The Church is waking up to the importance of mental health within a Christian’s life and discipleship. Previously, there has been much greater support for the importance and acceptance of medical care, but such things as counselling or psychology have tended to be viewed with suspicion. To be fair, we can understand why, as there has been some bizarre things said by people who are atheistic and even anti-Christian. For a long time there has been a dualism of separating the spiritual and the mental/emotional, but thankfully that is changing. Far from these two areas being mutually exclusive, the Bible tells us that they are in fact inextricably connected.
In 1 Thessalonians 5:23 Paul describes our whole being as: spirit (pneuma), soul (psuché), and body (sōma). Psuché is where we get psuche-ology or psychology. When psychology is at its best it is the study of the soul. In Romans 12:2, Paul encourages us to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. One thing this tells us is that area of the mind is inextricably linked to the area of transformation, spiritual or otherwise. What occurs within our mental and emotional world is critically important. If we want to see genuine transformation in ourselves as well as our churches, we need to take seriously the area of the mind. The word, “renewing” is written in the tense to show that transformation comes through the ongoing renewing process of our mind, so in other words, our wellbeing or overall transformation is in fact on a continuum – and we are all on the continuum somewhere.
Part of our journey into greater health and transformation is to think about where we are on that continuum, where our growth edge is, and what might be helpful to improve that growth edge. This not only helps to remove the stigma that has come when people seek help, it also helps us to become more proactive about the things that enable us to thrive. If we simply think we are in the mentally well camp, then we stop looking at where we need to grow and what God is wanting to grow in us. This is true for us personally, but it is equally true for our churches.
One place we see this ongoing process encouraged is in 2 Corinthians 10:4-5. Here Paul tells us that we have divine weapons to demolish strongholds. The word “stronghold” is used elsewhere to refer to lofty, human reasoning or argument. In other words, it is a mindset, mentality, or paradigm. The strongholds are demolished as we “demolish every argument and pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God”. Demolishing every rationale or belief system that sets itself up against the knowledge of who our God is, of who our God says we are, and what our God says and determines as true. Within this process, we are to take captive every thought and make it obedience to Christ. The language used here is very much one of managing your mind.
Interestingly, cognitive based therapies such as CBT also affirm that change comes through a similar type of process that Paul is encouraging here. They focus on the importance of being aware of and reframing one’s negative self-talk (sometimes called A.N.T.s for automatic negative thoughts), and especially one’s detrimental core beliefs.
To help people renew their mind and their thinking I have created a 5A Reflection process that gives guidance on how practically to take captive our thoughts and make them obedient to Christ:
- Aware – notice what you are thinking and feeling. Start from a place of honesty of what is going on inside you, rather than denying it, dismissing it, or marinating in it.
- Arrest – “take captive” these A.N.T.s, arrest these thoughts and feelings so they do not continue on auto-play.
- Analyse – reflect on what belief or assumption is generating these thoughts and feelings; or put another way, follow the ants back to the nest.
- Answer – consider what the truth is here; what a better perspective or God’s perspective might be. Make sure it is a real answer not just the right In other words, answer the unhelpful belief with something that genuinely reassures it.
- Apply – put the better perspective into action to help experience the truth of it.
Just like other types of recovery or improvement of fitness, renewing the mind is a process that requires persistence and consistency to bring about the desired transformation. However it is important to note that although we are all expected to clean our teeth twice a day, no one expects us to do our own root canal. The same is true with our mental and emotional health; if you have a “root canal” issue then please do not try to handle this on your own, find a professional.
Richard Black
MCouns (Distinction), BD, BA, MNZAC
