Ten Resources for Thinking Christianly

How does one learn to think Christianly? Where does one begin? Here are my top ten recommendations for anyone who wants to be more intentional about discipling his or her mind. You could view this as a kind of table of contents, for I intend to share further thoughts on all of them over the next few weeks (and as I do that, I’ll come back here and create links to those posts).

Ten Resources for Thinking Christianly

1. The Holy Spirit. God is certainly not a “resource” in the same sense as the rest of this list, yet the list would be incomplete without him. We can’t progress in any form of discipleship apart from the Holy Spirit’s work.

2. Your Bible.

3. Your church and/or a local network of like-minded people. Like all discipleship, this is not meant to be a solo undertaking. In some communities you may need to take leadership in this arena.

4. Time. Discipleship takes time, so allow yourself the grace of letting it be a lifelong process. Nobody can learn everything all at once. But be sure to schedule your week to allow time for study, reflection, and prayer, or else as the years go by they will only be lost opportunities.

5. Experience: immersion in all of life, including genuine community nearby, the larger community of world awareness, and the global, transgenerational community of great art (including music, theater, film, literature, and visual arts).

6. Good books: Christian books old and new, great literature, books from contrary perspectives, and books on a wide variety of topics, as long as they’re good books. There are a small number of outstanding periodicals that would also fit under this category.

7. A notebook and pen, or the computer equivalent. Thinking and writing go together.

8. Formal learning opportunities: classes or degree programs in a local college or seminary, online courses, or conferences and seminars.

9. The Internet: apologists’ websites, theological web sites, debate sites, blogs, podcasts. But watch how you approach it.

10. Practice: in your community or on the Internet, share your thinking. Let it be tested by those who agree and by those who disagree.

Please recall from earlier posts in this series that none of this is an end in itself. It is for the purpose of following Christ and making his glory known. I’ll fill in this outline with follow-up articles over the next several weeks.