Marcus Grodi had a former "Willow Creeker," Steve Smith, on a re-run episode of The Journey Home that I watched Wednesday.

You can listen to it here, in RealAudio.



Smith's story isn't atypical: Catholic-school Catholic from Chicagoland caught up in interdenominational Evangelicalism for ten years at Willow Creek, active in youth ministry.

As unremarkable as the outbound journey may be, the trigger for his return trip is as astounding as it is unique. And personally tailored. Should we expect anything less from the Hound of Heaven, the tripersonal God?

The defining moment, described beginning at 25 minutes, 32 seconds into the RealAudio file, was a sermon on 1 Cor. 11:27-29 together with Matthew 5:23-24 in which the preacher, Bill Hybels, exhorted the thousands in the congregation to rectify broken relationships before approaching the Lord's Table for communion.

In response to the sermon, Smith watched hundreds of people leave the assembly to deal with these personal situations. Those who remained knew that they had witnessed something powerful and of the Spirit. It was the talk of the church for days if not weeks and, the next time that communion was held the following month, Smith expected the same exhortation with similar results.

However, the sermon was on another passage in 1 Corinthians and no exhortation came and people approached for communion as always.

And the contrast from one month to the next struck Smith as utterly arbitrary.

Listen to it for yourself. Give me comments. The various aspects of conversion stories affect us individually in different ways, so something that impressed me about Smith's experience might leave you flat. But there might be some other aspect that really resonates with you.