The most radical change that I made was going from being a Roman Catholic to an evangelical Christian when I was 18. But maybe it wasn’t all that different. Even as a Roman Catholic, I was encouraged to love God, love others, and recogize that I needed a Saviour.
I remember learning to sing part of the liturgy in the mass:
Lord by your cross and resurrection, you have set us free. You are the Saviour of the world.
When I got to my teens, I began to question everything. Why should I follow the religion of my country? What if I had been born somewhere else? Doesn’t it make sense to investigate other religions and other denominations within Christianity?
I loved the New Testament – that probably started with seeing movies about Jesus – but someone gave me a little Gideon New Testament, which I regularly read. While searching for Radio Luxembourg 208, I’d sometimes found Trans World Radio Monte Carlo, an evangelical Christian station that featured preaching. It struck a deeper chord with me than Roman Catholicism. As I studied history, I discovered so much Roman Catholic doctrine emerged over the centuries and didn’t have a biblical basis. And much of Protestantism was modernist/liberal. It was difficult to ascertain whether or not they really believed the Bible. Then, there were the cults. Some claimed to believe the Bible, but they tended to follow the interpretation of some 19th century guru and dismiss everyone else.
When I met evangelical Christians, they seemed to love Jesus and the Scriptures. There was a diversity of opinion among them on issues such as church gpvernment, whether New Testament practices such as miracles, speaking in tongues etc should still operate in the modern age. And they spanned most denominations. Even within Roman Catholicism at the time, there was the charismatic movement. Some of family attended these meetings.
It was quite a radical move to switch to an evangelical church. Initially, it was a big shock to my family and friends. Back then, people saw anything outside mainstream Catholicism or Protestantism as a sinister sect or cult. But pretty soon people accepted my decision.
A key distinctive of evangelicals is our stress on personal faith, the Bible, the cross of Christ and the need to spread the Christian message even to places that feel they already know it. So many of my friend were baptised as Catholics but showed little interest in religion. Evangelicals stress the need to be born again. I generally date my spiritual birth to August 1980. But it could have happened earlier in my life in a more subtle way. I might have committed my life to Christ as a child but became confused as I tried to figure out what He expected of me. But whether August 1980 was the day I became a Christian or the day that I decided to stop sitting on the fence and commit myself to live for Christ, it was hugely significant for me.
So, why did I entitled this post to “Nothing Much”? Eventhough I believe that people should only be baptised when they believe, I think of my own baptism as a baby. On that day, perhaps some focused on praying that I would believe in Jesus and maybe others prayed that I would show great committment to the Roman Catholic church. For me, faith in Jesus is the big thing. And though I date August 1980 as my conversion, I feel that as soon as I was old enough to have any understanding of Jesus, I engaged with Him. So in that sense, nothing much changed. But I’m still delighted to have found evangelical Christians. It’s been such a delight to have so many friends that have encouraged me in my faith rather than draw me away from God. If I had lived in medieval times, I wouldn’t have the choices that we have today. But I like to think that many medieval people had true personal faith in Jesus, even if they had little understanding of theology.
I’d prefer if the Roman Catholic church ditched all the traditions that crept in from paganism and theological speculation. And I’d have liked if my whole family had become evangelical Christians. But ultimately, the important thing is believing in Jesus rather than the church or movement that you adhere to. Evangelical churches have their faults too – and there’s always much debate about various issues within them. But what’s wrong with disgreement. It can be healthy to question things.
Earlier, I mention the Roman Catholic charismatic movement. Here are some song that they sung back in the early 1980s, and that we sung in my evangelical churches:
Hibernia Gospel 