Tuesday, June 5, 2012 at 8:39AM The Times They Are A-Changing
From Steve Mathonnet-Vander Well
It is one of those hackneyed Christian questions, carrying just enough subtle guilt to fulfill most Christians’ need to feel shamed and inadequate, as well as keeping Christian counselors busy into the foreseeable future.
“How many people have you led to the Lord?”
Never mind the unhealthily individualistic notion of salvation. Never mind making notches in our belt, like a gunslinger of the old west. Never mind the short shrift given to the Holy Spirit in the birthing of faith. It is one of those questions that fill many Christians with that delicious sense of fear and failure they so crave and have come to expect from the church.
When I hear that question, however, I confidently say to myself, “At least one! Bob Dylan.”
Of course I’ve heard about the role of the Vineyard fellowship, and the influence one of his background vocalists had on Dylan’s very public embrace of Christianity in the late 1970’s. I’ve read all sorts of conjecture about his ongoing pilgrimage and religious convictions. I’m always trying to sift his newer lyrics for some clue about the state of his soul. But being Reformed, I can confidently rely on “once saved…”
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