"When we bring people to believe differently, they really do become different. One of the greatest weaknesses in our teaching and leadership today is that we spend so much time trying to get people to do things good people are supposed to do, without changing what they really believe." (307).
i just blogged a similar idea to this. my question then is how do we "change" someone's belief? i guess in light of the previous chapters, the community of prayerful love is key here. but i thought willard's words could be miscontrued (by a modern mind) and that the method of or means to "change" could become one of verbal/mental compulsion. what do you guys think is the best way to "change" someone's beliefs?
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gentlemen,
once again the insightful Doctor has taken me to new heights of personal conviction.
out of the myriad of things this chapter has cause me to grapple with i have chosen to focus my thoughts for now on this quote...
(299)...
we must, of course, be disciples, we must intend to make disciples, and we must know how to bring people to believe that Jesus really is the One.
two thoughts...
the first... ironic, isn't it? this sounds just the same as being purpose driven?
second..... i feel like
be is where i live. i feel like i pay lip service to
intend and
bringing is not even on my intentionality radar screen.
i love
greg's quote (and I believe that it is true, but maybe not the same "believe" that D. Miller describes in
Blue Like Jazz), but for me that thought has been the excuse that i have used to escape the Spirit's promptings to share Christ with people around me.
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Of course there are many encouraging things for me in this chapter too. To learn to "be with" Jesus to learn to be like Him. This is the heart of my diatribe on
education before reading this chapter. I'm still finding it interesting as you must be too, Greg, that we seem to have been "prepared" to read this book. My question may sound odd, but in mind in my situation, it seems practical to me. If one is learning day to day from walking with his Mentor in addition to reading and studying about his Mentor. How does one also share with his mentorees from his walk as well as the scripture? In an environment where everything
extranea scriptura is suspect, even common spiritual sense is questioned. Is this why we are able to be so knowledgable and yet so ineffective? We know what God's will is, but the way we approach the scripture doesn't cause it to apply to our day to day details.
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I've got to say that this chapter was really gratifying for me personally. At the risk of sounding arrogant (please forgive me - just trying to be brief), Willard has wonderfully described the essence of my heart as a student minister for the past 15 years. This is especially summed up in (305)
We would intend to make disciples and let converts "happen," rather than intending to make converts and letting disciples "happen." I have always had mixed feelings of certainty and guilt about this conviction, because it was such a minority view. Ergo the gratification, from Spirit I think, that this way of seeing things is necessary.
My question? How about "what is your Mentor teaching you?" {don't mean teach in scholastic terms, but in everyday life-skill terms}
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