In previous postings (May 12, June 6, July 3) I looked at the problem of conversion when it is considered a singular event rather than an extended journey. I considered the problem in three contexts; first of an individual coming to faith from outside the covenant tradition of Israel: Simon the magician (Acts 8:9-24). Second, problem of conversion in a community, many of whom also came from outside the covenant tradition. In that case it was the church in Corinth, primarily looking at Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians. In the third case it was the apostles themselves who served as an example of the problem of conversion; a problem even among those steeped in both the covenant tradition and the teaching of Jesus. Perhaps all these stories connected with our experience of people of faith or communities of faith. But whether we found a connection or not, all three of those postings only described situations. There was no mention of a way forward, of getting the process of conversion unstuck.
It reminds me of one of my mother’s favorite jokes (she was a medical secretary). A man visits his doctor and describes a whole host of symptoms. The doctor listens carefully and then he asks: “Have you had this condition before?” The man answers in the affirmative and the doctor then says: “Well, you’ve got it again. That will be fifty dollars. Next patient.” Fortunately, my postings are free of charge, but it’s still not helpful to leave us with a description we may already recognize.
Of course, the first step is to recognize that conversion is a journey and if we’re not making progress, we need to get unstuck. There are several tools available to us in getting moving on our journey. These tools, often called spiritual disciplines, are, or should be, quite familiar to us. Most Christian traditions include prayer, Bible study, and service. There are several other disciplines including fasting, giving, worship, penance, devotional reading and more. And these are not new. Their pedigree is older than the Church, for we learned them from the Jews.
These disciplines have indeed been around for centuries, but by themselves are not sufficient to start our journey into a fuller conversion. If they were, Christian history would read rather differently. At their best, they might awaken a hunger for closer connection with Jesus. At their worst they create a complacency that can produce legalistic self-righteousness. It is not that these disciplines are faulty. They are all good and several of them necessary to the journey of conversion. It is that there are two critical elements missing: understanding the context of the disciplines and understanding their purpose.
Most of what Jesus teaches about the values and priorities of the Jesus path assume it is lived in community. The late Canon David Watson once observed that “the meeting place is the learning place for the marketplace.” Many times, when I’ve quoted that in sermons and teachings, the only response I get is a blank look. Part of the problem is that Watson was speaking in British idiom and I’ve only ministered in the US. But the main problem is that we fail, on the whole, to appreciate the essential nature of community in following the Jesus path.
The meeting place, in Watson’s observation, is the regular gathering of Christ’s people in worship and fellowship. Yet even that can be misleading. Worship is an action directed God-ward. The community’s attention is directed towards those who are leading the worship. It is not a place of conversation or relation-building among those gathered. Worship, whether liturgical or non-liturgical, is not designed to create or build relationships. Those relationships are formed in smaller configurations where there is time to share and reflect and experiment with the Spirit filled life in Christ.
It is in these smaller groups, as well as in corporate worship, that the meeting place becomes the learning place. The learning can be factual – as in getting insight to Scripture through sharing understanding. It can be behavioral – as in sharing struggles and practices in prayer. It can be relational – as in dealing faithfully with others whose style of communication, values, and personalities are quite different than our own. When what we are learning becomes part of our own behavior, we carry that into the world outside our group and our congregation. And the meeting place has become the learning place for engaging in the marketplace – a Britishism that refers not to the large halls of commerce but to the town market where, in the midst of our personal commerce we connect with our local community.
That now leaves us with the final piece of the puzzle of getting conversion unstuck – the purpose. And that purpose is not what we often think it is. But that must wait for the next post.
The Apprentice Priest 