Conversion of the Church

I am leading members of my congregation through an extended study of the Book of Acts. I chose this book because it has a strong missional message. That message is important because we are discerning what it means for us as a Mainline Protestant congregation with a long heritage to be missional.

Having reached the story of Cornelius's conversion (Acts 10), we might ask a further question: Beyond Cornelius, is anyone else experiencing conversion in this passage? And, from there, what might this passage say to the contemporary church? Is this simply "history," which we hear read and then conveniently store away? Or is there something powerful hear that speaks to our own present situation?

Could there be barriers and boundaries that we as the church, must traverse in order that we might be transformed by God’s grace?

The theme of conversion is a constant one in Acts. As one reads through these early chapters, we see the conversion of the Pentecost Pilgrims in Acts 2, a whole host of people in Jerusalem, the Eunuch, and the Samaritans. We’ve run into Saul of Tarsus, who experiences a dramatic conversion. Now, we find Cornelius and his household experience conversion. As we ponder these “conversions,” could we add into this mix another set of conversions – the further conversion of Peter and the Christian community? Were they not just as converted as Cornelius when the Spirit fell on this new community?

Consider this statement by Anthony Robinson and Robert Wall:

Contrary to much Christian theology and practice, this suggests that the field of mission and conversion may not be solely, or even primarily outside the church doors, or in non-Christian cultures, or among those who have not yet met Christ. Peter’s conversion suggests that the mission field may be, equally, inside our sanctuaries, in the life of our own congregations, and in our own land and culture – in our lives and churches today because God is a living God, because God is still speaking, and because God is doing a new thing (Isa. 43:19). “There is,” as John Robinson, pastor to the Pilgrims in the seventeenth century, said, “yet more truth and light to break forth from God’s Holy Word.” (Anthony B. Robinson and Robert W. Wall, Called to be Church, Eerdmans, 2006, pp. 158-59).


Is conversion not a continuing experience, one that requires us to be transformed by God's grace as we journey along with God? Indeed, mustn't the church continually be converted. We talk about continued reformation -- semper reformata -- but isn't it more than reformation. Isn't it in fact continued conversion?

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