Change the Heart, not the Mind

It’s important to change the way people think about things, but when it comes down to it, the mind war will always lose, whereas, the heart war will always win. As we enter a new era of ministry I recommend that we work harder at becoming authorities at changing the heart rather than the mind. This is a far off concept to the modern world and reasonably so, since for many years changing the mind has been an effective model, but today is a new day.

We’ve become a well-oiled machine at building great conferences and churches. We know how to attract people and we are surely knowledgeable at church growth, thanks to the Donald McGavern’s and John Maxwell’s. We’ve even put enormous attention on the inner qualities of the church called church health. Yet there is yet another wave growing amidst the church world, as God places holy discontment inside leaders, the same kind of righteous frustration that spurred church growth and church health movements. Without oversimplifying a big, complex thing, I’d like to think what is actually happening is a needed focus on relational health. This is because relationships change people, including hearts because they change what people care most deeply about. Churches are creating experimental environments, community societies, tools that replace our independence with dependence. Most people have holes inside of them because they miss-out on things that give them relational fulfillment. The business world is doing the same thing. Today, you can find gardens and bars, even a baby nursery inside of businesses. Whatever they can do to fulfill their employee’s needs they do. The church is trying to do the same thing.

This is something that is dear to my heart because for a few years I spent my ministry time dipped in trying to change people’s minds. My mentor has spent most of his journey trying to change the way people think about God, life and relationships. My respect for him is higher than almost any other person I know, but what I respect more than anything today is that he realizes how important it is to change the heart. I respect him for sticking to his calling – to help change the way people think because that’s important for vast reasons. Yet he admits today that it’s more important to change what people care about. You change what people care about through the relationship factor, building environments of relational health.

The reality is people don’t care about personally what they believe theologically and biblically. That is true because they don’t know how much it affects them personally and relationally. They believe good things but don’t care that much about it. Their loyalty lies in their membership rather than their heart.