Having the Mind of Christ: Eight Axioms to Cultivate a Robust Faith

by Matt Tebbe; Ben Sternke

Publisher:

IVP Formatio

, 2022

Overview

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.

Contents

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’s Love Always Reckons with Power
Axiom 8: God Transforms Us Through Embodied Participation
Conclusion: Acting as If It’s True

Acknowledgments
Notes

Praise for Having the Mind of Christ

"Matt and Ben know what facilitates change in people—and what doesn’t. In their coaching, mentoring, and discipling, they, as faith leaders, deal with doubt in expert ways. If you feel stuck with a less than satisfying faith, Having the Mind of Christ provides eight key insights to get you out of your rut."

"Too often contemporary Western Christianity undermines its own claims of love and good news. Having the Mind of Christ acknowledges the inconsistencies and presses in with a deep longing for integrity, bringing healing as it goes. This book provides language and companionship for those doing the hard work of reimagining a way forward for the church of the twenty-first century, helping us recover from (and repent of) abusive faith practices, restoring us to the life-giving way of Jesus."

"Using eight foundational principles, Ben Sternke and Matt Tebbe help us cultivate transformed lives that are lived in the ways of Jesus. This often means unlearning inferior ideas about love, banishing dangerous notions of power, escaping our habitual trappings of shame, and ridding ourselves of faulty assumptions about autonomy. Accept their invitation to a robust faith and begin this blessed journey."

"Read Having the Mind of Christ and learn to walk with God, the alive God, the present God, active in the world through Jesus Christ. Very personal, engaging of the soul, and a journey worth taking."

"In this age of deconstruction when many Christians are understandably and necessarily rethinking their faith, Having the Mind of Christ offers a way forward in reimagining a loving, holistic, and genuinely compassionate vision for discipleship. The eight axioms invite us to tend to the presence of the God who is on the move in this world, inviting us to join Christ’s mission of love."

"The essence of spiritual formation is the gradual process of learning to live from a more accurate understanding of who God is, who we are, and how life works. Ben and Matt explore key facets of reality, as known and taught by Jesus. And they suggest simple attunement practices that can help transform our lives. This book is serious about Scripture, honest about the human condition, and makes an important contribution to our understanding of how to follow the way of Jesus."

"By sharing their own stories of deconstruction in vulnerable and honest ways, Ben and Matt compassionately invite anyone and everyone who has struggled with faith to courageously shift our ways of seeing God, ourselves, and the world. They invite us to remove the lenses we’ve been living behind and put on a new pair of glasses that sharpens our vision and helps us to see that God is impossibly better than we have imagined. Go with them on this journey. It is time well spent."

"The work of formation into the image of Christ entails new practices, but unless the deeper assumptions we hold about God are addressed, we will be rich in practices but poor in transformation. It’s for this reason that I’m grateful this book exists. Ben Sternke and Matt Tebbe have done a remarkable job excavating some of the most important questions, mindsets, and beliefs that get in the way of new life in Christ. This book is a great gift to the church."

"As we pass through a time when certain expressions of Christianity are no longer tenable for millions of people living in late modernity, a door of discovery is opening for new expressions of Christian faith. Ben Sternke and Matt Tebbe are among those who have discovered that from the ashes of deconstruction something beautiful can be born. In Having the Mind of Christ their eight axioms serve as signposts to lead the disenchanted into a faith centered in the love of Christ. I hope many people will read this timely book."

"Having the Mind of Christ offers a helpful, pastoral, and humble approach to the work of reconstruction of faith. Especially in this moment in the church when deconstruction is both prevalent and often berated by the church, Sternke and Tebbe offer a necessary and alternative perspective that places the work of deconstruction and reconstruction as necessary to discipleship and spiritual formation. Beyond merely presenting new knowledge or new practices, the authors gently lead the reader to reconsider their foundational paradigms in order to put on a new lens with the mind of Christ. This is a timely book that will bring about much fruitful dialogue in the church."

Product Details

• Title: Having the Mind of Christ: Eight Axioms to Cultivate a Robust Faith
• Authors: Matt Tebbe, Ben Sternke
• Publisher: IVP Formatio
• Print Publication Date: 2022
• Logos Release Date: 2022
• Pages: 192
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Ebook
• ISBNs: 9781514003602, 9781514003596, 1514003597, 1514003600
• Resource ID: LLS:9781514003602
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2025-04-22T21:26:47Z

About the Authors

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.