Reader's Choice Award Winner"Why doesn't the Christian life work like I thought it would?"While we often start with good intentions, it feels like real transformation is elusive at best, and maybe even impossible. We deeply want to live in the freedom that Christ offers, but we are acutely aware of the gap between a transformed life and our reality. Having the Mind of Christ tackles the issues of lasting life change.When we feel some kind of inspiration or need to seek change in our lives, we start with behaviors: new to-dos, tactics, techniques, or spiritual disciplines that we hope will bring about the transformation we desire. While these behavioral changes can bear good results, they just as often fail to produce the lasting change we deeply desire. That's because transformation requires more than a change in practice it requires a change in paradigm.Pastors Matt Tebbe and Ben Sternke share eight axioms that help reframe the way that we see God, ourselves, and others. By seeing through new lenses, we can open ourselves to the transformational change that God wants for our lives.

Matt Tebbe has been in local church ministry for over twenty years. He holds a Masters of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and worked as an adjunct professor at Trinity International University. He has written for Leadership Journal, Shattered Magazine, and contributed to the book What Pastors Wish Their Congregations Knew. He's been a featured writer for Missio Allliance and writes regularly at Gravity Leadership, where he also co-hosts the Gravity Leadership Podcast. He co-founded Gravity Leadership and is co-pastor at The Table in Indianapolis.Ben Sternke has over two decades of Christian ministry experience. He has a graduate degree in Hermeneutics from London School of Theology, and a B.A. in Christian Ministry and Music from Taylor University. Since 2005, he has been writing about church leadership and ministry in various online publications, including Gravity Leadership, The V3 Movement, and more. He co-founded Gravity Leadership and is co-pastor at The Table in Indianapolis.

Introduction: When Faith Stops Working
Axiom 1: God Is Love, So It's All About Love
Axiom 2: God Is Always Present and at Work
Axiom 3: God Is Just Like Jesus
Axiom 4: God Meets Us in Our Messy Reality
Axiom 5: God Cares About (All of) It More Than We Do
Axiom 6: God Does the Same Work Through Us and in Us
Axiom 7: God'sLove Always Reckons with Power
Axiom 8: God Transforms Us Through Embodied Participation
Conclusion: Acting as If It's True
Acknowledgments
Notes