Journey to the Center of the Earth
How Deep Disciples "Draw Up" the Purposes in Their Hearts
Hi everyone - Thanks for being a part of the Soil & Roots community, and welcome to all of our new subscribers this week. I appreciate you joining us.
If you’re new to the topic we’ve been exploring (“The Great Omission” and how to resolve it), you can jump back to the first post and catch up on subsequent articles in whatever time frame makes sense.
Also, I try to begin each weekly post with a summary of what we’ve wrestled with so far, though we’ve covered a lot in the last few months!
We’re now venturing into what is often unchartered territory for many people following Jesus or interested in doing so. We’re digging into the unconscious, hidden areas of the human person.
I have readily admitted that this way of looking at discipleship may be odd or even uncomfortable, though becoming people of increasing depth involves both being a bit odd and sometimes feeling a bit uncomfortable.
And hey, you keep reading, so I’ll keep writing.
No Time To Explain, Let Me Sum Up
Theologian Dallas Willard described modern Christianity as The Great Omission—though we talk about making disciples, we struggle to actually help form people who are becoming more and more like Jesus over time. Most Christian institutions may see themselves as educational or service groups, but few view themselves as character-forming efforts.
Yet the ongoing formation of our character within the Kingdom is the point. Through that journey, we come to love God, others, ourselves, and creation and culture more, thus fulfilling the Great Commandment (Matt 22:37-40).
If character formation, or spiritual formation, is the primary purpose of the Christian adventure, that leads us to ask: “How is one person formed more like another person?”
This is the central question in our quest to become deep disciples.
We’ve already discovered that character formation requires us to know both the subject and object of the transformation, the theological concept known as “double knowledge.” We certainly desire to experience and know Jesus more, though this formation also necessitates knowing ourselves more.
Modern Christianity rarely addresses the ongoing need for accurate and authentic self-knowledge. It tends to value biblical information or perhaps spiritual gift prowess more than character. We call this tension The Discipleship Dilemma.
The Human Operating System
Also, lasting character formation must engage parts of our hearts to which we usually pay little attention. As we began to touch on last week, the human person functions from many features, operations, and forces of which we’re not conscious. Our hearts are driven by at least two hidden forces: ideas and desires.
So, if we want to become more like Jesus from the inside out, we intentionally become aware of and engaged with those portions of our hearts that we usually ignore, reject, or fear. If we desire to eventually act, relate, and love more like Jesus without thinking about it, we intentionally dive into our “operating systems,” the deepest parts of our souls.
This mining expedition requires great care, compassion, and gentleness from ourselves and those we ask to join us. Fortunately, our king is far more careful, compassionate, and gentle than we are, so we can trust that, though this expedition involves some pain, it is good.
Though modern Christianity often assumes that this formation primarily (if not solely) occurs through instruction, we are far more complex than that. We are best formed when we join with others in intentionally formative ecosystems that weave together five elements: time, habits, community, intimacy, and instruction.
These five elements are common in almost all contemporary examples of formative communities (the military, sports organizations, recovery programs, marriage, etc.) and are modeled by Jesus and His disciples, though finding them all intentionally present in modern Christian structures may be difficult (we call this The Formation Gap).
We’re beginning to see why discipleship involves far more than a six-week Bible study.
Heartview and the Eight Indicators
No, that’s not the name of a band.
I made up the term. Obviously, I’m not much of a marketing professional.
Heartview is the ongoing exploration and identification of the hidden ideas and desires in our hearts. We do this by becoming aware of and engaging with our Eight Indicators with God and a trusted friend.
The Eight Indicators are signposts that God has woven into each person, pointing back down to these hidden ideas that power us. They are our thought patterns, emotions, relationships, health, behaviors, words, and how we steward time and money.
Think of it this way. Proverbs 20:5 says, “The plan (or purposes) in the heart of man is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out.” Heartview is the process of digging the well, drawing out the water, and checking out its qualities.
Heartview and Worldview
I came up with the term “heartview” to align it with and differentiate it from the well-known term “worldview.”
“Worldview” typically refers to the set of beliefs through which we see and operate in the world. So, if someone has a Christian worldview, they evaluate the world through a belief system as revealed in the Bible and creation (what’s known as God’s “second book"). Every thinking person on the planet operates from a worldview, and every worldview is grounded in each person’s theology, whether they believe in a god or not.
As we’ve discussed before, the ideas and desires that govern us generally sit underneath our belief systems. Sometimes our ideas (the unconscious assumptions that power us) align with our intellectual beliefs, but many times they don’t. So, heartview sits underneath our worldview, though they interact with each other.
How does all that work? I have no idea.
Let’s Get Practical
Here’s an example. I have a great friend who loves Jesus. He serves in his church, loves his wife and kids, and adheres to his church’s statement of faith. His worldview is consistent with the Bible and how God has revealed His character in creation.
However, he’s possessed by an irrational fear of running out of money. He has cash in the bank, a good job, and a retirement fund. There’s no imminent danger of him going broke, yet he’s constantly checking his accounts and obsessively tracking the markets. He keeps his wife and kids on an unnecessarily short financial leash, scolding them if they spend money on items that aren’t on sale or immediately functional.
He likes to say he’s “thrifty,” but in fact he’s a miser. He’s constantly thinking about how to conserve, protect, and sustain what he has. He often wakes up in the middle of the night, worried about something he saw on the news that might impact his financial portfolio.
His wife is afraid to tell him, but the prison he’s built for himself is having a damaging effect on her and the kids.
His worldview is biblical. This portion of his heartview is not.
His worldview states he is a child of God, entitled to perfect peace, secure in his relationship with his Father, and trusting in Jesus for His provision.
His heartview reveals a soul desperately searching for attachment, security, and the fulfillment of his base desires in other places.
Several of his Eight Indicators (such as his thought patterns, behaviors, and treatment of money) point below his belief system to more profound ideas that govern his soul and are disconnected from his worldview.
My friend isn’t aware that some dark ideas power him. He isn’t ready to explore those areas of his heart that are damaging himself and his family. He’s content to rest in his biblical worldview—that’s as far down as he’s ready to go at the moment.
A Few Surface Responses
Modern Christianity tends to respond to this type of disconnection and disintegration in one of two ways: chalking it up to sin and/or quoting isolated Bible verses. Though perhaps helpful, these common responses generally attempt to address a worldview problem. But my friend isn’t suffering from a worldview problem - his suffering is deeper.
Let’s close by taking a quick look at both common responses.
He’s a Sinner
Of course, my friend is a sinner. Such is our human condition. The problem is that modern Christianity often boils reality down to a “sin/don’t sin” equation that fails to take more profound experiences and causes into account and how Jesus offers us true freedom by meeting us in those deeper realities.
Willard called this tendency the “Gospel of Sin Management,” which asserts the point of the Christian life is to avoid sinning rather than to experience and enjoy a reality-transforming relationship with the Creator God as He dwells with us and works through us to increase His kingdom.
If we fail to explore the underlying reasons why we harm ourselves and others, we will struggle to transform vice into virtue.
In my friend’s case, the reasons why he operates from some dark ideas are related to his origin story. As a young child, he was formed in the idea that his value and identity are bound up in what he possesses. No one told him that - it was the system of ideas in which he was raised. No one instructed him this way. He experienced it. And that’s why it still powerfully controls him today.
The Bible Verse Solution.
It is tempting for those of us around my friend to start quoting isolated Bible passages such as “You can’t serve God and money.” At least in recent years, pulling out verses and assuming a passage is a panacea for any ailment seems to be our expected response.
The Bible isn’t a book of incantations such that we speak it and it has a magical effect on anyone who hears it. Telling someone who struggles with anxiety not to be anxious because the Bible says so isn’t helpful. It often only induces guilt.
Jesus exemplified extraordinary personal and individual relational wisdom. We don’t find Him systematizing His ministry, attempting to relate to people in a “one-size-fits-all” approach. He didn’t heal any two people the same way. He interacted differently with various audiences and dispositions. He is wonderfully attuned to each individual and invites them into their hearts and His own while paying marvelous attention to each soul’s true condition.
It’s possible my friend doesn’t need a Bible verse. He likely needs to be in relationships with people living in the light of those verses. If he isn’t yet aware that some dark ideas govern him, his heart may need to experience the presence and peace of people who are gutturally secure in Jesus - whose worldview and heartview are aligned in their identity.
Instruction is one of the necessary elements in our formation, but it is not always the best one with which to lead. Time, habit, community, and intimacy are powerful forces on our hearts, and a healthy, flourishing group of Jesus-seekers intentionally embodies all five.
Duc In Altum!
Brian
This Week on the Soil & Roots Podcast
Sometimes, our institutional churches provide comfort, care, instruction, and community. And sometimes not. Much like the human person, our Christian communities are beautiful messes.
Handsome Kyle, Dr. Tim, and I jump back into the Greenhouse to expand on my conversation with ex-mega church pastor Matt Davis and our exploration of The Formation Gap. Tim guides the conversation through some challenging questions:
What is the role of the modern pastor today, and does it reflect a biblical shepherd?
Are mega-churches helpful for spiritual formation? Are they necessary and good?
We hear news of near-constant scandals and abuses of power in Christian institutions. How do deep disciples evaluate and process these power structures in light of Christ as a suffering servant?
Join us for this thoughtful and thought-provoking dialogue regarding our journey to become more like Jesus in modern Christian institutions.
Watch here:
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I write on behalf of Soil & Roots, a Christian non-profit organization that encourages deep discipleship through its content and by supporting small formative communities called Greenhouses. Our efforts are funded through donations, and Substack doesn’t offer a donation option. If you wish to support the writing and work of Soil & Roots, just visit our website and make your monthly, tax-deductible contribution there. Thanks!
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Wow. This is deep and just what I have been pondering and longing for. I’m in!
Your friend does not realize that his unhealthy attachment to money is a sin. Power, pleasure, wealth and honor are false gods that many of us worship at one time or another. He needs to understand this through compassionate explanation so he can confess this sin and be free from its influence. Jesus offers great advice on how to correct a sinner appropriately. The world is in the sorry state that it is in because no one corrects sinners, allowing our collective sin to build to unacceptable levels, resulting in God's punishment, which is the allowance of Evil to permeate every institution.