What does it mean to be born again?

The Dictionary of Christianity in America has an entry for “born again” and an attempt to define what it means when applied to certain Christian believers. The entry notes the expression is drawn from Jesus’ words in John 3:3, where Jesus tells Nicodemus we must be born again from above. The dictionary then notes that the term has taken on a “broad and imprecise usage” in general American discourse. The tenn has come to mean any Christian “who exhibits intensity or overt self- identification or a keen sense of divine presence.” The tenn is also applied to persons who attribute to God the cause for events in their personal lives. This dictionary also says that in American understanding “born again" is associated with revivalism or any conversionist form of Protestantism and describes the direct experience of a person in a notable single event or a specificiable period when that person shifts his or her life focus from any other centre to Jesus Christ. In other words “born again” is often used to describe a conversion experience in which a person’s life is transformed. Some might also call it an experience of being saved.