Repentance Now and Everywhere

A Christian business group recently asked me to speak to the following question:

Where is there need for repentance in our world today, especially within the business community, and what is the true value of that from a faith standpoint?

The answer to the first part of this question is EVERYWHERE – repentance is needed everywhere. We understand this particularly well when we consider the literal meaning of the word.

Repentance (metanoia) – a change of mind (Blue Letter Bible; Outline of Biblical Usage).

Not what you expected, I know; and not what most of us have been raised on (e.g., turning from our evil ways to the Lord, or “doing a 180”). While repentance does ultimately lead to changes in belief, values, and behavior, the starting point is very important – all these things begin with a change of mind.

One of the more profound things I discovered during my time in the Colson Centurion Program was the idea of worldview: a comprehensive conception or apprehension of the?world?especially from a specific standpoint (Merriam-Webster).

Some – particularly those in the IT industry – may know the term “paradigm,” and those who read their Bible have likely come across Paul’s encouragement for the Colossian church:

If then you were?raised with Christ, seek those things which are above,?where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set?your?mind?on things above, not on things on the earth. Colossians 3:1-2

Worldview, paradigm, and mindset relate to the way we think, and the way our thinking affects our beliefs, values, and behaviors. NOTE: The LinkedIn editor does not support images; you can find the worldview pyramid here: worldview-pyramid-larger.jpg (432×375) (biblicalintegration.com).

For decades, if not centuries, the church has focused its teaching on behavior, values, and belief – to the neglect of worldview. Tragically, the church has given responsibility for training Christians in the way we should think over to the secular humanists. It is perhaps the single most destructive decision the church has made in its modern history. ?

From a very young age, members of the church have been drowned in the enemies’ deceptions. Consequently, we are further into the Great Apostasy than we would like to consider, much less admit.

The coming of the?lawless one?is?according to the working of Satan, with all power,?signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among?those who perish, because they did not receive?the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 2Thessalonians 2:9-10

The church has lost its influence on Western culture, and we are losing our own people at an alarming rate. This is why repentance is important everywhere. Given the destructive nihilism that has taken hold of our society, one could forthrightly argue that changing the way we think is existentially important to the church and world.

Lest you wonder: This is not some fanciful “sky is falling” rhetoric. Nor is it hyperbole. Statistics prove what we are seeing and hearing in the news: higher suicide rates, drug addiction, etc.

Furthermore, clinical researchers in neuroscience and psychiatry have discovered a cultural shift toward Left Hemisphere (LH) dominated thinking, which poses a serious societal threat – not that the LH is bad, it just does not need to be in charge of our thinking (McGilchrist, 2009).

As with so many things, this shift has happened slowly and then all at once. The genesis of LH thinking can be traced back to the Enlightenment, when mankind decided science was no longer about knowing God, but best used to control the created order and dismiss God as useful. As you might know, this has accelerated recently, through Modernity and Post-Modernity rationalism (McGilchrist, 2009).

As we understand Scheler’s Pyramid of Values (found here: university-colleges-seats-of-learning-myth-or-model-12-638.jpg (638×359) (slidesharecdn.com), the Right Hemisphere (RH) is responsible for our consideration and pursuit of higher order values: Goodness, beauty, truth, and the sacred. Also, justice, courage, fidelity, and compassion.

In contrast, the LH focuses singularly on utility: values which provide usefulness for satisfying basic needs and wants. In life and business, this is accumulation and control. For example, the “bottom line at all cost” is LH-dominated thinking.

The LH is not only incapable of higher value thinking: It dismisses higher order values in favor of lower ones – it either reduces everything to its utility value or rejects it. In other words, the LH-dominated mind systemically rejects God and His values. The way we think individually and as a society directly affects, at the deepest levels, what we value and how we behave.

Repentance provides a solution to the world’s LH-dominated thinking. In the Christian ethos, repentance lies at the heart of our intentional and supernatural progression toward the higher order values, including the love of God. That love of God, agapē, is sacrificial love (John 3:16). It considers self-sacrifice to be the highest value, for God is love (1John 4:8).

Now, why is this important in the business community?

Business as Mission (M. Baer, 2006), a standard in the workplace ministry field, includes a chapter entitled, “Is Love Possible in Business?” That we have to answer the question speaks volumes. Most people spend most of their waking hours in the business community – they have more community in the workplace than anywhere else.

Indeed, God has not given the business community over to His enemies. He has positioned and authorized leaders in the workplace to be transformation agents for His Son’s church, and for the world. They are not there to simply make money to give some of it to church ministry programs.

Business leaders and their workplaces are the program; they are the church. The importance of this cannot be overstated. Business leaders are one of the two most influential forces in our communities (government leaders being the other).

While it represents an incredible challenge, Christian business leaders must learn (i.e., be discipled) to think differently than the world. They must be encouraged to push back against secular humanistic thinking. Romans 12:2 presents a crossroad in this regard.

And?do not be conformed to this world, but?be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may?prove what?is?that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

The renewing of your mind is the ongoing process of repentance and God’s prescription for our transformation as individuals, fellowships, and communities. So, where do we start? I hope to address that question over the next few months. In the meantime, Harry Blamires (1963), in his seminal book The Christian Mind, identifies six marks of christianly thinking:

???????Supernatural orientation: It sees human life and human history held in the hands of God.

???????Awareness of evil: It is conscious of the universe as a battlefield between good and evil.

???????Conception of truth: It recognizes the truth as: Absolute and uncompromisable, supernaturally grounded, objective, revealed, discovered by inquiry (not determined by majority vote), and authoritative (not a matter of personal choice).

???????Acceptance of authority: It rejects rebellion – in all its forms – to willingly bow before the Sovereign God.

???????Concern for the person: It considers the human person as the only being created in the image of God.

???????Sacramental perspective: It recognizes the omnipresence of God in all of life, and the desire of God to make life joyful and rewarding.

Blamires opens his treatise on christianly thinking with a bold statement, “There is no longer a Christian mind.” He then goes on to build a strong case. It may alarm you to know he made that statement in 1963. But we must not allow alarm to degrade into discouragement; we must instead allow it to motivate our response.

With God, there is hope. As deception has grown, so too has the love of the truth (2Thessalonians 2:10). Indeed, more and more Christians are thinking christianly.

Let us also, right now, commit ourselves to God’s side in the ideological battle of our day. Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand!!

Please, please, please, for the sake of our children and grandchildren, prayerfully consider your personal repentance, and your role in the repentance of family, fellowship, and community. For those of you in leadership, be encouraged in the privilege of your calling: God has created, saved, and positioned you to impact the church and the world.

May we all remember: God used Gideon (from the smallest clan in the smallest tribe), a bunch of fishermen, a tax collector, and millions of no-name, no-fame – but faithful – people to set things right and to turn the world upside-down.

Begin with yourself, and pursue the desire God has put in your heart. He will use you in a good and glorifying work.

God bless you with grace and wisdom for a renewed pursuit of true repentance.

Humbly yours and forever His,

Rob

#iamjustthepen

Baer, M. (2006). Business as Mission. YWAM Publishing; Seattle, WA.

Blamires, H. (1963). The Christian Mind. Regent College Publishing; Vancouver, BC.

McGilchrist, I. (2009). The Master and his Emissary. Yale University Press; New Haven and London.