Free Church Identity & Conversion

Abstract This research examines the life stories of converts to understand lived ecclesial identity within Danish Pentecostal-Charismatic churches in Copenhagen. Converts represent a seldom-heard voice for exploring lived ecclesiology: as ‘beginners’, they negotiate faith interfacing with the secular context and church affiliation, moving from the periphery toward the centre of community life. Their stories of becoming ecclesial persons reveal faith formation as a process marked by doubts, resistance, and learning through trial and error, in contrast to the idealised revivalist view of conversion as a sudden shift in core beliefs and a radical change of lifestyle. Methodologically, the project is situated in practical theology, employing qualitative life story interviews and reflexive thematic-narrative analysis. Guided by James Wm. McClendon’s convictional theology as a hermeneutical framework, converts’ life stories are approached as convictional biographies that disclose how lived ecclesial identity is described and negotiated. Findings characterise this ecclesial identity as (1) experientially constituted, (2) performed through practices such as worship, prayer, Bible reading, and catechesis, and (3) organising space for individual and communal faith exploration in a secular context. Converts’ narratives serve as ‘experiential data’ that both describe lived ecclesial identity and highlight areas for theological reflection. The study identifies four significant areas of lived ecclesial identity in a secular context that both constructively contribute to the current understanding of such identity within the Danish Pentecostal-charismatic churches and highlight key areas that should be given attention for reflection and critical assessment by the churches. First, the findings indicate that revivalist soteriology is renegotiated towards a more subjective ‘bloodless soteriology’, emphasising participation in divine life, with little reference to water baptism by immersion or Spirit-baptism. Second, churches do succeed in helping participants re-enchant secular everyday life as a mystical tradition. However, thirdly, they struggle to provide a coherent mystagogy to interpret experiences of God. Finally, ecclesiology is shifting from boundary-defined identity as a ‘pure community of believers’ to a centre-defined identity shaped by spirituality, practices, and ethical norms. Membership is increasingly framed as ‘open to all’, suggesting a convictional move from former ecclesial ‘castles’ to ‘open divine colonies’ — a re-invention of the revivalist tent meeting that makes space for personal faith exploration. The study concludes that McClendon’s convictional theology is a fruitful hermeneutical framework for exploring lived ecclesial identity reflection. By treating lives as ‘experiential data’, it extends his biographical approach beyond exemplary Saints to the ordinary lives of converts, in dialogue with recent developments in practical theology.