Anyone who has spent any time at all in the business of sales knows that the ultimate measure of success is when a deal is closed. A deal is closed when the potential customer becomes an actual customer. The term “conversion” is often used to describe the time when your proposition has been accepted the person is “converted” from a potential sale to a sale.
In many cases, sales are a team effort. One person might harvest the leads. Another might make the presentation and someone else the offer. Still another might finally close the deal.
In some ways, converting people to Christianity is like closing a sale. A proposition (we are all sinners, lost and helpless on our own, and only the vicarious atonement of Jesus Christ on the cross can save us) is made and the propositioned either believes and receives or denies and rejects. In the movie version of a play called Glengarry Glen Ross, an acerbic sales executive barks at his workers to, “always be closing”, meaning to be always moving the prospect toward conversion. As evangelicals we live in a world wherein we are surrounded by sales leads that The Lord has already mined for us. Unlike the sale of a product or service, the Lord Himself is the ultimate deal closer. We only have to make an honest, heartfelt presentation.
1 Corinthians 3:6 says, I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. So we do not always have to witness the conversion. You may have a conversation with someone about the very existence of God. Another may pick it up sometime later and be able to present the specifics of The Gospel. Still another may be able to invite that person to bend the knee and ask the Lord’s forgiveness. The conversion. The closer.
So although you may never get to be the person who witnesses the new convert take the knee when The Holy Spirit moves them to do so, you might be that Paul, or that Apollos, who helped fertilize the field.