Conversion and identification

This is not a research-based thing, rather an informal observation. Though it would be interesting to research it…

There is a tendency for Christian basics courses to be arenas where people learn the basic narrative structures of conversion and how to identify things in their life that can be pulled out and conform to that structure. I’ve observed this in confirmation and baptism preparation where people are encouraged to write a ‘testimony’. When they have pretty much grown up “in the fear and nurture of the Lord”, they are often/sometimes coached into traditional before-and-after conversion narratives which are partial and gave significance to aspects of their lives and fail to value other ‘less fitting’ things which probably would have been seen differently in a larger narrative arc.

The difficulty in all this set story line testimony, is that it blinds us to what may really be going on and so makes us more and more out of touch with what the Spirit may be doing to draw people to Christ.

I don’t think people are being dishonest when they tell their story through the narrative framework they inherit, they see themselves as telling the truth. However there may be more they could incorporate bit the/a fuller tale might be more awkward to fit the standard narrative framework and perhaps less dramatic. The work of spiritual guidance [”direction”, “soul friendship”] is often about recovering and integrating ‘lost’ narrative episodes or learning to pay attention to meetings with God that fall outside of the theological or devotional framework we norm [usually unconsciously and often we respond with joy to widening it].

It’s why I think that we need people with ’spiritual director’ instincts involved in evangelism among spiritual seekers: such people are not so interested in a particular narrative being reproduced in someone’s life, but rather in discovering what the Spirit is doing, noticing it and affirming connections betweeen that and Christ. Ben Campbell Johnson’s “Speaking of God: Evangelism as initial spiritual guidance” is a good intro to the idea.