I Once Was Lost

Posted July 2, 2009 at 11:19 am

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One of the books I’ve come across as I’ve been reading about launching a church in a post-Christian culture is I Once Was Lost by Don Everts and Doug Schaupp. They do a great job telling the stories of a number of postmodern skeptics who have become Christ-followers. They map out five thresholds that most people cross on their way to entering the Kingdom. These thresholds aren’t hard and fast rules, but they do tend to show up in predictable ways when new Christians tell their stories.

After making it clear that the path to faith in Jesus is both mysterious and organic they lay out the five thresholds of postmodern conversion.

1. There is a move from distrust to trust. At some point, skeptics learn to trust a Christian. This takes time and can’t be forced or rushed.
2. There is a move from complacency to curiosity.  There is a shift where skeptics become curious about Jesus and his teachings.
3. There is a move from being closed to being open to change in their life. This is the hardest threshold for most skeptics to cross. To cross this threshold, they must be ready to change their way of life.
4. There is a move from meandering to seeking. When they cross this threshold skeptics begin to urgently seek after God and pursue answers, rather than merely hang out with Christians, go to a few Bible studies, ask lots of questions, and see what happens.
5. The final move is to cross the threshold of the kingdom itself. They repent and give their life to Jesus. Someone can cross all four of the previous thresholds and still not “enter the kingdom.”

Our role in helping our skeptical friends start following Jesus is to be attentive to where they are on their journey and walk with them appropriately. We’ll talk more about this later.

For now, what do you think of these thresholds? Do they ring true? How do they line up with your path to faith in Jesus? What are the implications of being aware of these thresholds?

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