The Thinking Ministry of Jesus Casting Out Logs for Renewing Church Life

THE THINKING MINISTRY OF JESUS

CASTING OUT LOGS FOR RENEWING CHURCH LIFE

Robert L. Randall, Ph.D.

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Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2013 Robert L. Randall, Ph.D.

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Table Of Contents

Acknowledgements

Getting Oriented

Chapter 1. Expanding Getting Oriented

Chapter 2. Jesus' Teaching Ministry: Our Guide

Chapter 3. Cognitive Psychology's Work: Our Assistant

Chapter 4. When Our Thinking Cleaves: Either-Or Logs

Chapter 5. When Our Thinking Feeling-Floods: Emotional Reasoning Logs

Chapter 6. When Our Thinking Self-Absorbs: Confirmation Bias Logs

Chapter 7. When Our Thinking Deflates: Depressive Logs

Chapter 8. When Our Thinking Thumbs Its Nose: Justification Logs

Closings

A Short List of Suggested Readings

Acknowledgements

Larry Randen, my old friend and a John Updike scholar, has edited nearly all my books, this one included. I'm grateful for his sharp eye and always supportive spirit. I'm also grateful to Dr. William R. Myers, former president of Northern Baptist Seminary in Lombard, Illinois, who regularly cheered me on in this new venture. Finally, thanks to the people and staff at St. Peter's United Church of Christ in Elmhurst, Illinois who still provide a place for me to worship and continue my work. As I often say, it's who you have beside you that really counts.

Elmhurst, IL

Getting Oriented

Jesus warns us, sternly but compassionately. In varied ways he pounds home the message that the greatest threat to our self and others comes from inside us rather than outside us. It's what's in our head, those faulty ways of thinking, that primarily damage our spirit and our relationships. Jesus calls these distorted ways of thinking logs. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Jesus knew personally how thoughts had utmost power to affect lives. He taught as if people would become healed when how they thought was healed. Conversely, he taught as if disconsolation and sin would persist as long as feelings and responses were lead by dysfunctional thinking. Jesus devoted his teaching ministry in large measure to the casting out of logs that kept people from responsible love for God, neighbor, and self.

We in the Church have yet to fully comprehend this crucial dimension of Jesus' teaching ministry. We desperately need to, because the logs in the eyes of us pastors and parishioners are major causes for our personal and parish struggles. We may live by faith, we may labor in the church, we may affirm doctrine, but our thinking may still be maladaptive, giving rise to detrimental feelings and behaviors. Perhaps we can begin to hear the teaching spirit of Jesus say to us: Stop blaming things outside you for your problems. Start looking inside, at how you think, at those logs in your eye that taint your relationships, lead you astray, and erode your hope.

That's what this book is about. Its aim is to follow the thinking ministry of Jesus so we, too, can perceive distorting logs that give rise to negative emotions and disturbing behaviors in the Church and in our lives. Jesus repeatedly encouraged his followers to think clearly. He regularly lifted up those distortions in their thinking that kept them from living the abundant life. In these following pages we will see the various logs he confronted and the numerous casting out tools he used. Through it all we will lean on his wisdom, his encouragements, even his scoldings, to find insight into the nature of our own logs.

Although Jesus intentionally attacked distorted thinking, he did not present a general approach for doing so, nor was he always clear about what distorting log he was challenging. His effort to reshape the thinking of those who listened was in the moment—-often a hectic or hazardous moment. In this book we will utilize findings from the field of cognitive psychology to illuminate and enhance Jesus' practice of casting out logs. Cognitive psychology is a branch of psychology whose work centers on how our thinking (our cognition) affects our emotions and behavior. Both Jesus in his teaching, and cognitive psychologists in the therapy they may do, attempt to confront and change faulty thinking as a means for restoring wholeness in persons and in groups. Jesus, as we know, called these various forms of faulty thinking logs. Cognitive psychologists call them cognitive distortions. Both Jesus and cognitive psychologists focus on mind bending (helping people break through to recognize their problem-causing distortions) and mind mending (helping people incorporate new life-giving ways of thinking).

In the following chapters we will see how distorting logs adversely shape a wide range of attitudes and practices of parishioners and pastors. From this we will hopefully come to acknowledge how perceiving and dealing with our distorting logs is necessary for our mental, spiritual, and moral well-being, and why the thinking ministry of Jesus is crucial for the Church.

There's an additional hope, however. Just as Jesus confronted distorted thinking in his teaching ministry, so we in the Church would benefit from making perceiving of logs an intentional part of the Church's teaching ministry. The work of cognitive psychology has been generally accepted by the Church for the practice of pastoral counseling. The Church, however, has not yet fully utilized the thinking insights of Jesus and cognitive psychologists for the wider work of its teaching. If that would change, it would be another way for the Church to extend the care of Jesus.

Reading this book may cause upset. Nothing is more disturbing than having our thinking challenged. When Jesus confronted the thinking distortions of certain people they became so infuriated that they plotted to kill him—-and eventually did. Our own thinking almost always seems right, and so we tend to get defensive if not irate when our distortions are pointed out, even when done with loving kindness or therapeutic empathy. Besides, it's difficult to see what we don't normally see (our logs) and yet be held accountable for dealing with them.

In addition, these pages present a side of Jesus that is not commonly recognized: the cognitive Jesus, the thinking Jesus. With that comes a new accent on the casting out of logs as a central feature of his teaching ministry. We tend to quickly dismiss new ideas such as this. They do not soothingly fit into our set images of who Jesus is and what he is trying to do.

My desire, of course, is that you will enjoy reading these pages even if uneasy. We innately like to learn, to become smarter and better, and to have a sense that we are in the know. We also possess a capacity for self-righting, for finding or regaining our mental balance when we have lost it—as we all periodically do, even Jesus.

In addition, I've endeavored to write in a clear, even personal, way. Although information may be unfamiliar, it is not ungraspable. You'll not get lost, at least not for long, because I keep circling back to our main themes and points. Our first chapter, therefore, expands this overview greeting so you can settle in for our journey together.

And so I say to you as I say to all those who begin work with me: I'm glad you're here.

Robert L. Randall

Elmhurst, Illinois

rrandall42@gmail.com

1

Expanding Getting Oriented

We all have logs in our eyes. I have mine—-some wrestled with, others unknown. These logs are the narrow, biased, and fallacious ways of thinking that cause us problems in the Church and in our lives. I've counseled smart clergy whose tensions in ministry stemmed from their distorted either-or way of thinking. I've consulted faithful congregations whose problems arose from their distorted emotional reasoning way of thinking. I've provided psychotherapy for parishioners caught in deep prejudices stemming from their distorted confirmation bias way of thinking. I've provided counseling oversight for struggling groups mired in depressive distortion ways of thinking. I've labored to help those charged with offenses to overcome their justification distortion ways of thinking. After forty-two years as an ordained minister and clinical psychologist working as a psychotherapist within a church setting, I can verify what researchers have found: most troublesome emotions and debilitating behavior stem from faulty thinking.

Our logs come in multiple shapes, sizes and severities. All are injurious to us and others to some degree. Jesus calls us to be vigilant against these thinking distortions. So let's revisit and expand the Getting Oriented greeting I offered you when you first picked up this book.

First, the end goal is to enhance self-awareness in us church leaders and church members by helping us perceive distorting logs that frequently shape our emotions and behavior. Perceiving is the operative word here because this book will not be a teaching resource for how to change distorted thinking, although we will touch on that. The initial step in gaining some freedom from our distorting logs is to perceive them, and that perceiving itself begins by learning about them. My aim, therefore, is to enhance our ability to identify and give names to mistakes in human thinking as lifted up by Jesus, amplified by cognitive psychology, and observed in church life. This enhanced capacity for perceiving distorting logs allows us to better cast them out and to make interventions that limit their inevitable damage.

If in the process of learning about cognitive distortions our customary ways of thinking begin to feel uncertain, that's a good thing. It's called cognitive dissonance. It means that whatever faulty thinking we habitually do is scraping up against fit thinking, making our customary thinking seem not quite right anymore.

Second, I contend that focusing on distorting logs is a primary way for us to follow Jesus, who in his teaching ministry strove to help others by helping them see the logs in their eyes. Let me be clear here. My primary observation is that Jesus' teaching work often aimed at correcting peoples' distorted thinking that kept them trapped in harmful ways of feeling and behaving toward others, toward their self, and even toward God. That is what I will attempt to demonstrate and utilize throughout these pages. It's what I urge us to do in the Church's teaching ministry.

My work based on this primary observation, however, has led me to a broader hypothesis. My hunch is that underlying Jesus' teaching ministry of casting out logs (correcting distorted thinking) is his implicit working assumption that people are renewed—-individually and communally, commonly and spiritually—-by the transformation of their minds. The work of Jesus suggests that the primary way people are changed or restored comes through being freed from their distorted way of thinking and then assimilating new healthy ways of thinking.

While I will not spend a great deal of time attempting to support this broader hypothesis, I make a case for its validity in the opening of Chapter 3, and will indicate throughout when this seems to be Jesus' operating assumption. Non-acceptance of this broader hypothesis, of course, does not invalidate the primary observation upon which this book is founded, namely that Jesus did seek to cast out logs from peoples' eyes (correct their thinking process) as a primary means for them to live new lives.

Third, I am suggesting that pairing up with cognitive psychology will provide a most helpful intellectual partner on our journey. Cognitive psychology is a branch of psychology that studies mental processes, including how people think, perceive, remember, and learn. Its roots have been around since the ancient Greeks, and the idea that reality is determined by cognition has a long history in Western philosophy. Cognitive psychology began as a discipline in the 1950's as psychologists began to shift from focusing on external, observed behavior (what people do) to focus on internal, mental states (how people think). It has developed into a wide field that includes: (1) investigations into how our mind works and how it often distorts reality and (2) therapies for helping individuals, groups, and cultures disentangle themselves from their distorted thinking in order to live full and productive lives.

If this book were solely for pastoral counselors and pastoral psychotherapists, we would go into greater detail about the theories, concepts, discoveries and therapeutic approaches of cognitive psychology. For our purposes, however, a generic approach is quite adequate. Within these pages we will use the fundamental insights and findings underlying all cognitive psychology as a means to amplify and implement the work Jesus did to cast out logs.

We proceed now with reflections on Jesus' teaching orientation especially as it focused on distorting logs (Chapter 2). We then sharpen our perceiving skills by inspecting the premises of cognitive psychology (Chapter 3). Following that, we examine five distorted ways of thinking illustrated by Jesus, amplified by cognitive psychology, and observed within church life (Chapter's 4 through 8). And then we close. But many steps await us. Let's begin.

2

Jesus' Teaching Ministry: Our Guide

Jesus did not leave the realm of religion. Everything he did, or attempted, was an extension of his call to serve God. He was grounded in the Scriptures, learned from them, and struggled to teach and demonstrate their ultimate meaning: to love God and to love your neighbor as yourself. He proclaimed that the Kingdom of God was potentially at hand yet wondrously premièred for those who had eyes to see. (1)

His ministry, however, had a method. He did not, at age thirty, simply give it a go. He did not enter the scene with a few message gems in mind and simply rely upon charisma to make their truth revealed. Nor did he naively announce his new teaching role and then rely upon a stringent code of conduct to carry the truth of what he said. Jesus began his calling late, but he had undoubtedly thought through his approach: not just where he would go, or what type of