I often refer to significant moments of spiritual growth as "crisis moments" or "crisis experiences." A.W. Tozer used the phrase "crisis of encounter."

Inevitably, some people will assume that by "crisis," I mean a car accident, a bankruptcy or a medical diagnosis. That's not what I mean. I mean a time when an important decision is made, a turning point - that's how the dictionary defines "crisis."

But then there are occasionally others, that at the mention of the word "crisis" know exactly what I'm talking about. Their eyes light up and they'll get very reverent and share a story from their lives about a similar moment of decision, a turning point in their walk with Jesus.

Tozer describes spiritual crisis this way;

"The tragic breakdown in Christian circles is the substitution of doctrine for experience. We have become very good at explaining doctrine, which falls far short of experiencing the presence of God. The Bible was never given as an end to itself but to be a path leading us to God. When the Bible leads us to God and we have experienced God in the crisis of encounter, then the Bible has accomplished its work."

Here, Tozer is not advocating for experiential theology, he is warning against hypothetical theology - the type of theology that never results in life-transforming encounters with God.