All of us operate out of our mental models--our way of seeing and understanding the world. Because our mental models are acquired so early and are so deeply held, we often are unaware that we have them. We think, "That's just the way the world is" without realizing that there are multiple ways to see the world.

When it comes to church, most of us grew up with a mental model that was attractional; that is, "Church is a place that people come to. If we want people to experience the kingdom of God, we need to invite them to church." However, many of us are now understanding the church to be missional; that is, "Church is the people of God who go out into the world and bring the Kingdom with them." To the extent that we believe this, we have exchanged one mental model for another.

As leaders, we now take on the daunting task of helping others in our congregations see, evaluate and exchange their own mental models about what church is and who it is for. We understand that when our congregations push back against our sermons and our teachings about missional living, it is not because they don't love God or that they don't love the world or even that they don't love us.

Instead, we see that they are firmly invested in a mental model they don't even know exists . . . and it's our job to help them excavate that and to look at their thinking. We ask questions like, "How long have you seen it that way? Do you know why you believe as you do? Who else in your life believes that way?" and we create safe places for them to explore. We also have the courage to share our own thinking: "I see this differently and I'd like to tell you why." "I've had a different experience and this is what I'm thinking now." "I'd like to consider the possibility that something else might also be so."

Telling people what they should think never changes their mental model about anything. Neither does shaming them for not changing. Neither does giving them more and more information about the position we want them to adopt. Jesus understood and modeled this so beautifully. He said, "You have heard it said . . . but I say to you . . ." and then he backed it up with story, with street theater, with humor, with inspiring words that created new possibilities in people's minds.

Everything he did was for the purpose of exposing their inadequate beliefs about God and his kingdom or showing them what God's kingdom actually looks like. And lets keep in mind a couple of things: first of all, in three years, he made virtually no progress and two, it eventually got him killed.

And still, that's what we've signed on for. As leaders, that's our job: to help the people we serve see that God is a missional God and that we, his people, must join him on his mission to reconcile the world to himself. In essence we're asking them to exchange one mental model--one way of seeing things--for another. I think Jesus called that repentance.