Fortress Mentality

When Frank Tillapaugh my friend and co-author of our book “Calling” wrote his first book “Unleashing the Church,” he established a phrase that I think describes one of the greatest problems facing each of us. He called the problem the “Fortress Mentality.”  As I've traveled these past few years, it has become clear nearly everyone in the Christian community agrees the "fortress mentality" dominates the vast majority of our Christian environments.

The domination of fortress thinking has produced an enormous amount of frustration. The good news is, all that is needed is desire.

The average Christian must stop thinking about a special group of people as "the ministers" and start thinking about their own ability to minister to another's needs.

In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul is talking to the entire Church when he says: "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do" (2:10).

What is one “good work,” you can do this week?

Yesterday I had to put down my daughters horse. I loved that horse a lot, and my neighbor simple reach out with I am sorry for your loss and an invitation to Thanksgiving dinner for my family…it speaks volumes of his faith. Simple “good works.” You and I were created for that; it is like gas in your tank.