Doubt: What should I do with my…
The sixth sermon in the series, 'The Trouble with Christianity: Why it's so hard to believe it"…
Don’t ask ‘how were you converted?’
Archbishop Peter Jensen | 29 August 2006
the danger of music as ‘worship’
By PETER JENSEN
At the moment there seems to be a lot of emphasis on experiencing God through music. I am all in favour of music and I particularly love congregational singing. Sometimes I am caught up in the expression of our faith and my emotions are heightened to the point of tears of joy.
But what I need to remember is that music and singing in themselves may be of no spiritual value and indeed may be harmful if they lead me off in the wrong direction. I am sure that the prophets of Baal were pretty good at singing songs to their fierce and false lord. They may even have been beautiful and appealing songs.
So far I have not heard the equivalent of Baal worship in any of our churches and I am not expecting to! But I have heard singing which, while addressed to Jesus, falls very far short of a piety which is shaped by the Bible. In particular there is a sentimentality which poses no challenge to us at a spiritual level, and seems to serve only to give the singers a private emotional high.
That is why we must remain Bible people. Our minds need to be captured by the word of God and our spiritual lives need to be understood through the teaching of the word if we are to grasp what God is doing, and save ourselves from counterfeit experience.
By PETER JENSEN
At the moment there seems to be a lot of emphasis on experiencing God through music. I am all in favour of music and I particularly love congregational singing. Sometimes I am caught up in the expression of our faith and my emotions are heightened to the point of tears of joy.
But what I need to remember is that music and singing in themselves may be of no spiritual value and indeed may be harmful if they lead me off in the wrong direction. I am sure that the prophets of Baal were pretty good at singing songs to their fierce and false lord. They may even have been beautiful and appealing songs.
So far I have not heard the equivalent of Baal worship in any of our churches and I am not expecting to! But I have heard singing which, while addressed to Jesus, falls very far short of a piety which is shaped by the Bible. In particular there is a sentimentality which poses no challenge to us at a spiritual level, and seems to serve only to give the singers a private emotional high.
That is why we must remain Bible people. Our minds need to be captured by the word of God and our spiritual lives need to be understood through the teaching of the word if we are to grasp what God is doing, and save ourselves from counterfeit experience.
ARCHBISHOP WRITES
with PETER JENSEN
Asking someone how they were converted suggests there are two classes of Christian – the converted and unconverted. But is it the right question to ask in the first place?
How were you converted?
This is a threatening question, except for those who have a clear testimony to personal conversion. It certainly suggests that there are two classes of Christian, the converted and unconverted. Thus if we do not have a spiritual testimony we feel either anxious that we may not be Christian or angry that others look down on us.
But I wonder whether it is a right question in the first place. If we unpack the idea in a biblical way, we discover that what the Bible is really calling for is repentance and faith. Put these two things together, and we have ‘conversion’. In fact modern versions of the Bible do not seem to use the word at all. You could ask instead, ‘Do you believe in Jesus Christ as Lord?’.
There are two problems with the way in which we speak here. In the first place we could think that because we do not remember a spiritual conversion experience, we are not saved. But a conversion experience is not the point. The issue really is, do we now have faith in Jesus Christ as Lord? Such a faith is of course not possible without repentance.
There are quite a number of people who have grown up in a Christian family and have never known a time when they did not know the Lord. Far from feeling deprived by this because they cannot point to a moment of conversion, they should be very glad. It is a great thing to have always known Christ. The test for them is to make sure that their faith is real and personal today.
The second problem is that we may have a conversion experience which is vital and stirring but not Christian. After all, becoming an adherent of Hinduism is a conversion and may (I presume) be accompanied by deep and memorable emotions.
Likewise, even when we hear something Christian we may respond inadequately, or the gospel may be explained inadequately. I am sure that my evangelistic preaching could be far more ‘successful’ if I left out certain inconvenient parts of Christianity such as repentance!
In some Christian circles it is the custom to preach for conversion very frequently and to ask people to signify their conversion by some outward sign, such as standing. Such preaching and such a profession of faith has its place.
But where they become the norm, it becomes a ‘rite of passage’ through which people have to go if they want to be in the group. Inevitably the spiritual experience thus promoted often becomes very shallow.
One response to such a problem has been to created a two-experience structure, in which the first experience is when you accept Jesus as Saviour and the second is when you find him as your Lord. Bad theology leads to worse theology.
If you do not receive Jesus as Lord from the beginning, you have not received him as Saviour. The two things are indivisible, just as Jesus is indivisible. He saves us by being our Lord.
It may be that your way into Christian faith has been through such a two-step process. I think it is better to say either that you did not really become a Christian until the second point, or that the second point represented one of those moments when you were given a deeper understanding of God.
Spiritual experience is an indispensable thing for a Christian and very precious. But it needs to be shaped by and understood through the Bible in case we turn our experiences into something which subverts the gospel and becomes more authoritative for us than the word of God itself.
Which brings us back to conversion. I hope that we are all converted – that is, I hope that we all have the gifts of repentance and faith. These arise when we hear God’s word and respond in the power of the Holy Spirit. Certainly we should all have a testimony to God’s work in our lives and we will all have that testimony when we live out our lives under him.
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