The Healthy Church Staff Podcast
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The Healthy Church Staff Podcast
Factfulness: The Straight Line Instinct
Can you imagine the risks of assuming your church's current growth will continue indefinitely? Or the despair of thinking a decline is permanent? Tune in as we unpack the perils of the straight line instinct from Hans Rosling’s book, Factfulness. Learn how this instinct can dangerously shape our expectations, leading us to complacency in good times or hopelessness in bad times. Discover practical strategies to break free from this mindset and how to stay adaptable in ministry, recognizing that trends can take many forms.
Join us for a thought-provoking discussion on how church leaders can better track and interpret trends, celebrating successes without becoming stagnant and facing challenges with hope. We’ll share insights on how to maintain faith in God’s plans despite uncertainties and how to prepare for a variety of potential futures. This episode is crucial for church staff and leaders aiming to navigate the ups and downs of ministry with wisdom and faith. Don’t miss this opportunity to transform your approach to growth and decline!
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Hi there, welcome to the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. My name is Todd Rhodes. I'm one of the co-founders over at chemistrystaffingcom and honored also to be your host here at the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. We're here every day, monday through Friday, so I hope you'll join us. If you haven't subscribed, hit that subscribe button wherever you're listening and that way you will be notified whenever we add a new podcast, which is every day, monday through Friday. Okay, today we're going to continue our series that we started on Monday. If you missed the first two episodes, subscribe, go back and listen to Monday's and Tuesday's episodes.
Speaker 1:We're in the middle of a series this week and next week on Hans Rawling's new book called Factfulness, and in each of his chapters and each of our podcasts we are unpacking one of what Hans calls instincts, and our first one was the gap instinct. And then yesterday we talked about the negativity instinct, and today we're going to talk about what Hans Rosling calls the straight line instinct. And this instinct, in essence, is our tendency to assume that trends will continue in just a straight line indefinitely. But, as we'll see, reality rarely follows such a predictable path Downright. We know that right. So in the church world, how does this apply.
Speaker 1:We often fall prey to the straight line instinct, whether we realize it or not. We might see a few years of growth and assume that growth is going to continue forever, or we might experience a decline in attendance, fear that the church is on an irreversible downward spiral. And we project straight lines into the future, forgetting that in life and in ministry man, it's full of twists and turns. This instinct can really lead to unrealistic expectations, both positively and negatively. It could cause us to become complacent during times of growth. It can cause us to neglect the need for ongoing adaptation and innovation. But it can also really lead to despair during times of challenge, thinking that things are never ever going to get better and blinding us just to the potential of renewal and revitalization. It takes the faith that we say that we have both, that God's going to do great things and that God's going to heal and that God's going to turn things around. It just rips that faith right out from under us.
Speaker 1:Again, we're talking about what Hans calls the straight line instinct. So how do you overcome this? You're a pastor, you're a church staff person. How do you overcome the straight line instinct? Rosling encourages us to remember that curves come in different shapes. Trends can follow S curves or slides or humps, or even double lines. They can plateau or decline or experience sudden surges. Even double lines, they can plateau or decline or experience sudden surges.
Speaker 1:So the key really is to be aware of these possibilities and to avoid making assumptions based on limited data and avoid making assumptions based on your last quarter's results or your last year's results In the church. This means recognizing that growth and decline are often part of a natural cycle and it means celebrating successes without being natural cycle. And it means celebrating successes without being complacent. It means facing challenges without losing hope and it means being willing to adapt and innovate and to respond to changing circumstances and needs. So here's your bottom line on the straight line instinct.
Speaker 1:Okay, the straight line instinct, man, it can be a deceiver, it can lead us astray, and we need to be mindful of the various platforms and patterns of trends that can follow and avoid making assumptions based on limited information. So here are a few steps to consider and today, as I'm going to encourage you to do every day as you listen to this podcast, I want you to think about this straight line instinct and consider how, maybe, this is affecting your mindset. Maybe how this has crept into your mindset and here's some things I'd love for you to consider today is, first of all, track trends over time and maybe right now you're just stuck in man. We've been in decline for six months or we've been in decline for five years. It's going to always be like that. Don't just look at the most recent data. Take a look at the bigger picture. Identify patterns and cycles and don't take that faith piece out of there. God has you there for a reason.
Speaker 1:If you've been in decline, that doesn't mean that God's going to allow decline to happen forever. You can change those things and God can change those things and, matter of fact, I want you to be prepared for change. Don't assume that current trends will continue indefinitely. You need to be flexible and adaptable, and we mentioned this earlier yesterday. I believe you got to celebrate those areas where you're making progress. Don't get complacent at the same time. So celebrate, but when things are going well, don't get complacent. Use times of growth to build strong foundations for the future rather than getting complacent. And really I know this is hard, I know it's easier just to say than to do, but face those challenges with hope. You got to remember that God is at work even in difficult times, maybe even particularly difficult times. Look for opportunities for renewal and revitalization and remember the life of the church like life itself. It's rarely a straight line. It's a journey of ups and downs, twists and turns. It's like being on a roller coaster. Sometimes the best we can do is embrace the journey and stay flexible and trust and put faith in God's guidance every step of the way.
Speaker 1:I would love to hear your feedback on this series. Again, it's based on Hans Rosling's book Factfulness. As I said yesterday, man, I love books that I can read. That just poke me and prod me a little bit. I might not agree with everything, but they challenge me to rethink, maybe, how I'm doing things, and this book has been that for me. So it's available, I think, over to Amazon. Don't know, hans, I'm not getting a cut from any of his book sales or anything. I just think it's a valuable resource. It's not necessarily even written from a Christian perspective, which, again, I think is great. You can check it out. It's called Factfulness and you can reach out to me. I would love your feedback. Push back whatever. Be kind, though. You can reach me anytime. Podcast at chemistrystaffingcom. Okay, thanks so much. We will be back tomorrow to continue our Factfulness series right here on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. Have a great day.
