Factfulness: The Gap Instinct

Is your church leadership falling into the trap of black-and-white thinking? On this episode of the Healthy Church Staff Podcast, join me, Todd Rhoades, co-founder of Chemistry Staffing, as we embark on an eye-opening exploration inspired by Hans Rosling's "Factfulness." We tackle the "gap instinct"—our natural tendency to see the world as 'us vs. them'—and how this mindset infiltrates church leadership, creating divisions that hinder our ability to build genuine community. From theological differences to socioeconomic backgrounds, discover the hidden dangers of these mental divides and the stereotypes and prejudices they breed.

Together, we’ll break down practical strategies to combat this gap instinct, focusing on the often-overlooked middle ground that exists between extremes. Learn how to challenge your assumptions, seek out diverse perspectives, and truly understand individual stories both inside and outside the church. This episode is a clarion call for church leaders to build bridges, foster authentic community, and defy the urge to judge based on superficial differences. By doing so, we can better love and connect with others, leading to profound personal and communal growth. Don’t miss this transformative conversation that aims to reshape the way we perceive and interact with those around us.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hi there and welcome to the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. My name is Todd Rhodes and I'm your host for the podcast, also one of the co-founders over at chemistrystaffingcom. And today I'm really excited. We are going to start together a brand new series I teased it a little bit on Friday if you were listening on the podcast A brand new series based on Hans Rosling's book called Factfulness, and today we're gonna be talking about the gap instinct, and it's our tendency as church leaders a lot of time, a lot of times, to see the world in really black and white, kind of stark contrasts, almost us versus them sometimes.

Speaker 1: 0:40

You ever feel prone to do that I know I do, but the reality is we'll discover it can be a lot of times far more nuanced than that. So let's unpack this a little bit and talk about the gap instinct in the church, all right? So how does the gap instinct, as Hans Rosling talks about it in his book, factfulness, how does that rear its head into the church and play out in a church context? Rear its head into the church and play out in a church context. I think it's a lot more prevalent than what you might think. I think we often fall into the trap of seeing. The world is divided, the saved and the unsaved, and that's true of the faithful and the fallen, again also true of the good Christians and the bad ones. Okay, we're getting a little bit murkier there, but we create these mental gaps, these divisions that can somehow distort our understanding of reality and kind of hinder our ability to connect with others. And that's really where I want to dig down in here. Think about how sometimes we view those outside the church. We might see them as just this homogeneous group, the lost, kind of jumping, lumping them all together and without recognizing, maybe, individual stories or struggles or questions. Or maybe even within the church, we might create divisions based on oh, I don't know theological differences or worship styles or, yeah, socioeconomic backgrounds. Sometimes we don't talk about that, but absolutely we do, and we forget that we're all part of the same body, each with unique gifts and perspectives.

Speaker 1: 2:12

Here's what I think about this gap instinct, as I unpack it from the book. It can be dangerous because it can lead us to stereotypes and prejudices and that us versus them mentality. It can prevent us from truly seeing and loving others, which scripture calls us absolutely to do. It might keep us from building bridges where we us absolutely to do. It might keep us from building bridges where we need to build bridges. It might keep us from fostering genuine community, both inside the church and with those that still need to know about Jesus. It could also lead to a sense of complacency or even a sense of superiority, which I see a lot of times in churches and Christianity, as we focus on that perceived gap between us and them rather than looking at our own growth and our own transformation.

Speaker 1: 2:52

So how do we overcome this gap instinct? He, in his book Rosling, suggests that we need to look for the majority to recognize the vast middle ground that often exists between the extremes. So try and find that middle ground. We need to challenge our assumptions and question our categories and really seek out diverse perspectives. Now, in the church context, this means recognizing people's stories and diversity, both within and outside of our church walls, and it means resisting the urge to stereotype or judge others based on kind of their superficial differences, putting them in a bucket and saying everybody's like them or everybody's not like us, right. It means actively seeking out, listening to those who are indifferent, who are different from us, and learning from their experiences and perspectives. And I know this might be a little controversial when we think about doing this with people outside the church. But you know what? Not all people that don't know Jesus are the same, and a lot of times, if we give into this gap instinct, we think everybody that needs Jesus is the same. They just need Jesus. But everybody's on a different road. Everybody's on a different journey in their faith as well. Some people are really close to accepting Jesus, some people are way far away. But if we put both of those people in the same bucket, we're going to miss out. We just will. So here's the bottom line for today.

Speaker 1: 4:22

As you think about this, this gap instinct theory that Hans puts out for us today to think about. It is a pretty natural human tendency, but it's one I think that we need to be aware of and actively work against. It really can distort our view of the world. It can hinder our ability to love and to serve others and really, when it gets right down to it brass tacks it affects the way we do ministry. So here are some things you can do, maybe to help think about how to change if you find yourself giving into this gap instinct.

Speaker 1: 4:59

First of all, just reflect on your own assumptions and categories and ask yourself where do I see this gap instinct kind of playing in my life and in my ministry, maybe in the life of my church? What do I need to do to find some diverse perspectives? How do I need to readjust my thinking? How do I need to practice empathy and understanding? How can I put myself in someone else's shoes and try to see even the gospel even if they don't know the gospel through their shoes? How can I use that perspective to help me to reach them, rather than just putting them in one kind of bucket and then focus on building bridges, not walls Us versus them. Mentality always builds walls, it never builds bridges. So look for ways to connect with others and to foster understanding and to build that genuine community, even with unbelievers. Man, you need to have those conversations right. If you don't have, you can't just walk up and beat them over the head with a Bible. You need to cultivate some relationships and some genuine community. So remember, man, we're all on this journey together. Each one of us, no matter where we are in life, no matter where we are politically, no matter where we are socioeconomically, no matter where we are from a diversity standpoint, we all have our unique stories and everybody has struggles, so let's strive to see each other not as us versus them, but fellow travelers on this journey of faith.

Speaker 1: 6:25

I'd love your feedback on this. Again, this is from Hans Rosling's book. It's called Factfulness. You can pick it up, probably at Amazon or any place you buy your fine books, but if you'd like to read along, if this kind of captivates your thinking and think I want to dig into a little bit more, you can do that. The book is called Factfulness. All right, we're going to come back tomorrow. Actually, for the next two weeks, we're going to be in this series. I hope you enjoy it and if you haven't already subscribed, subscribe to the podcast and I'm Todd Rhodes and I will talk to you tomorrow right here. We're here every Monday to