At The Corner of Emmaus & Damacus

From Mace2000

Paul Fromont keeps a wonderful blog with Alan Jamieson called Prodigal Kiwis
- I love it when a new post shows up in my news reader.  Paul picked up a quote from Alan recently:

There was more talk of transformation through coming to know Christ (the road to Emmaus) than conversion (the road to Damascus). Such transformation seemed more of a process than an event and encompassed longer time frames.

then connected it to a recent post from Sue Wallace:

“…I pricked my ears up when someone recommended [Stephen Cottrell’s] book "From the Abundance of the Heart" which is subtitled Catholic Evangelism for All Christians. And I must admit that I have been impressed. It makes a lot of sense. The church in the past has spent a lot of time and effort on "Damascus Road" type evangelism, focussing on the sudden conversion experience, and those experiences are good and he doesn't dismiss them. But then he (Cottrell) suggests that you try asking your people about their faith-stories, and see how it happened for them. Apparently 3/4 of Christian's stories are more like the "Emmaus Road" than the "Damascus Road", a gradual journey accompanied by others…”

Read the rest of Sue’s post here. 

Great, great connections here.

My own story is one of both Damascus and Emmaus - of gradual transformation, with random jumps of conversion.  The jumps are so often non-linear, coming at the most unexpected moments, usually with little warning.  These roads have maps that are not drawn in pen or ink - the trails are worn thru by footsteps of folks who have come before us.  The little I have learned about travelling these roads is that they can not be managed, in the modern mindset of predictable journeys and safe passage.

My biggest a-ha about these roads recently has been that they are rarely travelled alone.  So much of Western churchianity is about I and me, drawn to bite-sized portion & customized like an avator - Jesus is my wing-man or the Holy Spirit is Oprah-like, or even worse, God is Big Daddy in the Sky.  When I am worshipping in a community that recites the Nicene Creed, I am always comforted that most sentences begin with We.  I may not believe something at that very moment, but someone believes that and they can hold that for me.

At the corner of Damascus & Emmaus is us and our walks.

Comments

[Paul Fromont]

Thanks Bob. I'm pleased you found Alan's observation useful.