Those of us in the mainline traditions don’t really know what to make of revivalism. Not many of us walk down the aisle to confess and surrender our sins to God. We don’t think that we receive the grace of God because we have found faith; we believe faith is a response to the prevenient grace of God. I get that too.
What I do not get is why the more theologically sophisticated a person becomes, the less likely she or he is to have any interest in inviting people to experience conversion. The apostle Paul knew a lot more theology than most of us before he encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus. So he was wrong. This is what we are not so good at confessing””that there is more to Jesus than we know.
We in the liturgically devoted Christian traditions are as in need of repentance and surrender as those who shuffled into my father’s revival tent. We gave up the revival tents, thankfully, but for some reason we also gave up the invitation to surrender all to Jesus.
Read it all (my emphasis).
I don’t know exactly what an invitation to conversion means. I heard a Christian comic recently say that nothing is more uncomfortable than someone walking up to you and saying “Let me tell you about Jesus” even for a believer. I can only speak for myself but since I left TEC I invite people to my church every week. Honestly, I became embarrassed to invite people to my old TEC church, or to even tell them where I worshiped. I now carry St. Paul’s Church cards in my pocket and hand then out regularly. Our “mantra” is “come and see” what is happening at St. Paul’s. Many, many others in my church do the same. All I can say is it seem to be working.
I on e heard that TEC was a church that was designed to help people along on a journey that they never began.