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The informal job description of most pastors goes something like this: “Help us grow; don’t change anything.”
You’re smiling. Of course, growth requires change. Of course, change is painful. And of course, we avoid pain at all costs. So while we LOVE to talk about change, what we really hope is that things will stay the same – and WE will stay the same – and yet somehow we’ll all feel as though positive “change” is happening around us.
Recently I was able to sit in on a conference for recent MDiv grads here at Fuller. Dr. Scott Cormode was one of the organizers and speakers, and he shared about his own work in ministry research related to the construction and deconstruction of mental models. I walked away with a clearer sense of why our mental framework can get in the way of change, especially in ministry.
For context, mental models are the categories we use to make sense of the world. This is ice cream, that is a hot dog; here’s what a CEO should be like, and there’s a fast-food clerk. When we’re confronted with something that doesn’t match our current mental models in some way, we tend to either 1. freak out; or 2. assimilate the new uncomfortable reality into one of the preexisting models we can handle.
Scott proposes that the work of Christian leadership is to change the mental models people use to make sense of their lives. Jesus saw his own ministry as one of disrupting mental models (take Mark 8:27-30 or Luke 4:14-30 as examples). In Mark 8, Jesus asks, “Who do people say I am?” In other words, what models do people use to make sense of what I’m doing? Jesus had to explain, “I’m not the kind of messiah you think I am,” and then had to help them re-envision what it means to be a disciple. His followers of course completely ignored this for the rest of Jesus’ life and ministry, because they had no idea how to process this. Only after Jesus’ resurrection and really after Pentecost did they really begin to get it.
Just as Jesus gave his disciples a way and a language for making sense of a life they had not yet lived, our job in ministry is to give people a language to make sense of their lives so they can see God at work when they otherwise might not be able to see God’s activity.
So here’s the clincher statement that I keep dwelling on: We have to fail people’s expectations at a rate they can stand.
Jesus didn’t first say “Come follow me and I’ll make you die.” Rather, he started with “Come follow me.” They thought they were there for the healing, the power, and maybe even the political and military overthrow of the Romans by the Messiah. And eventually Jesus laid out more and more of the plan. He failed their expectations at a rate they could stand (well, most of the time – other times, people had to walk away).
Sometimes we are so set on meeting or exceeding other’s expectations that we fail to see how problematic their expectations are. Sometimes we are being asked to be a Messiah. Sometimes they are looking for the American Dream instead of the Kingdom of God. We have to fail those expectations, but we have to do it over time and in loving relationship as we gently shift their (and sometimes our own) mental models.
That’s real growth. Can you add that to my job description?
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May 24th, 2009 at 9:01 am
[...] Shifting our Mental Models – From the Fuller Youth Institute Blog: “We have to fail people’s expectations at a rate they can stand.” [...]