One of the greatest tools of the Devil is despair. Pastors and Christian Leaders face this despair routinely. John Bunyan faced a deep depression for lengthy periods that only lifted briefly while he was preaching and then the dark cloud descended again.
For many of us, the malaise is not so severe. Instead of incapacitating gloom we become the walking wounded with a gutted vision and just enough hope to confess Christ without, though, enough hope to either attempt or expect great things from God.
Many things contribute to this debilitation: the fact that we labor in denominations hardly known for anything that would resemble Christian faithfulness to our spiritual forebears, we labor in congregations more skilled in manifesting their dysfunctions than Christian virtue, we fight our own battles with the world, the flesh, and satan as well. Together they conspire to make our faith cold and lifeless.
Though functioning from day to day, sermonizing from week to week, and going through the motions, we have to ask if we have adopted a “Bunker Mentality”. We have no hopes, take no risks, and most damagingly expect no answers to prayer. We make no extraordinary efforts anymore to spread the Gospel. We live by our feelings and a sense of entitlement, complain about our income, give up our studies and no longer notice the bed sores that come from resting so long in our comfort zone.
Escaping the Bunker Mentality will spell the difference between spinning our wheels and being spent for the cause of the Gospel. The former may provide some temporary ease, but the latter produces its eternal weight of glory while - more importantly - allowing us to live out the faith we call others to confess.
If you recognize yourself as one who no longer knows the joy of serving Christ without reservation, it is time to escape the gravitational pull of the world, the flesh, and the evil one and regain cruising altitude.
The means at our disposal are often simple ones, easily accessible to us.
1. Renewing a grand vision of God’s purposes in the world often helps set us free. Works on missionary theory and missionary biography or other writings about faithful ministers or laymen often help us to lift our eyes beyond the squalor of our circumstances.
2. Prayerful meditation on the Word instead of our casual, mindless reading, and our substitution of commentary study for our own rumination upon the Word of God frequently is a source of strength and peace thanks to the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
3. Leaving the Bunker and actually ministering to people in order to lead them to Christ, to apply the healing Word of God to hurting people, and, most importantly, to break the spell that denies Jesus Christ’s ability to work in and through us are essential.
We are often so embroiled in denominational problems, congregational problems, and our own problems that we have lost sight of the purposes of the Risen Lord whom we serve.
Escaping the Bunker Mentality is not about putting ourselves forward in our own strength, but about drawing upon the strength of Jesus Christ who has called us to be His servants and placed us exactly where we are to testify to His name.
Will you escape the Bunker Mentality?
Related Links:
Jesse Remington High School: Rebuilding Christian Worldview in the Mainline
A Reformed & Missional Doctrine of the Parish
