Applied Christian Thinking

Ideas, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more influential than we think. We might think ourselves to be practical people, quite untouched by the ‘merely academic’. But we find ourselves consuming or propagating those very ideas through our latest Netflix binge or meme posting, and we do not even know it.

Those in leadership today still carry the ideas they picked up in their youth. Some very specific philosophic ideas brought 56 men together to sign the American declaration of independence. Other ideas directed men at a conference by a beautiful German lake how to implement the largest mass-murder in history.  And it was abstract philosophical discussions in Paris that led to killing fields in Cambodia. For good or evil, ideas have consequences.

Ideas are sometimes difficult to recognize. Most ideas present themselves as reality. The most powerful ideas are precisely the ones that never justify themselves.

As Christians we need to learn to discern, so we recognize the ideas that are out there and how they impact the world around us. The ACT School will help you understand the power of ideas, their consequences and how it is only the TRUTH that will set us free.

“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge…” Hosea 4:6

Is Christian teaching something that can be KNOWN when properly examined? Or are they things you can only believe in or commit to?  Why does the bible emphasize knowledge? Dallas Willard writes that ‘we have knowledge of something when we are representing it (thinking about it, speaking about it, treating it) as it actually is.’ Knowledge involves truth.

We require knowledge from our service people, professionals and leaders. We would not want a mechanic to fix our car based purely on luck. We want him to KNOW his stuff. Neither would we want someone to operate on us without the appropriate knowledge on would expect of a surgeon.

Knowledge and claims to knowledge have massive influence on our lives and society, for good or for ill. Knowledge is always political in its consequences. Joseph and Daniel became people of great influence simply because they had knowledge.

In the western world, the issue of ‘WHO KNOWS?’ is a point of constant contention, because so many people think they know. There is always a battle over who knows what is going on and what should be done.

This explains why today in our society there is a huge effort to push Christian Teaching out of the domain of knowledge. This way it is stripped of the rights and responsibilities that would certainly increase its political influence.

The biblical tradition as a whole presents itself as one of knowledge of God. Then, within that overarching context of knowledge, there do arise specific occasions of faith and commitment to action, extending beyond what is known, but still based on the knowledge of God.

An act of faith in the biblical tradition is always undertaken in an environment of knowledge and is inseparable from it. We need to drop the idea of faith as a “blind leap” and understand that faith is commitment to action, often beyond our natural abilities, based upon knowledge of God and God’s ways.

The ACT School aims to bring the biblical teaching out of the domain of ‘mere belief’ and back in the domain of true knowledge. There is nothing more important than to increase in the knowledge of God and bring that knowledge to others.