My Conversion Story
[By Robert Haynes]

Earlier in the year, I had written about the growth of faith as a Christian, and I did not cover when I became convicted of the gospel or share the story of my decision to be baptized. Taking a page from a recent article discussing coming to Christ while being raised in the church, I thought I’d offer testimony for the hope that I placed in Jesus Christ.

I remember the day that I was baptized, and in our family (really just my brother and closest cousins), we try to wish each other a “Happy Second/Real Birthday”. I decided to put on Christ on July 29th, 2007, but the process to reach that point began much earlier. One of my closest childhood friends moved to Georgia while I was about 10 or 11 years old (2003-ish), and he had already been baptized. He frequently asked me why I wasn’t baptized, and that began to prompt thoughts about that. However, I was young, and one night while I was wrestling with the thought, I had a particularly frightful dream. Just being 12 or so at that time, it prompted a great deal of emotion. I cannot completely recall, but I think I went downstairs to my parents crying to be baptized. They calmed me down and dissuaded me from following through, and not just because it was a little past midnight. It was their way of testing my resolve, especially since I was so young.

Following this, my parents handed me a correspondence course. I think the name was “Am I Ready?”, which I was to go through. For whatever reason, I was really shy about opening up about my progress with it, and I don’t believe my parents checked my progress at all. They gave it to me to work through on my own time without any pressure. But I was secretive about it, and I took my mom’s New American Standard Bible and began whittling away at it with my door shut. At some point, I had finished about 2/3rds of it and shoved the materials in the closet while cleaning my room the way any teenage boy would by shoving everything into it. I may or may not have ruined the binding of my mom’s New American Standard Bible (and never admitted it – Sorry mom if you’re reading this…). Later on, though, I would unclutter that closet and find that correspondence course several years after my baptism. Reading through my responses, my parents were right to dissuade me. I had not fully understood the concept of accountability and conviction of my sin, and I clearly had no qualms with haphazardly shoving my mom’s nice New American Standard Bible into a closet not to be seen for a few years.

It was probably a year or a year and a half after that when I decided to be baptized. My brother was baptized in June of that same year that I was baptized, and that began to get the wheels turning again. For a while, I had recognized the commitment required to become a follower of Jesus, and for some time, I was not ready to make that commitment, convinced that I had to maintain a certain level of maturity beforehand. However, I began to realize that I was falling into a “works” based mentality, and that I should rely on God’s grace over my weakness. I understood finally that we are perfected through Christ, and not perfected before coming to Christ. During the week at “Bible Boot Camp” or Young Men’s Leadership Camp, I became more and more convinced of my need for a Savior. I remember conversing with my aforementioned friend as I wrestled with what I should do, until I finally made the choice to confess my sins, repent, and be baptized. So it was the very day after camp that I made the choice to put on Jesus. If I were to pick two lessons out of my story, it would be how important it is to discuss the gospel with your close friends. The second is hard because it fights against our desire to baptize people, but it’s important to make sure someone’s conviction is solid such that they cannot be dissuaded. It may have lengthened the process for me, but it gave me the time to understand and count the cost to ultimately realize that God has offered something so much better. Thanks!