The Outward Mindset

It was G.K. Chesterton who said "How much larger your life would be if your self could become smaller in it."    But such wisdom is not new nor did it orginate with G.K. Chesterton.    This is the heart of God!  It was Jesus who said, "Whoever wants to become great among you must become your servant." (Mark 10:34)   On another occasion Jesus taught: "... he who is least among you all--he is the greatest." (Luke 9:48)    Jesus himself modeled this posture in life through his incarnation and his death on the cross, as the apostle Paul reminds us about Jesus, "Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness." (Philippians 2:6-7)   And John the Baptist knew this principle in life.   While Jesus praised John by telling the crowds that there was no one greater born of a woman than John the Baptist(Matthew 11:11), John himself said of Jesus:  "He must become greater; I must become less." (John 3:30)

Now, what if you applied these same principles to any group of people?   Your family?   Your business?  Your organization?   What if you applied these principles to how you do church?    You take the posture of seeing beyond yourself and shift your mindset to serving and helping others.    Your customer.   Your neighbour.   Your community.   The lost.  The members of your family.  You become concerned about the needs, challenges, and objectives of others and consider how you might help and serve them.   Rather than having an inward mindset you shift to an outward mindset.

Recently I received a copy of The Outward Mindset, a publication of The Arbinger Institute.   The Arbinger Institute is a worldwide training, consulting, and coaching organization headquartered in the United States.    In this book they suggest that the one change that most dramatically improves individual and organizational performance, sparks collaboration, and accelerates innovation is a shift to an outward mindset.    Think of a person working in an organization.   She conceives of her work in a way that is alive to and interested in the needs, objectives, and challenges of each of the persons toward whom she has responsibility -- toward her customers, direct reports, peers, and manager.    She always takes these people's needs, objectives, and challenges into account.

One of the most compelling stories of this mindset shift shared by the authors of The Outward Mindset comes from a police SWAT team in the Kansas City Police Department.   This squad was one of the most complained-about units in the KCPD.   The team used to receive two to three complaints a month, many of them regarding the excessive use of force.   It wasn't uncommon for some of these police to spit tobacco on suspect's furniture when they went to arrest someone, or to put a bullet through the skull of a potentially dangerous dog.   On average, these complaints cost the department $70,000 ($100,000 AUD) per incident.   But then they decided to shift to an outward mindset.   For example, this SWAT team were about to serve a high-risk drug warrant -- the fifth warrant of that day.  The targets of this warrant are considered dangerous and this SWAT team were simply going to storm through the door unannounced.    Wearing bullet-resistent helmets and body armour, these men in black stormed this house using a battering ram to slam through the door.   Inside is bedlam.   Men are scrambling and young children stand paralyzed screaming.   A number of women cower on the floor with some of them shielding infants who are crying at the top of their lungs.   Two suspects are arrested and handcuffed.   Not longer afterwards, as a total search of the house continues, you find a couple of the police officers standing at the kitchen sink, looking for white powder -- not the contraband to be used as evidence, but for a white powder of greater immediate importance.   They were looking for Similac.   Once locating this powder, they prepared bottles for the crying babies and distributed them to the mothers.   This one act changed the entire scene.   Everyone calmed down and the arrested men were handed over to the detectives.    This kind of responsiveness is now routine with this police squad.   They have shifted to an outward mindset, taking into account the needs, objectives, and challenges of the people around them -- those that they go to arrest.   No more spitting on furniture or bullet holes through a dog's head.   And yes, they prepare baby bottles.  And because of their new way of working this SWAT team has not had a complaint against them in six years.   It has transformed this police unit!

I have found this publication from the Arbinger Institute insightful as I reflect on how we as a Christian denomination in Australia can become more effective and increase our gospel impact.   In fact, this principle of shifting to an outward mindset is at heart of the missional vision of the CRCA.   For more than a decade we have been emphasizing that as a denomination we are "a church reforming to reach the lost for Christ."  As churches our primary focus is not inward but outward!    So how does this play out in the life and ministry of the church?

Well, we can see this shift to an outward mindset in a number of ways.    We can see this shift with individual members in churches.  Members who have an outward mindset take the needs, objectives, and challenges of others and particulary the lost into account.  Within the fourfold task of our missional vision, we find references to the the task of equipping each other to be disciples of Jesus, of nurturing one another in the body. Church discipline is practiced; we are our brothers and sisters' keepers. Individual members of the body are concerned about the spiritual vitality of the other members of Christ's body in the church and so discipleship is taken seriously. In families and in the church family training is given to help one another to be fully yielded to Christ. The development of the Discipleship Matrix was motivated by an outward mindset. Through intentional discipleship we take into account the spiritual needs, objectives, and challenges of others into account. We are there to help one another in the body of Christ, be this through discipleship, being part of a holistic small group, and/or doing one-to-one Bible reading with one another. An outward mindset.

This outward mindset can not only be seen among the members of the church; we see it also with church leaders. Ministers, elders, and other leaders see beyond themselves. Church leaders are concerned about the members, and in their preaching and pastoral care their ministry is alive to and keenly interested in the needs, objectives, and challenges of the parishioners - be it spiritual, emotional, physical, or any other need/challenge. Church leaders who have an outward mindset are not concerned primarily on how they can be served, how their needs, challenges, and objectives can be met. Rather, their focus is on how they can serve others -- as our Lord Jesus showed by his example, laying down his life for others. Church leaders with an outward focus lay down their lives for others - real servant leadership.

But this outward focus is not only important for individual church members and leaders; it is equally true for organizations, be it churches, classes, or the denomination as a whole. Back to the CRCA missional vision. If you ask the question, why do we as churches exist? Primarily? As a denomination we attest to the fact that we need to see beyond ourselves. We need to see the lost in our communities, the millions of Australians who never go to church. They are our customer, so to speak! And, to paraphrase the apostle Paul, we will do whatever we need to do in order make it very difficult for people to go to hell and very easy for them to hear and experience the good news of salvation that is found in Jesus (see 1 Corinthians 9:22). We do not have an inward mindset but an outward mindset. Following our Saviour, our primary task is to seek and save the lost. (Luke 19:10)

And consider the regional gatherings of Classis meetings. Church leaders come from all the churches in the state or region for several hours, three or four times a year. When Classis meets what might having an outward mindset look like? Imagine church leaders coming together and their primary interest is in the needs, objectives, and challenges of the other churches that attend that meeting. One church is struggling in a particular area, and several of the sister churches offer to give assistance. Questions are asked, help is offered, prayers are made, and support is given to one another. And this happens repeatedly throughout the Classis meeting. The result will be changed lives, healthier churches, and transformed organizations. This would truly open a path to trust, collaboration, creativity, and performance. And in the end God is glorified, his kingdom advanced, and the impact of the gospel strengthened.

Quoting G.K. Chesterton again: "How much larger your life would be if your self could become smaller in it." It is true, isn't it? To become great we need to become small! If our churches are ever to increase in number and in gospel impact in our neighbourhoods and in Australia as a whole, we need to become small. We need to lay down our lives for others, to seek and save the lost. We need to shift our mindset from being inward to be outward! It is not about a building or a program; it is about a mindset. We need to see beyond ourselves and shift to an outward mindset.