Why is a Biblical Understanding of Conversion Important for Local Church Health?
Conversion Clarity
Clarity on conversion promotes the health of the local church because it provides unbelievers with a clear and unified witness of what conversion is.
- Confusion over conversion in the local church blurs the lines between who is a Christian and who is not.
- This fuzziness often leads unbelievers into derision and rejection of Christianity because of the perceived hypocrisy of professing but false Christians who sin grossly and repeatedly as members of the local church - not a good vital sign for the local assembly.
- When we are faithful to press for clarity on conversion in our churches, the public witness of the local assembly is more viable because the membership is made up only of genuinely converted believers who are by definition "loving out" the principles of the gospel.
- This unified witness of mutual love, will, in turn, make the unbelieving community more likely to listen to the music of the church's corporate life and look at her with curious wonder.
- This is not merely a pragmatic principle - it is a Scriptural one. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another (John 13:35).
- A Biblical understanding of conversion is therefore integral to the clear and unified corporate witness of the church, which is in turn indispensable to experiencing healthy conversion growth in the local assembly.
