Law enforcement and the military have a term for an inappropriate or mistaken response that was mislearned during training, a behavioral script that gets laid down during the officer’s training that would clearly not be helpful in a real situation, or perhaps even yield a deadly result. The term is “training scar.” David Grossman, in his book, On Combat, describes an officer-in-training who learned how to grab a gun out of a would-be criminal’s hand. During practice, the officer would grab a gun from a colleague, then give it back to him in order to rehearse it again. During a real confrontation with an assailant, the officer surprisingly grabbed the gun from the man’s hand, then gave it right back to him. Fortunately, the officer’s partner dispatched his own weapon and shot the attacker. The officer who had learned an inappropriate response during training — giving the gun back — nearly cost someone’s life. That’s a training scar.

The Church today is functioning with numerous training scars, or behavioral scripts that are not serving us well. These scripted beliefs are wreaking havoc on The Body. These rehearsed patterns of thought are perhaps even neurologically wired into our brains in ways that lock the spirit and body (Spirit and Body) into dis-ease. The training scar I’m particularly concerned about is our continuing belief that the human heart remains dark, inwardly bent and sinful even after Christ has given the Christian a new heart, goodness and identity at their conversion. We have remained in the Old Covenant approach to relating, refusing to pass over into the New. Listen to most sermons on any given weekend, and you’ll discover the following ingrained script: “Your heart is still selfish and prone to wander. Kill you heart and call that ‘holiness.’ It’s our job to help you behave more like a Christian so that you can do more, be more committed, and stop being so spiritually inept. You don’t really want to follow God, so we’ll pressure you into becoming like him.” The script of “New creation in Christ, but bad heart, still” is the pervasive training scar of the day. It is not the Gospel. And the result to the unwitting Christian is this wound: “You’re not pleasing to me. Try harder.” ———————————

For more on behavior scripts, see Laurence Gonzales’ books, Deep Survival and Everyday Survival. “Training scar” gun story, from Everyday Survival.

Special Guest, Jim Robbins — interviewed on Family Room Media’s weekly podcast. I was interviewed by the guys at Family Room Media about my new book, Recover Your Good Heart.
Topic: The work of Jesus goes far beyond forgiveness. It is a rescue of the heart. This is why the follower of Christ already has a new goodness, new power and new desires.

Thanks to David, Bob, and Loren at Family Room Media.

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To read excerpts of Jim’s new book, Recover Your Good Heart — Living free from religious guilt and the shame of not good-enough, CLICK HERE.

The message Christians too often hear is, “You’re a prisoner who’s been pardoned, but you’re still the same person you’ve always been. Try harder not to sin. You’re heart is suspect and prone to wander, but try harder not to wander and stray.” That’s why we have ‘accountability groups’ – brothers and sisters policing us in order to help us manage our sin. The assumption behind ‘accountability’ as practiced today assumes all the wrong things about the believer’s heart. Author Wayne Jacobsen was sent a cartoon of Jesus inviting people to come to him. The caption read, “Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you an accountability group.”

Accountability is so … Old Covenant.

We pressure Christians to be holy, and then tell them they’re not. We start with a negative: “You’re job is to become like Christ, but good luck, because you’re clearly not like Christ: You’re too selfish, too needy and too committed to your own happiness.” Because we don’t start with the believer’s new heart – with the goodness that is now theirs because they trust Christ – we wound people with a shame-based message: “You weren’t enough to please God before you became a Christian, and you’re still not enough to please him even now.”

Here are some sample sermon titles that demonstrate the difference between accountability preaching and biblical preaching:

The assumptions of Old Covenant preaching are no longer valid. The supremacy of Christ is uniquely demonstrated through the supernatural renovation of our hearts. Therefore, we no longer need messages invariably telling us to avoid sin, or to become a better spouse, more faithful church member, or involved parent. Nor do we need messages that pressure us to serve, or Old Covenant teaching that assumes all our desires are still selfish. Rather, we need a different focus, a different obsession – we need to uncover the rich purity and new passions of our redeemed hearts.

(Excerpted from Jim’s upcoming book, Recover Your Good Heart)