision? Or perhaps you have yet to get off the fence and make that decision.

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As far as St. Paul was concerned, whose conversion we recall on 25 January, it was certainly a sudden and dramatic decision.

According to his story, Paul, or Saul as he was then known, was on his way from Jerusalem to Damascus with a view to persecuting the Christians living in that city.

Whilst en route, he says "in the middle of the day I saw a light from the sky, more brilliant than the sun, shining all around me and my travelling companions".

He recalls how they all fell to the ground and he heard a voice saying "Saul, Saul, Why do you persecute me? It is hard for you, this kicking against the goad".

Paul replied "Tell me, Lord, who are you?” and the Lord replied, "I am Jesus whom you are persecuting”.

As a result of this experience, he was blinded for three days and had to be led into the city of Damascus. Thus, he who had intended to enter the city like an avenging lion was led by the hand like a blind and helpless child.

What exactly made Paul change his mind is difficult to determine?

We do know that he had been a pupil of Galmaliel and may have been influenced by his personal hesitancy about attacking Christians.

On the other hand, we also know that Paul was a passionate supporter of law and would therefore have found it extremely difficult to follow one who had fallen foul of the law.

And let us not forget that Paul had earlier witnessed the saintly death of St. Stephen, the first Christian martyr, at whose feet, those who stoned him, had placed their coats. Who knows what impact this may have made upon his unconscious self. It could well be that Paul's preoccupation with persecution reflects his unconscious desire to stifle his doubts by yet more vigorous activity.

Who knows what were the motivating forces at work? As far as Paul was concerned, his decision to follow Christ was sudden and dramatic. He could name the time and the place of his conversion experience.

In a similar way Simon and his brother Andrew, James and his brother John could also name the time and place when they decided to follow Jesus.

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And there are many people today who can name the time and the place of their conversion.

For instance, the late Archbishop Anthony Bloom, the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church in Exile in England, was in his late teens when he decided to become a Christian.

He was studying medicine in Paris at the time. For some time, his friends had been trying to influence him. They had even persuaded him to attend church where he had quickly discovered that, if he took long deep breaths and inhaled the smell of incense, he could induce a faint and thereby guarantee his removal from church!

Eventually he decided, once and for all, to put a stop to any nagging doubts he might have about the validity of the Christian faith. He decided to read one of the four gospels in the New Testament so that at least he could claim to have looked at the evidence. Naturally he chose the gospel of St. Mark, since that was the shortest!

As he approached the end of the gospel, he claims he became aware of the hand of God upon his shoulder and the risen Jesus meeting him face to face. From that moment, he decided to surrender his life to Jesus.

However, it was not a Bible but a crucifix that was instrumental in bringing another person to faith in Christ.

Also in Paris, at the end of the last century, a group of rebellious teenagers roaming the streets decided one night to send a member of their company into a church to make a confession of the most incredible sins to the priest in the confessional.

We are told that the priest listened patiently. However, before giving absolution he asked the young man to sit for half an hour before a large crucifix in the church.

As a result of that experience, that rebellious teenager surrendered his life to Jesus and went on to become Archbishop of Paris.

Such conversion experiences continue to be the means whereby many people set off upon their journey of faith today, as Bishop John Finney makes clear in his book Finding Faith Today.

This is an ecumenical sponsored piece of research, involving over 500 people of various Christian traditions into how people found their faith and what it means in terms of evangelism for the future.

Just under one third indicated that they had had a conversion experience.

When asked what they were doing at the time, I8% mentioned being with a person who was dying. “A friend was dying" writes one person. "He had recently become a Catholic. The peace he found in the care of the church impressed me. He had had a hard life with no spiritual help until he became involved with the local Catholic church. ....Three days before he died, I felt a deep call to be a Christian while the parish was praying with us at the bedside”.

Other peoples' conversion experience occurred when they were attending a church service, praying, listening to a sermon, attending an evangelistic event, reading the bible, talking with other Christians or experience of a divorce or suffering,

You will notice that most of these activities are overtly religious.

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Such religious experience may well ring true for some of you.

However, I suspect that there are others of you who cannot claim to have had a sudden dramatic Damascus Road experience, and often feel slightly embarrassed, if not inadequate, by those who have.

Don't worry. You are not alone. In fact, over two thirds of those surveyed fall into this category of those whose experience of finding faith has been a gradual experience over a period of time which varies from one day to 42 years. Whilst the average time taken is four years, some would claim it to be a natural ongoing process which has not yet finished. When asked whether there had been "any particular important incident" in their gradual journey to faith, 20% mentioned church events such as training courses and church meetings. Other incidents included meeting other Christians, going to church, the birth of their children, getting the baby “done", a marriage partner, an evangelistic event, answered prayer, contact with a minister, their own baptism/confirmation or an illness.

For instance, one says "my daughter asked me to go to church with her and I was pleased to see old friends there from when I used to go - it was like going home". Another writes "l lost my wife and I wanted to end my life and asked God to help me.......he answered my prayers". And another writes "Having children changed my outlook on life......I became more thoughtful".

You will note that what we might call "human factors" are more dominant in this gradualist approach to faith.

Several of the replies talk about a "crystallising process" whereby fragmented experiences are seen now in hindsight, to come together.

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I am delighted that we have in the pages of the scripture the account of Paul's conversion experience because that affirms other people’s experience of coming to faith whereby they too can name the place and the time.

However, let us not forget that this is not the only method of coming to faith. In fact, if John Finney's research is anything to go by, finding faith is a gradual process for the majority of Christians today.

This means we must be cautious about looking for quick results. Rather we need to be patiently developing methods of evangelism such as nurture groups, the catechemante and maybe forms of spiritual direction, whereby others are enabled to come gradually to a faith.

Whilst one needs to challenge people to make a decision or act of commitment, one needs at the same time to avoid being "pushy" since to force the pace can be counter-productive.

Above all, we need to remind ourselves that each of us, are so unique in the eyes of God and that he calls each of us in his own particular way to follow him, as he did the early apostles.