Renovated: God, Dallas Willard, and the Church That Transforms

by E. James Wilder

As we investigate that besetting sin or stupid habit, we can really begin to make a change. We see how we can lay out our body as a living sacrifice and what that has to do with things like time and energy. Then we begin to see how that goes back to issues that really are in the domain of sin. For example, you can’t love in

The basic function of the soul is to put all these parts together and make one life out of

we are concerned with our actions, we have to look beyond the actions themselves to consider how the different parts of the self are involved.

The will (which I equate with spirit and heart in biblical terms)[8] is the central capacity to create and originate things and events.

You were created to be a creator.

Now, the primary act of the will is to rely upon God, and in reliance upon God, to bring about what is good for everything that you are in touch with.

Hell is basically a matter of being away from God. You can say, “How could anyone want to do that?” Please understand that if you don’t like God, it would be hell for you to be in heaven. Just imagine, you go to heaven and you can’t avoid Him. The turn to liking and loving God is what makes it a good thing to be with Him—here, as well as afterward.

But our choice as to where we put our mind is what most determines where we go.

In many instances, such as dealing with pornography or addiction, we have to work with the body and the mind together.

Your body is designed to enable you to act without thinking; if you couldn’t act without thinking, you couldn’t do anything worth doing.

The idea of compassion is “feeling with,” so that when I’m with another person, I am feeling how they feel.

What do we need to have in order to replace rejection? Well, we need a safe place to stand, to know the words of Hebrews 13: “God has said, ‘I will never leave you or forsake you.’ Therefore we can boldly say, ‘What shall I fear that men can do unto me?’”[20] Or Romans 8: “If God is for us, who can be against us?”[21]

You line up your soul with who God is. And that restores your soul.

He’s primarily talking about bringing the whole soul into union with God’s ways of living and acting. The soul is restored by that contact.

“Recall our essential idea: You don’t become spiritually or emotionally mature by willpower.” Then he added, “We must emphasize that the process of growth into emotional and spiritual maturity requires that we learn to use our will—and yet, willpower is not the key to spiritual maturity. If we make it the key, we will wind up hopelessly bound in legalism.”

Soteriology is the explanation of how salvation works.

Neuroscience tells us that the brain functions around attachment, not will. Because attachment is relational, it can be surmised to exist in Dallas’s fourth (social) circle where we are connected to other people.

Salvation was understood, particularly among Baptists and Methodists, as a decision to follow Jesus. Making Jesus Lord, therefore, became a matter of submitting our will to God.

The body, emotions, feelings, desires, and will are all fallen and incapable of saving the soul. But something must respond to God and be saved.

“You have to learn how to use your will, but your will has very little power. You maximize the effect of your will by using it to direct yourself into experiences that will change your mind, and your body, and your social relations, and your soul.”[2]

answer. Spiritual disciplines and classical Christian practices are not known for their speed, Dallas has always been clear that they are strategic, helping us make changes that the will cannot achieve directly by effort.

Voluntarism is the prevailing undercurrent of an American Christian worldview. The mechanism for change, then, under this system has been to (a) use conscious thoughts (in the slow track of the brain) to (b) focus on truth so (c) we make better choices.

The voluntarist solution for such failure is to focus more time, more energy, and more attention on truth and choice: Choose to think more about God.

“one of the central elements of an attachment model is that we attach to the one who feeds us and gives us our drink. Human history went wrong when Adam and Eve let the serpent, rather than God, feed them.

done.”[8] Jesus was in the process of resisting His own will.

When we are truly glad to be with someone, the energy of that joy strengthens our attachment. When we share joy, we become attached.” We both smile.

garden? His joy was attaching to us and restoring God’s family.

The entire fast track of the brain (the master system) is designed to create and maintain identity. Our identity is almost impossible to override.

location. On the other hand, how coherently the fast track in the right brain is running has a clear impact on how well we think with God.

Two abilities of the conscious mind are to (1) focus attention and (2) think about something.

The only time that the conscious slow track directs its attention any way it wants is when it has “gone rogue.” This rogue condition constitutes a good deal of what we call immaturity and happens when the fast track that controls character has momentarily lost coherence.[12]

Rather than focusing, the fast track synchronizes with another, (ideally) greater mind. If an attachment has been established, the greater mind can change the identity and character of the lesser mind. Third, the fast track always

Joy is the energy that builds strong attachment love. Joy means “I am glad to be with you!”

Even prominent church leaders who are low on joy can fall scandalously when they encounter someone whose eyes say, “You are special to me.” Despite the truth these preachers have preached and the choices they know are right, the power of an illicit joy builds an illicit attachment that costs them everything.

That means that maturity comes from growing our love.”

Dallas says that to move toward emotional and spiritual maturity, “attack and withdrawal must be eliminated from our social relations and replaced by care for, love of, and identification with those near us.”

We attack or withdraw when others begin to feel like enemies. We begin to think like predators and prey. The brain has a matching mechanism in the fast track that accompanies attack and withdrawal, rendering the other person no longer a resource that will help us—he or she becomes “not my people.” We have an enemy. When we are attached to others by love, however, our mind treats them as “my people” and will neither attack nor withdraw. Emotions may go up and down. We may stop to rest before we try again, but this is all aimed toward bringing us together once again.

Our brain will not attack or withdraw from our people because we are attached. What happens to them is something we will share and feel as well.

Learning spontaneous love for enemies requires the fast track to practice leaving enemy mode and returning to relational mode.

Someone who feels like my enemy right now. (2) A teacher who is attached by love to my enemy. This teacher (a) sees these “enemies” as “my people” and (b) knows that “my people” love our enemies. (3) A love attachment with my teacher. (4) A mutual-mind moment with my teacher while I am in enemy mode, where I can experience attachment that lets enemies become “our people.” (5) Repeated practice attaching to enemies in the company of “my people” because that is the kind of people we are. With practice, it becomes harder and harder to fall into enemy mode.

For such harmony to happen in real time, we need the soul to have a mutual mind with God in real time.

Transformation comes when our mind goes beyond correcting our beliefs to practicing attachment love. False beliefs certainly need correction, but we cannot stop there without correcting our loves. We remember that the One who holds the seven stars told the church at Ephesus that they had their beliefs right, “But I have this against you: that you have left your foremost love.”[21]

Attachment is a drive built into our bodies. So is fear. When there is trauma and neglect, attachment is suppressed and fear is elevated, so fear drives the body/brain.

When fear drives the body, we seek to make the other lose and call that winning.

When attachment (joy) drives the body, we seek to make others “our people.” For the body to learn the character of Christ, it needs joyful love at...

“Rejection by others is perhaps the immediate source of most evils in human life in human terms.” Brain scans reveal that the pain of rejection and abandonment is attachment pain down in the thalamus. Broken attachments upset the thalamus severely.

The means and mechanisms for developing a Christlike identity in a human brain are tied, at every level, to the need for loving attachment. Restoration is a relational process. Salvation gives us a new heart and a Lover for our soul.

Exercise: Nine-Minute Meal Do this exercise during a meal you share with someone. This exercise has three parts, each three minutes long. Begin by thanking God for feeding you. Since we attach to the One who feeds us, thank God for everything you taste and like on your plate. Thank God by mentioning what you like about the food. Thank God also for those who prepared or brought the food to you. (This exercise is even better if you arrive quite hungry.) Tell a short story of a moment you might have sensed God’s smile. Smile at each person sharing the meal with you and bless them with one thing that comes to your mind that God likes about them.

Emotional maturity means that your life is not governed by your feelings or your desires or your emotions.