I need to take this blog in a different direction for a while. And I need a lot of paddles in the water.
I believe we are living in a first century world. Like the first generation of Jesus-followers, we're immersed in an environment that does not know of Jesus, much less promote faith in Him. We cannot presume universal understanding of Christian beliefs, imagery, language, ethics, or practices. When we who are worship leaders say things like, "Let us pray," more people than we realize, in and out of church fellowships, have no idea what that means or what to do. Words and phrases like, "conversion," "profession of faith," or "getting saved" are vague at best, and meaningless at worst.
Recognizing this, we're going to offer a four week learning experience on conversion here. Once I was not in a relationship with the crucified and risen Jesus; now I am...What does that mean? What does it look like? How do I know that it has happened/is happening/whatever?
What would you want to know about conversion? What reaction does the word itself cause? Does it even matter? Particularly I want to know what would be the opinions and questions of people who are not connected with faith in Christ and/or with any church fellowship. We want to create an exploration of conversion that assumes nothing.
Please help with this inquiry about conversion. What are your thoughts, questions, opinions, challenges concerning conversion? You can respond directly to this blog, or you can e-mail me at gposegate@sbmu.net or poseg8@sbcglobal.net.
Making disciples is the main mission of the Body of Christ. The way we did that in 1988 does not work in 2008. We need to start with the basics.
This is a canoe...this is a paddle....this is a river....I'll see you around the next bend.
Raking Leaves
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Fall is here. The sun is moving towards the edge of the frame where, in
just a few weeks it will hit the bumper rail and start back towards the
other side...
2 years ago
3 comments:
Geoff,
Man how do we explain "conversion". It can be a scary thought if you visualize it as being changed when maybe you really don't want to be changed-especially into something you don't know much about. But when you think of a "conversion table" where maybe we are converting ounces to liters all we are doing is changing the way something is measured-we are not changing the mass itself. Maybe that is what happens when we let God convert us-we let him change the standard in which we are measured. Then it could become "how are we measuring up?" This may take an hour or two in the smokehouse!
I love the idea of conversion. Especially the "conversion table"!
Explaining that conversion is allowing us to change the standard that we are measured by. This takes the worlds' standards of value...rich, poor, beautiful, smart, stupid, unworthy...and turns them upside down. With God, the STANDARD of measurement has changed. God's standard being perfect, forgiving, unconditional acceptance and love.
And...the one receiving Gods "conversion" responds to this new standard of measurement with love, relationship and service.
The hardest thing to explain is that this 'conversion' is free.
Hmmm...I need I to think on this one for a while...I think we're onto something BIG. Come on everyone... .PADDLE!!!!
"Questions of people who are not connected with Christ..."
I spend time with people who are at their bottom and either don't know Christ or feel they are too far removed to matter. Here are the questions I get... "God?" God hates me; God can't love me; I'm afraid of God; I'm angry at God; God has never done anything for me; God doesn't want someone like me!
"Prayer?" I don't know the words; I don't know how to pray; I don't speak good enough; I don't know those fancy words; God doesn't want to hear from me; God wouldn't listen to me anyway... would He?
"Saved?" Yeah, I need my butt saved, but God isn't gonna do it; Saved from what?; I don't even know what that means; I can't save myself, how can God?
"Church?" I don't go to church, the only people there are liars and hypocrites! -- My favorite response to that one I take from Rev. Ed Mutum, "Good, then you'll fit right in!" :)
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