Discipleship of the Mind

"Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." (Romans 12.2)

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength" (Mark 12.30)

If we want to reach and change the world we must reach their minds. Not many Christians are saying this today but I believe it is essential. People are what they think. And the gospel must change the heart, yes, the soul, yes, and the strength, yes - but it must change the mind or else it will not stick or change the life of a person. 

In 1980, Charles Malik came to speak at Wheaton College about evangelism at the grand opening of the Billy Graham Center. He said this:

"At the heart of all the problems facing Western civilization—the manifold perversions of personal character; problems of the family; problems of economics and politics; problems of the media; problems affecting the school itself and the church itself—at the heart of the crisis in Western civilization lies the state of the mind… The true the task of the evangelical world is not only to win souls, for if you win the whole world and lose the mind of the world, you will soon discover you have not won the world. Indeed it may turn out that you have actually lost the world.”

The Gospel is not about one aspect of a persons life (i.e., their "soul") but offers a new mind as well - because it is all connected, God is redeeming it all - body, soul, mind - everything you are. He promises to do nothing less. 

This is why it is so important to know, teach and hold to sound doctrine. Paul says to Titus "teach sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it" (Titus 1.9). Why is this necessary? Because we are teaching people how to think, we are constructing a new worldview for them and that is a very serious, fragile job, especially because both outside and inside the church doctrine is always under attack. It is amazing therefore that evangelicalism, while certainly being aware of the so-called 'culture war' has marginalized the mind so much. It says 'doctrine is under attack!' and yet it does not focus on discipleship of the mind. What it does focus on, often times, is a discipleship of the heart (which usually expresses itself in sentimental sermons, studies, and leaders), or the soul (which expresses itself in sentimental evangelism) or the strength (which expresses itself in an emphasis on 'works').   

One could say that nothing the church does is more important than teaching doctrine, theology, and the Bible. Some say, 'No the most important thing the church does is helping others.' But, we don't know how or why to help others unless the Bible is first explained. If the Bible is clearly and properly explained, helping others will naturally flow from what our minds are being trained to do. 

Mark Noll begins his excellent book, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind, by saying "The scandal of the evangelical mind is that there is not much of an evangelical mind." He 

goes on to rightly critique the church for abandoning the universities, the arts, and other realms of 'high' culture. But it wasn't always this way, he says. "Most of the original protestant traditions (Lutheran, Reformed, Anglican) either developed a vigorous intellectual life or worked out theological principles that could and often did sustain penetrating Christian intellectual endeavor. The Puritans, the leaders of the nineteenth-century evangelical awakenings like John Wesley and Jonathan Edwards (who Noll calls 'the greatest evangelical mind in American history with no intellectual predecessor') all held that rigorous, diligent, intellectual life was a way to glorify God, certainly not the only way, but an important way precisely because they were evangelical Christians." 

One of the reasons for the shriveling of the Evangelical Mind, I submit, is, sectarianism. We are so afraid of the culture we live in, that we run from it, and dare I say, hide from it. We have trouble effecting and influencing the not-yet-Christian culture around us (being salt and light) because we are busy creating our own Christian sub-cultures among already-Christians. Schooling our children in Christian schools and home schools and protecting ourselves from the gates of Hell; meanwhile the imagery of the gates of Hell not prevailing against the church is meant to convey the fact that Hell is playing defense against the church, not the other way around! 

These subcultures we create are not particularly intellectually or artistically stimulating (i.e., Christian Book stores are filled with junk, Christian music is again sentimental and one-dimensional). On the education front men such as Oral Roberts, Jerry Falwell, and Pat Robertson, despite the absence of formal educational credentials, establish Christian universities. This is not to say what happens at these Universities is not good, needed or used by God unto his glory, or that Christian schools or home-schooling is bad (see here for the latest numbers on home-schooling education vs. public school education) - much that happens here is great, I just think they serve as examples of how the Evangelical Mind has arrived in the present state.

What Do We Do?

We must focus on nurturing the life of the mind. Making disciples is what Jesus told us to do, which literally means "learners" - so in this context we are commissioned to teach (Mat. 28.16-20). Doctrine is important, so the church must not abandon theology and doctrine for fluffy stories and principles. We must not shoot for the lowest common denominator, while at the same time we must be sensible to non-Christians who are seeking and asking questions. But we must not be afraid to have as one of our goals to teach people how to think and what to think. Again this is what Paul calls Titus and Timothy, and every Pastor since, to do: Preach the word, teach doctrine! And when people, like someone I met recently, react negatively toward that concept (calling it 'brainwashing') we must remind them that brainwashing and indoctrination is what is inescapable - it is what rational discourse is. People convincing, and influencing others to think and act in a particular way for a particular reason. It is happening all the time, everywhere we go: every song, every billboard, magazine, classroom, book, internet site - its all unashamedly preaching a worldview; a set of assumptions, beliefs, values and convictions about the world. So why wouldn't the church unashamedly do the same? It is not bad to try to indoctrinate someone, it is the very nature of all discourse and conversation. We must embrace this and seek to train up the life of the mind in people toward the glory of God in Jesus Christ.

Secondly, we should start reading and making more prominent not only evangelical fiction (i.e., Left Behind and not only because I disagree with the theology, which I do, and the Ezekiel Option) but start listening to, reading, and engaging the amazing thinkers within evangelicalism that are developing the life of the mind and bringing credibility to the church through their scholarship: J.I. Packer, John Piper, C.S. Lewis, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Donald Bloesch, Ronald Sider, N.T. Wright, John Polkinghorne, Alvin Plantinga and these are just a few within the last 60 years or so! 

I know popular and more simplistic writing is easier to consume for the masses, and I am not condemning it, but I do wonder about the future of Christian thought if Christians are exposed to this kind of writing and thought exclusively. I wonder about Christian scholarship sometimes, and whether preachers, teachers, and congregations will be able to handle such a thing after a generation has gone through a church-cycle which never developed the life of the mind, but only catered to the heart and left people unchallenged and thus unchanged.