The Christian Mind

“You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.” Matthew 5.13

The Christian Mind
Harry Blamires (1916-)
“The Church’s virtual withdrawal from these fields has left the pragmatists and utilitarians in power. It has led to the decay of the Christian mind. And now, by reaction, it has begotten a brood of frustrated Christians who try to cultivate their own souls but, outside of that, just don’t know what to do.”

Apart from our general reticence concerning matters spiritual, two major obstacles confront us in proclaiming the Good News of Christ and His Kingdom. First, our experience of the Gospel is narrow, as Harry Blamires argued, limited to matters of morality, worship, and spiritual life. And, frankly, today’s pragmatic and utilitarian people don’t see the point of any of these. They prefer to make up their morality as they go along, and they see worship and spiritual life as the domain of weaklings and hypocrites. Then, second, we don’t know how to meet our unsaved contemporaries on their familiar turf, with language, oriented to Christ, that can help them see the relationship of all of life to Him. We can’t interest our unsaved neighbors in the things that interest us. And we’re not able to talk to them in spiritual terms about the matters that interest them. No wonder we’re brooding and frustrated as we look out on what seems like the growing darkness around us. Has our salt lost its flavor? Is it too late to discover new ways of speaking about Christ and His Kingdom, that might make our contemporaries thirsty for the Gospel?

Let’s just think about the area of work: How does Jesus see work? What place does work have in His Kingdom? What was God’s original design for work, when He assigned it to Adam and Eve in the garden? What standards should guide or work, if we want our hope to shine through in the work we’ve been given to do? Talk about these questions with a Christian friend.

Introduction to Christian Worldview
Our course, One in Twelve: Introduction to Christian Worldview, uses twelve diagrams to provide a comprehensive framework for thinking and living Christianly in the world. It’s free, online, and available for you to study by yourself or with your leadership team, at your own pace and on your own schedule. For more information and to register, click here.

Mission Partners Outreach
Thinking and living like a Christian begins in our daily lives, as we are going about in the world to which God sends us each day. Our Mission Outreach Partners programcan equip you to equip your church members to identify and work their Personal Mission Fields from the vantage point of a Gospel worldview and Holy Spirit power. I’m looking for some men to go through this program with me. If you’d like me to take you through this free, six-month program, and help you see how it could be used in your church, drop me a line at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Our heavenly Father supports The Fellowship of Ailbe through the prayers and gifts of those who benefit from and believe in our work. Does the Lord want to use you in this way? Please look to Him in prayer over this question. You can contribute to The Fellowship of Ailbe by using the Contribute button at our website, or by sending your gift to The Fellowship of Ailbe, 19 Tyler Drive, Essex Junction, VT 05452. Thank you.

Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. All quotations from The Christian Mind are from Harry Blamires, The Christian Mind (Ann Arbor: Servant Books, 1963, 1978).