Fat bodies, thin minds. That is how one author evaluates the current crop of Christians in our modern church culture. We are obese by stuffing ourselves on the junk food of "theotainment", and our minds are starving to death. One negative effect of this is that our young people who are brought up on such standard fare are simply not prepared to handle the onslaughts that will come their way when they enter the college classroom or the workforce.
Somehow or another all those pizza blasts, rock concerts, and video games in our church "activities centers" do not equip a young person to "give an answer, or make a defense, of the hope that is in him" (1 Peter 3:15) and to "contend for the faith that was once delivered to the saints." (Jude 3) How surprised should we be that we are losing more youth today even before they get to college than we can ever gain through our increased frenzied attempt to get more by fattening the bodies while depriving the minds?
In many states the obesity of our youth has become such an alarming statistic that more and more school districts are removing vending machines from the schools. Since the church gets its M.O. often from following the trends in the world, when is the church today going to do something to address what is causing the spiritually flabby bodies and weakened minds on our bloated membership rolls? The vending machines in our small groups and behind the pulpits need to be removed.
It is not just the youth I am concerned about; fat bodies and thin minds know not age or gender barriers. In today's post-Christian postmodern American scene, the longer we go on ignoring the reality around us, the more insignificant will be our witness, and the number of our casualties will continue to increase. We need what we see in Jesus and in Paul--a Christianity for the Tough-Minded.
Picture this: a freshman in college, away from home for the first time, sitting under a flamboyant, very intelligent college professor, who in nearly every lecture presents another "reason" to shelve everything the Bible teaches. Since this naive freshman has lots of fun memories from his church youth days, but he does not have much biblical knowledge, a solid doctrinal foundation, or a consistent, comprehensive Christian worldview to sort through the difficult issues in life, then it is not hard to imagine that this freshman will be taken in by the persuasive logic of this professor who certainly knows more than his parents back home, his youth minister, his church friends, or his pastor.
If we as Christians disregard the mind now, we only leave the door wide open for Satan and the world working in tandem to capture the mind later.
How do we start developing a Christianity for the Tough-Minded? In the TV reality show, Biggest Losers, from what I can only speculate, two steps are taken if the fat is going to come off. Number one, the contestants need to stop doing what they have always been doing which has been the cause of their weight gain in the first place, and number two, they need to start doing what they have not been doing. The same holds true for the Christians with fat bodies and thin minds. We need to "exorcise" those things that have been contributing to the problem, and we need to "exercise" our minds to godliness. (1 Timothy 4:8) That may call for too much a radical surgery for some churches to take, and it may cause some Christians to stay satisfied with their fat bodies and thin minds. Nevertheless, the only option left for us is a Christianity for the Weak-Minded, which does nothing to advance the honor and glory of God. Our Lord is no dummy, and neither should we be.
Some identify what I am talking about as "apologetics", which comes from the Greek word, apologia (1 Peter 3:15, for example), which means "defense." The field of apologetics is giving a reasoned defense of why you believe what you do. I prefer to think of it along the lines of Christianity for the Tough-Minded, because while it does heavily involve apologetics, it goes beyond that. It is concerned about developing a lifestyle that will fully engage the mind in conversing confidently with those who have opposing ideas and worldviews. I need to add here that Christianity for the Tough-Minded is also a Christianity for the Gentle-Hearted. We are not out to win arguments, or to make the opposition look silly, or to show off our knowledge, but always, with gentleness, humility and patience, we seek to point people to Christ. (2 Timothy 2:24-26) All of our well-thought-out lines of reasoning can not by themselves change one person's heart, and Christ can use the stumbling and stuttering lips of a believer to bring the gospel to anyone lost in sin. But all that, at the same time, is no excuse for us not to make our minds sharper and our lips smoother. "If the ax is dull, and one does not sharpen the edge, then he must use more strength, but wisdom brings success." (Ecclesiastes 10:10)
We need not back down from what we believe, once we know what we should believe, and we need not be intimidated by others who may seem to know more than we do. Actually, in day to day experience, we will rarely have conversations with a person who has a PhD in astrophysics. Rather, we will have conversations with someone who heard something from someone who read something from someone who has an ax to grind against Christianity in general, or we will encounter one who has a lifestyle that wishes there was no God with whom he would be accountable. There are intellectual atheists, and there are moral atheists, and the latter group outnumbers the former group. Much of the time we will hear the same old arguments or cliches, and we can know how to answer them with straightforwardness and grace.
In future articles, I want to illustrate from random examples how we can tactfully speak the truth in love to those who have some erroneous, illogical ideas about God, the Bible, what it means to be a Christian, or anything else related to our belief system. Postmodernism is severely flawed internally, and we can help people see through the emptiness of believing that there is nothing worth believing. Evolution leaves us with more questions than answers, and we don't have to wave the white flag of surrender when a professor of biology begins lecturing about the "incontrovertible facts" of evolution. Respectable agnosticism or militant atheism may have its gullible disciples, but the evidences of an Intelligent, Personal Designer far outstrips the blind faith in which nothing times nothing equals everything. Other religions do not have the historical certainty and verification we find in God's revelation of Himself in Holy Scriptures.
For those who were present at my last Sunday's sermon, I ventured into this realm somewhat when I ended on the note on how do we know there is a heaven. (It was based on the text, "Today you shall be with Me in Paradise.") The critics and skeptics say it is an infantile belief like the tooth fairy or the jolly fat guy in the red suit or Grimm's Fairy Tales. Just like we grew out of believing those make-believe figures, we need to grow up and grow out of believing there really is such a thing as heaven and hell. Another well-rehearsed argument is that the idea of heaven is only a psychological wish fulfillment on the part of losers in this life. Just because we wish something to be so, in this case heaven, does not mean it is so.
Somehow or another all those pizza blasts, rock concerts, and video games in our church "activities centers" do not equip a young person to "give an answer, or make a defense, of the hope that is in him" (1 Peter 3:15) and to "contend for the faith that was once delivered to the saints." (Jude 3) How surprised should we be that we are losing more youth today even before they get to college than we can ever gain through our increased frenzied attempt to get more by fattening the bodies while depriving the minds?
In many states the obesity of our youth has become such an alarming statistic that more and more school districts are removing vending machines from the schools. Since the church gets its M.O. often from following the trends in the world, when is the church today going to do something to address what is causing the spiritually flabby bodies and weakened minds on our bloated membership rolls? The vending machines in our small groups and behind the pulpits need to be removed.
It is not just the youth I am concerned about; fat bodies and thin minds know not age or gender barriers. In today's post-Christian postmodern American scene, the longer we go on ignoring the reality around us, the more insignificant will be our witness, and the number of our casualties will continue to increase. We need what we see in Jesus and in Paul--a Christianity for the Tough-Minded.
Picture this: a freshman in college, away from home for the first time, sitting under a flamboyant, very intelligent college professor, who in nearly every lecture presents another "reason" to shelve everything the Bible teaches. Since this naive freshman has lots of fun memories from his church youth days, but he does not have much biblical knowledge, a solid doctrinal foundation, or a consistent, comprehensive Christian worldview to sort through the difficult issues in life, then it is not hard to imagine that this freshman will be taken in by the persuasive logic of this professor who certainly knows more than his parents back home, his youth minister, his church friends, or his pastor.
If we as Christians disregard the mind now, we only leave the door wide open for Satan and the world working in tandem to capture the mind later.
How do we start developing a Christianity for the Tough-Minded? In the TV reality show, Biggest Losers, from what I can only speculate, two steps are taken if the fat is going to come off. Number one, the contestants need to stop doing what they have always been doing which has been the cause of their weight gain in the first place, and number two, they need to start doing what they have not been doing. The same holds true for the Christians with fat bodies and thin minds. We need to "exorcise" those things that have been contributing to the problem, and we need to "exercise" our minds to godliness. (1 Timothy 4:8) That may call for too much a radical surgery for some churches to take, and it may cause some Christians to stay satisfied with their fat bodies and thin minds. Nevertheless, the only option left for us is a Christianity for the Weak-Minded, which does nothing to advance the honor and glory of God. Our Lord is no dummy, and neither should we be.
Some identify what I am talking about as "apologetics", which comes from the Greek word, apologia (1 Peter 3:15, for example), which means "defense." The field of apologetics is giving a reasoned defense of why you believe what you do. I prefer to think of it along the lines of Christianity for the Tough-Minded, because while it does heavily involve apologetics, it goes beyond that. It is concerned about developing a lifestyle that will fully engage the mind in conversing confidently with those who have opposing ideas and worldviews. I need to add here that Christianity for the Tough-Minded is also a Christianity for the Gentle-Hearted. We are not out to win arguments, or to make the opposition look silly, or to show off our knowledge, but always, with gentleness, humility and patience, we seek to point people to Christ. (2 Timothy 2:24-26) All of our well-thought-out lines of reasoning can not by themselves change one person's heart, and Christ can use the stumbling and stuttering lips of a believer to bring the gospel to anyone lost in sin. But all that, at the same time, is no excuse for us not to make our minds sharper and our lips smoother. "If the ax is dull, and one does not sharpen the edge, then he must use more strength, but wisdom brings success." (Ecclesiastes 10:10)
We need not back down from what we believe, once we know what we should believe, and we need not be intimidated by others who may seem to know more than we do. Actually, in day to day experience, we will rarely have conversations with a person who has a PhD in astrophysics. Rather, we will have conversations with someone who heard something from someone who read something from someone who has an ax to grind against Christianity in general, or we will encounter one who has a lifestyle that wishes there was no God with whom he would be accountable. There are intellectual atheists, and there are moral atheists, and the latter group outnumbers the former group. Much of the time we will hear the same old arguments or cliches, and we can know how to answer them with straightforwardness and grace.
In future articles, I want to illustrate from random examples how we can tactfully speak the truth in love to those who have some erroneous, illogical ideas about God, the Bible, what it means to be a Christian, or anything else related to our belief system. Postmodernism is severely flawed internally, and we can help people see through the emptiness of believing that there is nothing worth believing. Evolution leaves us with more questions than answers, and we don't have to wave the white flag of surrender when a professor of biology begins lecturing about the "incontrovertible facts" of evolution. Respectable agnosticism or militant atheism may have its gullible disciples, but the evidences of an Intelligent, Personal Designer far outstrips the blind faith in which nothing times nothing equals everything. Other religions do not have the historical certainty and verification we find in God's revelation of Himself in Holy Scriptures.
For those who were present at my last Sunday's sermon, I ventured into this realm somewhat when I ended on the note on how do we know there is a heaven. (It was based on the text, "Today you shall be with Me in Paradise.") The critics and skeptics say it is an infantile belief like the tooth fairy or the jolly fat guy in the red suit or Grimm's Fairy Tales. Just like we grew out of believing those make-believe figures, we need to grow up and grow out of believing there really is such a thing as heaven and hell. Another well-rehearsed argument is that the idea of heaven is only a psychological wish fulfillment on the part of losers in this life. Just because we wish something to be so, in this case heaven, does not mean it is so.
Others will say if they are willing to concede there is some sort of existence after this life, then why should we believe just what the Bible says on the subject? Are there not other religions and beliefs out there that will say something entirely different about the afterlife? Then how should a person know which one to believe, if any? I will pick up where I left off when I preach next on this text, but those are questions, objections and arguments that can be reasonably addressed and answered if we are willing to have a Christianity for the Tough-Minded. The same can be said about John 7, the chapter we are in now in our Bible study class, because in this chapter we find 2009 postmodern American culture highlighted like nowhere else, and Jesus provides us the clear direction we need to steer our way through the fog of muddled opinionated thinking.
I close on one more important note. The best way a truth can be personalized as one's own is to let that person come to understand the truth himself. Instead of spoon feeding everything to a doubter or inquirer, we give him enough food for thought and enough questions to chew on that he leaves mulling things over in his mind. That way when he comes to a right conclusion on his own hopefully over time (of course, we know that the Spirit of God illumines the mind), it becomes his, and we don't have to spend time then trying to help this type of person overcome his fat body and thin mind. He's already on the road of knowing what it is like to have a Christianity for the Tough-Minded.
Yours for the sake of the truth,
Chris
I close on one more important note. The best way a truth can be personalized as one's own is to let that person come to understand the truth himself. Instead of spoon feeding everything to a doubter or inquirer, we give him enough food for thought and enough questions to chew on that he leaves mulling things over in his mind. That way when he comes to a right conclusion on his own hopefully over time (of course, we know that the Spirit of God illumines the mind), it becomes his, and we don't have to spend time then trying to help this type of person overcome his fat body and thin mind. He's already on the road of knowing what it is like to have a Christianity for the Tough-Minded.
Yours for the sake of the truth,
Chris
