Conversion Quotes

“The church is not a theological classroom. It is a conversion, confession, repentance, reconciliation, forgiveness and sanctification center, where flawed people place their faith in Christ, gather to know and love him better, and learn to love others as he designed.”
― Paul David Tripp, Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands: People in Need of Change Helping People in Need of Change

“The Hindus criticise the Mahomedans for having spread their religion by the use of the sword. They also ridicule Christianity on the score of the Inquisition.

But really speaking, who is better and more worthy of our respect—the Mahomedans and Christians who attempted to thrust down the throats of unwilling persons what they regarded as necessary for their salvation, or the Hindu who would not spread the light, who would endeavour to keep others in darkness, who would not consent to share his intellectual and social inheritance with those who are ready and willing to make it a part of their own make-up?

I have no hesitation in saying that if the Mahomedan has been cruel, the Hindu has been mean; and meanness is worse than cruelty.”
― B.R. Ambedkar, Annihilation of Caste

“The world does not consist of 100 percent Christians and 100 percent non-Christians. There are people (a great many of them) who are slowly ceasing to be Christians but who still call themselves by that name: some of them are clergymen. There are other people who are slowly becoming Christians though they do not yet call themselves so. ”
― C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

“Conversion is not the smooth, easy-going process some men seem to think... It is wounding work, this breaking of the hearts, but without wounding there is no saving... Where there is grafting there will always be a cutting, the graft must be let in with a wound; to stick it onto the outside or to tie it on with a string would be of no use. Heart must be set to heart and back to back or there will be no sap from root to branch. And this, I say, must be done by a wound, by a cut.”
― John Bunyan

“Neither fear nor self-interest can convert the soul. They may change the appearance, perhaps even the conduct, but never the object of supreme desire... Fear is the motive which constrains the slave; greed binds the selfish man, by which he is tempted when he is drawn away by his own lust and enticed (James 1:14). But neither fear nor self-interest is undefiled, nor can they convert the soul. Only charity can convert the soul, freeing it from unworthy motives.”
― St. Bernard of Clairvaux

“The church must suffer for speaking the truth, for pointing out sin, for uprooting sin. No one wants to have a sore spot touched, and therefore a society with so many sores twitches when someone has the courage to touch it and say: “You have to treat that. You have to get rid of that. Believe in Christ. Be converted.”
― Oscar A. Romero, The Violence Of Love

“Social responsibility becomes an aspect not of Christian mission only, but also of Christian conversion. It is impossible to be truly converted to God without being thereby converted to our neighbor.”
― John Stott

“Conversion and zealotry, just like revelation and apostasy, are flip sides of the same coin, the currency of a political culture having more in common with religion than rational discourse.”
― Norman G. Finkelstein, Christopher Hitchens and His Critics: Terror, Iraq, and the Left

“When one of my friends becomes a Christian, which happens about every 10 years because I am a sheep about sharing my faith, the experience is euphoric. I see in their eyes the trueness of the story.”
― Donald Miller, Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality

“It is no longer a question of a Christian going about to convert others to the faith, but of each one being ready to listen to the other and so to grow together in mutual understanding.”
― Bede Griffiths

“People who understands how to convert their time into useful products do not complain of boredom.”
― Sunday Adelaja, How To Become Great Through Time Conversion: Are you wasting time, spending time or investing time?

“So, as we have our tea, I propose not only to operate on your heart so as to change your will, but also on your eyes so as to change your outlook. But wait a minute. No, I do not propose to operate at all. I myself cannot do anything of the sort. I am just mildly suggesting that you are perhaps dead, and perhaps blind, leaving you to think the matter over for yourself. If an operation is to be performed it must be performed by God Himself.”
― Cornelius Van Til

“There's magic, positive magic, in such phrases as: "I may be wrong. I frequently am. Let's examine the facts.”
― Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends & Influence People

“Il est bon à savoir. It is good to know.”
― Katherine Howe, Conversion

“But an attentive researcher--like you--might be able to see something that all the experts can't see. If she asks the right questions.”
― Katherine Howe, Conversion

“God will save whomever He chooses to save. The Christian should proselytize not because he thinks he can change everybody; he should proselytize because the Gospel being shared is the ultimate act of love: because he thinks he can love everybody.”
― Criss Jami, Healology

“Jesus said in Matthew 5:45, “He causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” This was certainly a far cry from the cruel and vengeful god of the Qur’an.”
― Mosab Hassan Yousef

“Correctly understood, repentance is not negative but positive. It means, not self-pity or remorse, but conversion, the re-centering of our whole life upon the Trinity. It is to look, not backward with regret, but forward with hope - not downwards at our own shortcomings, but upwards at God's love. It is to see, not what we have failed to be, but what by divine grace we can now become; and it is to act upon what we see. To repent is to open our eyes to the light. In this sense, repentance is not just a single act, an initial step, but a continuing state, an attitude of heart and will that needs to be ceaselessly renewed up to the end of life.”
― Kallistos Ware, The Orthodox Way

“If anyone maintain that men ought to be compelled by fire and sword to profess certain doctrines, and conform to this or that exterior worship, without any regard had unto their morals; if anyone endeavour to convert those that are erroneous unto the faith, by forcing them to profess things that they do not believe and allowing them to practise things that the Gospel does not permit, it cannot be doubted indeed but such a one is desirous to have a numerous assembly joined in the same profession with himself; but that he principally intends by those means to compose a truly Christian Church is altogether incredible.”
― John Locke, A Letter Concerning Toleration

“The basic dynamics of conversion are summed up for me in the words LEAVE-ARRIVE, END-BEGIN, SHED-EMERGE. These are the tensions of conversion and spiritual awakening.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, God's Joyful Surprise: Finding Yourself Loved

“The Lord works in mysterious ways. What's true to one man, a wonder and a marvel, might not seem so to another, as God didn't intend it for him.”
― Katherine Howe, Conversion

“Time must be converted into product”
― Sunday Adelaja

“To know what to do with time is to convert a day”
― Sunday Adelaja

“To convert a day is to produce a product”
― Sunday Adelaja

“Every minute, hour and hour that passes daily should be converted into product”
― Sunday Adelaja

“Teach the people the Word before converting and baptizing them”
― Sunday Adelaja

“Then, carefully, in the manner of a storyteller, he gave it the experience of his abduction, captivity and conversion. All that he had felt, he made it feel. He did what he had not known he could do. He overwhelmed it so that for a time it was, itself, both captive and convert”
― Octavia E. Butler, Adulthood Rites

“The bishop had no desire to alienate the count and and accept his requirements. It was a time of great spiritual Independence in france, and of hypocrisy. Many were anti-religious, but followed the forms: They had their children baptized, and married in the Church, and were desperate to receive the last rites from a priest. It was spiritual insurance they sought- the comfort of tradition without restraints on their behavior. It was the sort of transaction the bishop understood perfectly and exploited for his treasury. If the count wanted to keep a pagan woman but remain in the Church and give it money, then the bishop would certainly not deny him his wish. But he must try for the woman's conversion. It was the proper form.”
― David Ball, Empires of Sand by David Ball

“Mindful silence adds purpose to words.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Yaralardan Yangın Doğar: Explorers of Night are Emperors of Dawn

“Being open to conversion is much like writing a book. We start with a goal and a thesis we want to develop. There is much tedious work in the details, and the daily pages may wear down our spirits. The sheer length of it overwhelms us. It tempts us to goof off at times, knowing that the deadline is very distant. But our spiritual conversion is the book of a lifetime! It has our sweat and blood in it. How can we settle for something second rate? The days and weeks and months go by, and the distractions keep coming. We need passion and intensity to resist them. A great book, like a truly spiritual life, does not come about without constant and diligent effort.”
― Kenneth Rolheiser, Running with God: Spiritual Fitness for All Seasons