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The Church as a Conversion Community- Chris Nichols
Conversion is a difficult word for many of us. Not because we don’t
believe in what it means but because of how it has been used in religious
circles. We hear the word and immediately think of the worst cases of
manipulation by Christians to maneuver those who are not Christians into
declaring faith in Jesus. We abhor the dishonesty that has gone with that
kind of evangelism. Conversion as manipulation is contrary to fundamental
basis of the gospel. Yet we can’t simply eliminate the word because it is
still the best word to describe the transformational experience of becoming
and being a Christian. Therefore, we must carefully but clearly define
what it is that we mean by conversion.
To begin with, conversion cannot be limited to a simple change of
allegiance for the unbeliever. Rather, all who are committed to a life of
following Jesus will be changed at the most fundamental levels in a process
that never stops until our life on the earth ends and we are with the Lord.
That is to say, each of us is being (or ought to be) converted on a daily
basis. Throughout our lives, God is asking each of us to make decisions to
go further along the conversion continuum, moving from cynic to seeker to
follower to leader to world changer. Conversion speaks to us of both God’s
essential power in transforming us and our choice in welcoming Him in.
There has never been nor will there ever be a single decision that propels
us all the way to the end. Thus we declare with John Stott that we have,
“Been converted, are being converted and will be converted.”
Conversion is more than intellectual assent, though intellectual assent is
required. Conversion is greater than changes in behavior, though such
changes are necessary and inevitable. Rather, conversion takes all of who
I am and moves me into a completely new direction. No part of me gets left
behind. The magnitude of this change is rarely understood all at once but
rather over time and by degrees. It is usually only in hindsight and over
the course of a lifetime that we begin to grasp the totality of what has
occurred. Thus, conversion is both immediately complete and yet never
finished. It is free and yet costs us everything1. It is simple and yet
incomprehensibly complex.[2] Conversion involves both God’s essential
power in transforming us and our essential choice in welcoming him. It is
nothing less than Paul’s call for us to actively pursue the “mind of
Christ” while also awaiting to be “transformed by the renewing your mind.”
and the magnitude of the change cannot be entirely understood all at once
but only over time and by degrees. It is only in hindsight, over a
lifetime, that we begin to grasp the totality of the changes that have
occurred. Conversion speaks to us of both God’s essential power in
transforming us and our choice in welcoming Him in.
Conversion is not easy, nor is it meant to be. The gospels are clear about
the costs3 and the epistles press us on the complexities.[4] Paul calls
followers to have the “mind of Christ,” to be transformed by the renewing
your mind,” and to “put on the armor of God.” Yet is what we are to be
about in relation to Jesus, individually and corporately.
As an organization, Intervarsity is in the conversion business. Our vision
statement makes it clear that we are to be agents of God’s revolutionary
power to transform the lives of students at all stages of knowledge of
Him5. Jesus was also in the conversion business, calling all his
followers to, “Go and make disciples of all nations..”[6] Paul wrote the
same, “Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord we try to persuade
people7,” and a few verses later, “All this is from God who has given us
the ministry of reconciliation8.” He names our calling as being,
”.ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us.[9]” We are
agents of reconciliation, personally converting, our commitment to Christ
growing deeper on a daily basis, and encouraging others to do likewise. We
are assigned this role by God, for it is a role given to all who “believe
by faith in the Lord Jesus’.[10] Our primary message of reconciliation is
that God desires for all humankind be one with him. It’s our message to
everyone in the campus community, students and faculty, activists and
Greeks, athletes and scholars, religious and non-religious, Christians and
non-Christians. We are asking that all who do not actively call Jesus Lord
to consider his calls to faith and make steps of faith and belief toward
him. And we are calling those of us who do have faith in Christ to
continue to engage in the conversion experience of the Spirit. Our job is
to sow seeds, to proclaim, to invite. This is God’s business of
conversion, and he has invited us into partnership with him.
We are then, inviting those without faith in Christ into a community of
conversion. It is an invitation to those who have formerly been on the
outside to join us in the radical transforming process of a community where
everyone is in the process of change. We are not asking them to become
insiders by a change of culture, habits, and dress. No, we are welcoming
them into a place of transformation driven a power outside of themselves
that also resides inside the lives of each believer. That power is from
the Holy Spirit, which comes into the lives of those who give themselves in
faith to Christ.
Too often, however, the initial invitation is more like an invitation to
cultural assimilation into one more unique minority culture where, if you
wish to be an insider, accepted and welcomed, you must learn a new
language, culture, rules to follow and behaviors to fit. In those kinds of
Christian groups, radical changes are required of new recruits but not
necessarily of established members. Insiders are comfortable and have
found their place. They know the ropes, they know the rules and they know
the routine. Yet, compared to the new converts, their lives have gone
dull. They no longer demonstrate the power of that initial transformation.
Over time, the new converts simply conform to the institutionally imposed
change of behavior and are ultimately converted to being complacent
insiders, no longer experiencing a lifelong saving transformation.
Our communities must not be like this. Conversion must be the daily, life-
long experience of every disciple. It will mean that we will become
increasingly committed to God’s values and interests. It will mean that
individually and corporately we will move toward healing and wholeness, and
become committed to God’s justice and his concerns for the disenfranchised
at every level. It will mean that we will give our hearts and minds to all
of humanity, confronting our own prejudices and fears and gaining a global
perspective because it is God’s perspective.
If, therefore, we are called to be converting communities, then it should
not be an unusual experience to call a non-believer to believe in and
follow the Lord Jesus. Rather they are joining with us in what is
normative for a follower of Jesus, that is, a life of change “transformed
by the renewing of your mind”[11]. We are inviting non-believers to be
changed by entering into a community where change is the norm. We are
inviting them into a place where God is actively shifting priorities,
behaviors, lifestyles, attitudes, relationships and bringing about a new
way of life in everyone who is present. A life of conversion should seem
both wonderfully secure and joyfully tumultuous all at the same time.
As “ambassadors for Christ12” we declare the need for a decision to be
made. Being transformed requires a decision to acquiescence to the work of
the Spirit in us and to commit to following Jesus where and in what manner
he goes. Though the very ability to say “yes” to the Spirit’s work is
God’s grace, obedience to his commands is a response of our will.
Obedience requires a decision, and a decision requires someone to ask for
it, for a change in direction, for a new life to replace the old.
The two main challenges ahead of us are clear. The first is that we as
followers of Jesus must experience the active and on-going presence of the
transforming God in our lives. To effectively enable another to take a
step of faith, whether a first step or a progressive step along the way of
discipleship, we must be engaged with God in Jesus in a significant way.
Secondly, we must also believe that what has been possible for us is
possible for others not yet in God’s kingdom. We too often suffer from a
lack of faith in God’s ability to act in the life of someone else. This
may be because we haven’t felt a powerful change in ourselves. Perhaps we
have never personally walked with a non-Christian into belief in Jesus. Or
perhaps we have seen someone turn away from faith and grown cynical about
the process of conversion.
Whatever our cause for doubt, we must simultaneously advance three things
if we are to be communities that have serious impact for the gospel in our
campus worlds:
1. We must be discipling staff, student and faculty believers into an ever
deepening relationship with Christ (life-long conversions), a relationship
that both frees them to be more wholly themselves and that calls them to an
ever more radical obedience to his will.
2. We must be engaging the secular community in effectively explaining
what it is we are doing (conversion) and who we are doing it for and with.
3. We must be actively inviting skeptics and seekers to take steps of
faith (decisions) to believe in Jesus and change their allegiance to him.
Simple cultural loyalty to the Christian way is not enough. Nor is
organizational commitment to a Christian group. It is not enough to help
students and faculty on our campuses develop a more positive orientation to
Christianity. We must be communities of faith, engaged with the living God
and experiencing the dynamic power of his presence in us, and inviting the
rest of our campuses to join us in the process. Our commitment to
conversion is not a commitment to a particular style of evangelism. Nor is
it a rejection of interactive relationships with those who do not believe
as we do. Nor is it a move toward manipulative attitudes of persuasion.
Rather, a commitment to be converting communities is a commitment to the
deepest reality of what it means to follow Jesus and pursue that commitment
on our secularizing campuses. It is a commitment to engage with the Lord
Jesus and to be willing partners in his radical transformational ministry.
“We are,” Paul says, “ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through
us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.”[13] May we
all live out that exciting identity in Jesus individually and corporately
as Christ’s communities on campus.
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[1] Mark 8
[2] Phil 2, Eph 6, Rom 12
[3] Mark 8
[4] Phil 2, Eph 6, Rom 12
[5] “Our vision is to see campuses renewed, students and faculty
transformed, world changers developed” IVCF’s national vision statement
[6] Matthew 28:19, NRSV
[7] 2 Cor. 5:11
[8] 2 Cor. 5:18
[9] 2 Cor. 5:22
[10] 2 Cor 5:20
[11] Romans 12:1-2
[12] 2 Cor 5:20
[13] 2 Cor 5:20
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