The Conversion Investment – the problem with Church economics (Part 2)
How long does conversion take?
An instant?
A week?
Six weeks, after taking a class at a church?
I don’t think that there is an answer, but that it is different for every person. So, some exchange their allegiance for Jesus in an instant and some over a period of years and some somewhere in between.
The issue lies in the fact that in order to determine where people are in their journey we need to hear their story, and sometimes it takes a while before you hear the whole story. We almost just rubber stamp the whole thing as if God really didn’t want to use humans to help other humans come to faith. So, they come, we listen, they pray, we dunk, and they leave unchanged.
We aren’t willing to sit with someone for an hour or two in order to witness the intersection of God’s story with the story teller’s. It’s emotionally exhausting. It’s mentally exhausting. It’s a battle with unseen forces to help people exchange their story for His story, and we’d just rather there be a pill to prescribe.
So, I am convinced that…
there are far more people who prayed a prayer after someone than are actually converted.
there are far more people who are baptized than are actually converted.
there are far too few churches that see this as fraud.
there are far too many of us, especially in the South, who refuse to challenge someone’s “I believe in God” to substitute for a real allegiance to Jesus Christ, King of the Universe.
there are far fewer churches who are trying to change their “five minute, come speak to a pastor and before the song ends pray a prayer invitation approach” into bringing people to Christ so that they might be radically transformed by Him…who die and are raised to new life.
And so there are far less Converted People than we Church people might like to admit.
The Conversion Investment – the problem with Church economics (Part 1)
Over the next several posts I hope to create some discussion about what churches do when it comes to involving ourselves in the conversion of others. I am convinced that because there was an ignorance on the part of many my confession and baptism at the age of 8, which I think was legitimate at the time, turned into a farce because once I was dunked I was done in most everybody’s eyes…but my own. This in turn led to a downward spiral and a destructive dualism of thought that could have me claim the truths of God and then turn around and sin obsessively that lasted until I was 24.
When we evangelize, or when someone walks down an aisle during an invitation, or when we strike up a conversation with a stranger what are we expecting to happen?
Is a five minute conversation followed by a “Pray this after me…” the best we can do?
I believe, whether we want to admit it or not, that if most pastors were honest they would admit that “quick” conversions are more about the pastor than the convert. Giving more time just doesn’t make economic sense.
After all there are hundreds of people, maybe even thousands, whose attention we pastors want and if they quit giving us their attention then what?
Attendance falls, offerings decline, and we get replaced.
As long as attendance grows, emotions flow, people are energized, and we dunk a few each week it is difficult to pay attention to the fact that 9 out of 10 of those “quick” conversions aren’t conversions at all. Instead, they are a McDonalds Drive Thru God Appeasement Attempt that goes something like this, “Surely if I do this, then God will__________.”
We Church leaders then excuse our part in the fiasco –
“It’s not really my fault.”
“God is sovereign!”
“I gave them a chance!”
Right?
How I Wish “church” People Got It…
Once upon a time the very first pipe organ was installed in a church, surely somewhere in Europe.
I wonder if there was someone who was raised in the church, came every time the doors were opened, who just seriously threw a fit over that modern piece of machinery being installed in her church. “Only pagans use that! It’s a distraction, I just can’t worship.” she would argue.
There once was a time when the hymnal was introduced to the church pew.
I wonder if there was someone who was raised in the church, came every time the doors were opened, who just seriously threw a fit over the fact that, “It shows a lack of discipline if people can’t memorize songs. Plus, we have enough songs already why do people need to keep writing new ones? It’s a distraction, I just can’t worship with people reading books the whole time.”
Once upon a time praise choruses moved from fireside youth retreats to Sunday mornings and were first projected using overhead projectors and then video projectors.
I wonder if there was someone who was raised in the church, who came every time the doors were opened, who just seriously threw a fit over the fact that, “You mean the screen is going to cover up the stained glass window! My grandfather paid for that stained glass window! It’s a distraction, I just can’t worship knowing how much sacrifice went into that window and you’re going to cover it up with a screen.”
So, I walk into a local place of business of people who attend church, who confess to be in one every time the doors are opened, who asked what I thought of the band last weekend. I said, “I thought they were great. ” She said, “Why did that guy in the back have a hat on? It wasn’t respectful. It was a distraction.”
Whenever tradition or cultural norms dictate our ability to focus on what Jesus did for us and does to us we’ll never be able to profess that our church is full of people like this…