March 21, 2006
prayer, liturgy and things of conversion
I have been asked to share my conversion experience with people a lot lately. There is nothing in my experience like the pulpit search process to bring this question to the fore.
People have varying ideas and experiences about how someone's conversion should look. For some, it is a flashing moment when they met God and were convicted of their sins...or something like that. For others, it was a relationship or friendship based in the study of scripture. It could be most anything. Really. And for me, it was prayer and liturgy.
I have a degree in Religion from my undergrad. That was a great experience. I probably met God in the classroom as well. I felt welcomed by Christianity for the first time there at least. But the formation, that conversion when my soul gradually turned happened in the daily prayers of a shared communal life. This is another way to be steeped in the language of scripture and the history of the various streams of faith. It is as converting as bible study, as engrossing as the flash of light.
I have been thinking of this lately not just because I have been asked the question seven different ways from Sunday but because Reconciler seems to be moving in this direction. Certainly the other forms of conversion are welcomed, but our principal means of conversion, teaching and encouraging discipleship is in shared worship.
This witness will hopefully become stronger as Holy Trinity, an ecumenical intentional community associated with Reconciler grows roots. Daily prayer, daily reading of scripture, and a shared life together in the name of Christ can be a strong guide to a congregation...a core group of monastics, if you will, to guide us all.
I'm looking forward to all of this.
liturgy, prayer, conversion
Posted by tripp at March 21, 2006 02:29 PM
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