Factfulness: The Single Perspective Instinct in Church Leadership

Have you ever wondered if relying solely on a pastor’s viewpoint could be limiting your church’s potential? Discover how to break free from the "single perspective instinct" as we unpack insights from Hans Rosling’s book, Factfulness, and explore their relevance to church ministry. This episode promises to enrich your leadership toolkit by advocating for a diverse array of perspectives and interdisciplinary approaches. Learn how to avoid tunnel vision and embrace a more collaborative, inclusive, and effective ministry.

Join Todd Rhoades, co-founder of TheChemistryStaff.com, as he discusses practical steps to cultivate a culture that values every church member's contribution. We’ll explore the pitfalls of over-relying on one person's expertise and the benefits of fostering open dialogue and respectful disagreement. Whether you're a pastor, church leader, or an active member of your congregation, this episode offers actionable strategies to build a more connected and dynamic church environment. Tune in and transform the way you approach ministry challenges with a multifaceted perspective.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:08

Hi there, welcome to the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. I'm Todd Rhodes, your host and one of the two founders of TheChemistryStaffcom, and today we're exploring we're on number eight the eighth instinct that we're talking about from Hans Rosling's book called Factfulness, and if you've missed the first seven, I would encourage you. I think this is a well worth it series to listen to, and every episode here at the Healthy Church Staff Podcast is somewhere between five and 10 minutes, so they're fairly quick to listen to. But we've been looking at these instincts and applying them to church ministry and church leadership and I think it's been really helpful to me and we're getting some really great feedback that it's helpful to others as well. Today we're going to be talking about the single perspective instinct, and this instinct in essence, is our tendency to rely on a single perspective or a single person, or a single person or a single expertise, while often neglecting the value of other viewpoints and other interdisciplinary approaches. And really what we're doing here with this study or this podcast series is we are doing kind of an interdisciplinary approach. Okay, so what that means is Hans Rosling. I have no idea if he is a believer, but he's written some really helpful things that apply to just human personality and human psyche and he put it in a book called Factfulness. And we're taking what is considered to be a secular psychology type book and we're taking what we can find. We're leaving the scraps on the floor but we're taking what we can find in an interdisciplinary, taking a secular piece and applying it to leadership principles inside the church. So hopefully we're practicing here on the podcast what we're preaching in today's episode.

Speaker 1: 2:02

In the church we sometimes fall into the trap of this single perspective instinct. We might rely heavily on a pastor's viewpoint, we might assume that their expertise covers all aspects of ministry. We might even prioritize a particular theological lens and neglecting every other valid interpretation of Scripture, because they're wrong and we're right, of course. But we might even become so focused on our own area of ministry that we lose sight on the bigger picture and the connectedness of the church body, both locally and globally. And this single perspective instinct can really limit our understanding and hinder our ability to find creative solutions. It can lead to tunnel vision where we miss important details and different approaches. It also creates silos within the church and this can happen on your church staff as well, where different ministries operate in isolation rather than collaboration. A lot of the work that we do at Chemistry Staffing is working with churches to say hey, over time, for some reason, our staff and our ministries have just become siloed and we need to be able to all be able to get on the same page and we can help them do that. So how do we overcome this single perspective instinct?

Speaker 1: 3:19

Hans suggests in his book that we need to get a toolbox, not a hammer suggests in his book that we need to get a toolbox, not a hammer. That means recognizing that you can't fix everything with a hammer, but hammers can be really useful. You need to recognize that no single perspective, no expertise is sufficient in and of itself. We need a variety of tools, a diversity of viewpoints to fully understand and address the complex challenges. Leading a church is complex.

Speaker 1: 3:50

In the church, this means valuing and seeking out different perspectives. It means creating space for open dialogue, respectful disagreement, which we don't do very well a lot of times. It means recognizing that every member of a church body has something valuable to contribute, which we don't do well most of the time. It also means being willing to learn from other fields, other disciplines, and recognizing that insights from even psychology and sociology, even culture studies, even business, can inform and enrich our ministry. Now, it can be a problem if we replace these other things, if we replace our theology with some of these other things, and absolutely that's happened in churches but this cross-interdisciplinary approach, I think in many times just will help us in our core ministry. So here's the bottom line the single perspective instinct really can limit your vision, it can hinder our effectiveness and really we need to embrace a multifaceted approach, valuing different perspectives and seeking out a variety of different tools to address the challenges that we face. And what I've been asking you to do for each of these instincts is during your day if you're listening to this podcast in the morning, whatever part of your day is left be thinking about this instinct, this this single perspective instinct.

Speaker 1: 5:17

And here are a few steps for you to consider. And first of all, it's just do you seek out diverse voices, intentionally create an opportunity today for people with different backgrounds or experiences or perspectives to share their insight. Now, this could be a board member, it could be a staff member, it could be a volunteer, it could be someone at the coffee shop that you strike up a conversation with. But seek out some different voices. And when you do that you're really going to foster, start to foster this open dialogue, create a safe space for respectful disagreement and constructive criticism. We're just getting ready, later this month, actually to release our 2024 church staff health assessment and one of the things that we're finding in churches is that many churches do not have a place that's a safe space for conversation.

Speaker 1: 6:03

A lot of churches do not have a place where, or do not have a culture where, there can be respectful disagreement or any kind of constructive criticism. And what happens in those churches? You know what we're finding from the staff people that serve in those kinds of churches. They don't last long, they're not long-term staff members because they don't have a voice. And if they do have a voice and it's different than the main person's voice the single perspective right Then we're talking about the single perspective input. If their voice is different than the single perspective leader in the church, it's not a good place for them to serve and they can't serve there very long. So, remember, the church is a part of his body with many parts and each one has its function and we want to celebrate that. We should celebrate that. We should embrace a multifaceted approach and work together to build stronger and healthier and more vibrant churches.

Speaker 1: 7:03

I hope this has been helpful for you today. Again, talking about the single perspective instinct, we've got two more that we're going to talk about later this week and then we'll close out this series and go on to some other really cool stuff we've got planned for you. But I hope this was helpful. Reach out to me if there's any way I can help you and your staff, maybe with some coaching or with some hiring help. I'm here at Chemistry Staff and to help you however I can to create and really work and be a healthy church staff. So if there's any way I can help you, I read every email that comes in to podcast at chemistrystaffingcom. That's podcast at chemistrystaffingcom. Hope to hear from you. Love to hear your feedback on today or just the podcast in general. Just be nice, right. Thanks. I hope you have a great day and we'll talk to you tomorrow right here on the healthy church staff.