Head, Heart, Hands: Aiming For Holistic Discipleship

We have a very specific aim with all of our teaching at Church of the Cross. We are aiming for a “sweet spot” of sorts, the intersection of “head,” “heart” and “hands.” In other words, we want to teach truth about God that ignites our affections to worship, fueling joyful obedience. In other words to the other words, we want to make holistic disciples (Matthew 28:18-20).

It seems too often to be the case that our approach to life in the local church emphasizes one or two of the three to the exclusion of the third. If we simply focus on “hands” or right living, we end up with social action removed of Gospel foundations, moralism and/or legalism. We simply focus on doing things without ever having the proper motivators. If we focus primarily on “heart” or affections, we often end up with mushy gushy or ecstatic worship with emotional highs distanced from sound doctrine or obedient living. This is at least in part how the “prosperity gospel” has taken root in so many Pentecostal circles. If we focus primarily on “head” or doctrine to the exclusion of moved affections and obedient lives, we end up with dry academia, where the local church becomes little more than a theology club. Each extreme is so real a danger that many of us can think of examples of each.

This holistic aim is nothing more than echoing Jesus’ affirmation of the great(est) commandment. We read in Matthew 22:35-39:

And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. ³⁶“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” ³⁷And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. ³⁸This is the great and first commandment. ³⁹And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

Loving God with our mind is part, but it is not the whole. Loving God with our heart is part, but it is not the whole. Loving others is part, but is not the whole. The whole involves the whole person, it involves “head,” “heart” and “hands.” And, while the whole includes each sphere, there also seems to be a progression (at least a logical progression if not an actual progression): as we learn more about God and the Truth sets us free (John 8:32), as we speak the truth to one another (Ephesians 4), when we see Jesus for who He is and what He’s done, we praise Him (Luke 18:43, Luke 23:47, etc.). Truth about God ignites worship which fuels obedience (John 14:21). As Tim Chester says in his book Captured By A Better Vision:

The call to holiness in the New Testament is not a call to duty, drudgery, repression and boredom, but always a call to joy, meaning, satisfaction and fulfillment.

Right thinking moves us to right affections, resulting in right living. Head, heart, hands. This means that the teaching responsibilities at Church of the Cross can be difficult because we’re simply aiming for the transfer of information, excited emotions or legalistic moralism. We are seeking to make holistic disciples who make disciples.

Won’t you join us in this pursuit? It’s not easy, but it’s worth it.