Story behind the sermon (from Mark Buchanan)

When I first came to New Life Church, I established the practice that every January I would preach a month-long series on stewardship. This sermon was a part of the 2010 stewardship series. Over the years I've expanded the theme of stewardship to cover much more than finances—stewardship of our time, our bodies, our friendships, the environment, the words we use, and much more. In this sermon I covered the stewardship of our thoughts.

I had felt for some time a deepening urgency to speak about stewarding thoughts. I have a growing concern about how easily Christians lapse into unbiblical ways of thinking—fear about the economy, anger at the government, anxiety about work, contempt for certain races or classes, pettiness toward others, etc. The basic worldview of many in the church is pagan. I intended to address this doctrinally and ethically in a series I was preparing on discipleship, but I wanted this sermon to provide a broad theological groundwork: Those in Christ can and should think differently, for we have the mind of Christ. My main aim was to generate in people an excitement about that idea and to stir up their longing to grow in it. I also wanted to leave them with a few practical steps toward for growth in the area of thought stewardship. Many people told me afterwards that they had changed their minds about some matter or another, even as I was preaching.

Two other issues concerning this sermon: (1) I preached this on a Sunday that the church was saying goodbye to one of our pastors. In fact, I preached right on the heels of publically thanking this pastor, so the room was thick with emotion, and I was sad. I knew I needed a strong opening to recapture everyone's ...

Mark Buchanan is an Associate Professor of Pastoral Theology at the Ambrose Seminary in Calgary, Alberta.