In the early centuries of the Church, people were not primarily attracted to Christianity by attending worship services, because they generally were not allowed within such.  Rather, the primary attraction to the Christian faith came through their associations with Christians in the culture at large.  Whether it be through the marketplace, a community’s civic life, or one’s neighborhood, people encountered followers of Jesus who lived life differently than other folk.  The way they looked after the poor, engaged in acts of mercy, and cared for one another set them apart from everyone else. 

Becoming a Christian involved much, much than the making of a sentimental “decision” – it was a choice to become completely immersed in the life of Christ.  Disciples have always been made, not born, yet the conversion/initiation “journey” is one that evangelicals continue to resist and/or struggle with. 

Among evangelicals, salvation is commonly viewed more as an event than as a process, and baptism as merely an “outward sign” of an inner conviction.  This is a travesty – a point of view that contributes to the hollowness that has only recently been called into question by a new generation of evangelicals.  More than ever, we live in an age and in a Church that desperately needs to return to the ancient moorings of catechesis, and to the “journey” which is baptism – a journey that precedes faith and continues long after the actual rite of baptism has been performed. 

Hey. Check out an interview than friend, Keltic Ken, conducted with Anne Graham Lotz today:  click here 

The interview was prompted by Ann's new book: The Magnificent Obsession.

Although some of the conversation -- coming from the daughter of Billy Graham -- was strongly evangelical and a bit predictable, she had some good things to share and Ken did an excellent job handling the interview.

(August 4, 2009)

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And so our day began...

Walking where so many weary had once ridden - through miles of tree-lined footpaths instead of rails and boxcars, overflowing with forsaken humanity amidst the scent of wildflowers beneath a canopy of birch and pine trying to draw us away from those ancient smells of sweat and fear and death.

Where our journey-path ended, the never-forgotten nightmare once began.  Past river and fence and ditch and barbed wire, we entered the place of sorrows -- a city within a city, yet unlike any city ever known -- a city once filled with the souls of the doomed: degraded, used and abused.

Hope was stripped here. Dignity was stolen here. The breath of life was extinguished here.  So many died in pain and suffering and agony here.

This is Dachau.

*The pictures and text were a recent entry in my travel journal while in Germany-- Chris