When is a Christian not a Christian
My eight-and-a-half-year-old friend teaches me to follow Jesus. Thankfully, she hasn't yet learned all the Bible-blurring jargon of the Christian world. She believes with child-like depth, curiosity and wonder - which sadly we lose as we grow up into socially constructed, rational human beings.
It came as a shock, therefore, as she returned from a camp this Easter, to hear that she had become - in her own words - "a proper Christian". She'd gone with a friend and, at the end of the week, had said the 'believer's prayer', received the booklet and joined the club.
The news was hard for her parents to swallow. They've carefully nurtured her capacity to believe - in a positive, non-manipulative way - throughout her short life. What had they done that wasn't 'proper'? It also came as a surprise to her Sunday school teacher. How, all of a sudden, had she changed - beyond being another conversion that someone else had scored?
Many people, like Saul of Tarsus, can remember the time and place they began following Christ. For them, the flash of light is blindingly real; the scales really do fall from their eyes. Others have a more gradual realisation; after Peter left his fishing nets, he experienced several defining moments (and even after declaring "You are the Christ", denied him three times). Still others shape their faith through profound moments of doubt; we remember Thomas at Easter, who, not unreasonably, needed to see before he believed that a dead man could walk. All three followed Christ, but their experiences varied greatly.
Today, many Christians judge whether others are 'in' or 'out' by whether or not they've 'converted' and conformed to the patterns of the church. Many do convert, of course; but others walk the road less travelled without enjoying the particular, cultural rite of passage my friend encountered. Such journeys are no less valid, and we've much to learn along the way from those who don't conform to our own idea of 'proper' - whatever that might be.
That's not, however, to belittle my friend's experience. It was probably authentic, and significant. I can't help wondering, though, whether she described it in her own way, or whether she began, while at camp, to speak in a different language. If I'm really honest, it's left this particular grown-up a little lost for words.
Brian Draper
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