Mission Research

5 Crucial Factors In Asian Conversions

Why Asians Decide to Follow Christ

I just completed my master’s degree. I’m not going to lie, it brought me to tears. I was in a coffee shop in England, crying.

But not for the reason you think.

It was actually the beauty of what this master’s degree allowed me to do that made me cry. For my dissertation, I decided to discover why people where I live become Christians. Their testimonies were so moving that I cried. What a blessing to repeatedly have to listen to powerful stories of God at work.

Furthermore, the results were so clear and interesting. I felt so blessed. I hope the results bless you too.

Photo by CHUTTERSNAP on Unsplash

Research and Methods

I surveyed 10 local believers who had converted from another religion to Christianity. I asked them about their testimonies and drew conclusions from the analysis.

There were some very clear findings. What is also exciting is that other publications have found similar findings.

A Big Caveat

My research was done in one city in Asia. While it was done in that particular city, the experiences of the participants were generally similar to those across the country. That is just one country in Asia.

Asia is not a homogenous monolith. Asia accounts for about 60% of the world’s population. That means it will be as diverse as 60% of humanity. That’s going to be very diverse.

As you read this, please take time to research and assess the applicability of these conclusions to other contexts.

Factor 1: Exposure to the Gospel Over Time

In my dissertation, all of the participants heard the gospel explained repeatedly over a length of time. For some, it was 6 months, but for most it was years. The longest time mentioned was 10 years.

This usually involved multiple people sharing the gospel in different ways at different times.

Reasons for it to be a (long) process could be

• A highly collectivistic culture, so you follow the majority religion.
• A fear of creating conflict or being shunned from society.
• Persecution.
• Religious worldviews where life is cyclical or faith is a process (such as a Buddhist worldview).
• Their initial religious beliefs are very different from Christianity so a lot needs to be learned and understood.
• Wanting to know and understand the personal implications of conversion.
• Needing to observe how it practically works in detail (How do you pray? What happens at church?)
• High levels of uncertainty avoidance in the culture.
• The idea that Christianity is foreign or goes against their cultural identity.

Implications

• Expect your ministry to take time.
• There’s little need to prepare a “gospel talk”.
• Instead, prepare answers to the questions the people actually have.
• Sharing the gospel should be done through respectful dialogue where you genuinely listen to the other person.
• There may need to be a time when you prompt the person to make a decision.

There was one question I had when I heard the testimonies. I wondered why some came to believe in 6–12 months and some it took 10 years. That’s a vast difference. I wanted to know, “Why such a big difference?”

Don’t worry, the answer is revealed below!

Factor 2: Lifestyle of the Believers

The most cited reason for conversion that the participants in my study cited was the lifestyle of the believers.

The participants would talk about how the behaviour and conduct of other Christians were the most significant reasons they were interested in Christianity. They would repeat things such as, “It wasn’t their words but their actions.”

The Christians showed

• love
• generosity
• respect
• joy.

What was most interesting was how culturally appropriate the believers’ lifestyle was. Mostly, the participants mentioned local believers. However, some of the foreign missionaries were seen as “real family”: they were able to meet the kinship roles of the local culture. (Interestingly, these foreign missionaries were also Asian.)

The behaviours that were seen as good that were often mentioned the most were important values in that cultural setting. This included

• respect for elders and parents.
• harmonious family relationships.
• hardworking.
• generous to the poor.
• understanding and showing compassion during difficult situations.
• joyful families and joyful gatherings.
• humble with whom they would associate (humility in Asia is often defined by having relationships with those who have a lower social position rather than an unwillingness to promote oneself).

What this doesn’t mean

There’s one conclusion from this factor that I don’t want you to reach.

You’ll perhaps hear a quotation, “Preach the Gospel at all times. Use words if necessary.” First, St Francis of Assisi never said it.

FactChecker: Misquoting Francis of Assisi

Second, it’s not Biblical. The Bible tells us the exact opposite:

Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ. (Romans 10:17, NIVUK)

So you need to be talking about Jesus. And I’ll come onto that below.

Implications

• Missionaries will have to understand what it means to be a good person in that culture.
• The lifestyle of the missionaries or other believers will have to be evident to see.
• Activities that we normally do in private or just with believers (prayer, personal quiet time, Bible study groups, worship sessions) might need to be open to others.
• We need to allow people to see our lives through hospitality and friendship.
• Testimonies are helpful when revealing aspects of lives the non-believers did not see.
• You must explain that your exemplary lifestyle is because of the grace you have received from Jesus Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit in your heart. Otherwise, they will just say, “It’s because they’re a nice person…” or “It’s because they are from [insert your country].” Then you are glorifying yourself or your own culture and not Jesus.
• They must know you are a believer. This can be very difficult in places where persecution happens.

Factor 3: Community and Connection

All the participants were heavily involved in a Christian community before conversion. What was strange was that a lot of them were functionally Christian (for want of a better way to describe it) before they decided to become Christian. They were

• Participating in church services, prayer meetings, Bible studies, intense Bible lessons, and worship sessions.
• Praying with others and praying individually.
• Reading the Bible for themselves.
• Serving the local church (such as helping in the children’s work, and helping organise evangelistic events).

Remember, this was done before they decided that they were Christians.

The contexts in which this occurred had the following characteristics:

• Genuine community
• Culturally appropriate relationships — these often looked like kinship relationships.
• Opportunities to serve and be involved from the outset.

Implications

• Teams—not individual workers—will be more effective. This is especially the case in areas where there are not yet Christian communities.
• Questions about community forms will have to be answered quite early in the process.
• Missionaries and Christian workers need to be familiar with how families and relationships work in their host culture.
• Christian community should not just be for the Christians.
• Leaders should disciple seekers by giving them responsibilities and allowing for participation.

Factor 4: Bible Study

One research question for my dissertation was about contextualisation. I wanted to see if there was a particular method that helped this particular people group come to Christ. I thought maybe storying or use of orality would be evident. The results surprised me. I was also expecting other themes to appear in the testimonies (defeat against spirits, for example).

There was no particular method that seemed to be particularly effective. However, the effective methods all had one thing in common: the use of the Bible.

This included

• memorisation of Bible verses
• topical Bible study
• including Bible verses in gospel presentations
• using scripture in response to questions.

Does this mean that we don’t need to care about contextualisation. Well, no. The participants commented on the following

• the differences between scripture and their former beliefs
• how the scripture spoke specifically and meaningfully to them
• how scripture was seen as true to their lived experiences.

Therefore, contextualisation was happening. There could be several reasons for this

• The scripture was being shared by a local Christian who had an inherent understanding of the worldview of the culture. Therefore, contextualisation just became an ingrained part of discussing their faith.
• The Bible studies were in direct response to the expressed needs of the individuals. Therefore, the contextualisation was happening on an individual scale rather than a broader cultural scale.
• Self-contextualisation was occurring. The participants reflected on what they were learning and were able to apply it to their context. They compared it to their current worldview and their personal needs.
• The lifestyles of the believers were contextually appropriate. The sharing of scripture had to happen in this context.

Implications

This is the factor that I found the most freeing. The general implication is that you can use any method as long as it is deeply embedded in the use of scripture. If you’re using the Bible, you can’t really go wrong.

However, to make it most meaningful, you should

• Allow for personal reflection on how it applies to their life.
• Be flexible in your approach: respond to the questions, needs and situations of the seeker.
• Have an understanding of the local worldview and how Christianity either connects or challenges it.
• Use the Bible to highlight differences in worldviews.

Intensity of factors 2, 3 and 4 made a difference

This is the answer to the question I raised in Factor 1 above. Why did some people become Christians in 6 months, when others took 10 years?

The answer is the intensity of community involvement and Bible study.

Some were interacting with a Christian community nearly every day. This could be in the form of

• A Christian workplace.
• Church-run English classes, music classes or computer classes.
• Living with Christians or having very close Christian friends.
• Bible classes or Bible studies.
• Living in a Christian student dormitory.

They were seeing the lifestyle of believers constantly. Often, they were engaging with Christians in multiple ways. For example, some were attending church-led English classes and Bible studies. Another person worked in a Christian business while living with a Christian.

In these contexts, they were able to engage with Bible study. Those at the dormitories would often have evening Bible study and worship sessions together.

Those who were engaging in a Christian community, seeing the lifestyle of believers and studying the Bible about 3 or more times a week would typically become Christians within a year.

Those who just attended a church on Sunday took about 10 years.

Implications

• Simply, the more frequent the factors, the quicker the conversion.
• Weekly Bible programmes do work, but will probably need to be supplemented by other sources of engagement.
• Expect to do a lot of work: you may be engaging daily with those you are discipling.
• Involve others! This is another reason why teams might be more appropriate.

Factor 5: Miracles

This factor was probably my favourite. It reminds us that we’re not the ones really doing the work. God is doing all the work. Thankfully, the participants in the study recognised this.

The miraculous was important in most of the testimonies. What they described as miraculous was interesting too. It included

• The conversion process itself—they recognised God at work in revealing himself and his faithfulness.
• Positive and personal changes in attitudes, self-worth, and relationships. This included an increase in joy, hope, trust of others, and bravery.
• Changes in others.
• Answers to prayer.
• Miracles such as a dying tree regaining fruit after prayer.
• Miraculous provision in times of need.
• God sending individuals to answer questions in appropriate ways.

Implications

• Pray for miracles to happen.
• Pray for an evident change in heart.
• Pray for God to reveal himself.
• Pray with and in front of the seeker and new believer as a part of the discipleship process.
• Share testimonies of answered prayers and God at work in your life.

An Encouragement

Although this is just a list of factors and implications, the main encouragement I want you to take away is this: God is at work.

Across Asia and across the world, God is at work. People are hearing about him and their lives are being transformed. Because of the gospel, people are receiving joy, hope, and confidence. They are finding comfort amid difficulties, connection and community instead of loneliness.

So, we can rejoice in the way that Paul did when he heard about those in Colossae:

We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people — the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel that has come to you. In the same way, the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world — just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God’s grace. (Colossians 1:3–6)

What a powerful, hopeful and true gospel we have. It is alive and well and I was able to listen to testimonies of this.

As one of the participants so succinctly put it, they have found Jesus and “he always hears, he always helps.”

Justin Marsh is a missionary who has served in Asia for over six years. He is the country leader of a team of missionaries and has just completed an MA that looks at missional practice. Whilst his team works within a range of contexts across the country, Justin’s focus is the Muslim minority groups. He is the owner of the publication THE CO-MISSION.