Differen and diverse conversion experience
Aaron L. Garriott When did you become a Christian?” For years, I dreaded being asked this question. Admitting uncertainty never felt like a satisfactory answer. I thought it necessary yet found it impossible to pinpoint even a small timeframe of my conversion to conform to evangelicalism’s deeply held assumptions about conversion experiences. Generally speaking, there are two categories of conversion experiences recounted today. The first category consists of those who were reared in the Christian religion and confess to believing so early that they cannot remember a time when they were not believers. The second category consists of those who heard the gospel and experienced the effects of regeneration later in life. Though these two categories are the most common, they do not makeup how people experience conversion. Therefore, we must not insist that Christians neatly conform their understanding of conversion into one of these two categories. Rather, we must allow for diversity in how