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This piece was adapted from Russell Moore\u2019s newsletter<\/a>. Subscribe here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Once when I was preaching in a church that\u2019s more on the \u201cdecently and in order\u201d side of Christian liturgy, my host warned me that one woman there was a lot more demonstrative than the rest of the congregation. \u201cThere are certain songs we sing that make her start crying and waving her hands,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s fine. We just want to make sure that we don\u2019t move into a kind of emotionally driven worship.\u201d<\/p>\n I know what he meant. I wonder, though, whether that woman\u2019s \u201cemotionalism\u201d might just be closer to biblical application than the to-do list of action items at the end of the Bible study she\u2019d just attended.<\/p>\n Whether it means starting out at a new church or Bible study or signing up for a gym membership or yoga class, most people at some point sense a need to change their lives. Most of us in ministry want to see \u201cchanged lives\u201d or \u201ctransformed\u201d people. The question is, How do <\/em>people actually change?<\/p>\n That question has lingered with me since I read an article by Simeon Zahl<\/a> in The<\/em>Mockingbird <\/em>magazine on the reigning \u201ctheories of change\u201d at work in American church life. Zahl outlines several of these theories. Most start with an assumption about where the actual problem is before offering a way to \u201cfix\u201d that problem.<\/p>\n The theory Zahl sees as most typical in evangelical congregations is a \u201cChristian information\u201d approach. Some would question just how widespread this model is, given the constant (and real) concerns about anti-intellectualism and the \u201cscandal of the evangelical mind<\/a>\u201d in American Christianity.<\/p>\n To be sure, a Christian information theory of change could include highly cerebral, abstract lectures on theology or philosophy. But more often, this approach is highly practical. Seeing a lack of knowledge as the root problem, it seeks to argue through a particular biblical passage or worldview, followed by a time of \u201capplication\u201d that suggests ways the listeners can put the new principles to work in their lives.<\/p>\n Zahl contrasts this theory with a model of \u201csacramental participation.\u201d Here, the primary driver of change is not the information embedded in the sermon but the practices embedded in the Lord\u2019s Table or in baptism. A third model involves gearing a worship atmosphere toward a highly cathartic emotional experience, by which one leaves transformed.<\/p>\n In contrast, Zahl argues for what he calls an \u201cAugustinian theory of change.\u201d This one assumes that \u201chuman beings are driven not by knowledge or will but by desire. We are creatures of the heart, creatures of love.\u201d He further argues that the human heart is highly resistant to change, often blocking direct attempts to alter it.<\/p>\n To make his point, Zahl asks us to recall a time when we\u2019ve tried to change someone\u2019s mind about politics through rational arguments or\u2014even worse\u2014to talk a person out of pursuing someone he or she has fallen in love with.<\/p>\n Very early in my ministry, I was taken aback by a man who could recite all the relevant biblical passages about the dangers of adultery and the importance of marital fidelity but who sat in my office\u2014with his wife and new baby\u2014waving all of that aside as he told me he was leaving his marriage for someone else. \u201cI\u2019ve fallen in love,\u201d he said, with a shrug that seemed to imply, What is there left to say?<\/em><\/p>\n