I became a follower of Jesus. I was always a Christian, by which I mean that I always trusted in Christ to avoid hell. But, in the years since I left politics, I have increasingly felt called to follow – to imitate, to learn from the teachings of, and to be shaped by the model of – Jesus. These means that I am seeking, each day, to be converted and to become more and more like Christ.

Reading this comes on the back of a conversation a few weeks ago about process or journey in faith.  There was a general agreement that we have moved away from a decision (crisis) to journey (process).  I actually think there is a place for crisis, but in the context of process.  So our faith journey is punctuated by moment of crisis: are we going to follow and trust Jesus in this situation?  My problem is when the only crisis is the moment of "conversion".  Throughout our life, we will face many moments of crisis: perhaps at times of illness or bereavement or failure in some way.  These are also the moments to trust and follow…

It is all too common for Christians to attempt to do justice to the scriptural narrative by listening to it, learning from it, and attempting to extract a way of viewing the world from it. But the narrative itself is asking us to approach it in a much more radical way. It is inviting us to wrestle with it, disagree with it, contend with it, and contest it-not as an end in itself, but as a means of approaching its life-transforming truth, a truth that dwells within and yet beyond the words.

Pete Rollins

Brian McLaren in recent Blog Post