Being the Outside Expert

Sometimes, I’ve been invited to speak in other churches. They seem to respect my advice on matters in a way that can even seem embarrassing. Afterwards, a frustrated leader or Pastor tells me they had been saying something similar for a long time, but the congregation and leadership seemed reluctant to listen. But now that they invite me to share my views, suddenly they’re interested. Most managers or leaders have experienced this from both sides and understand the frustration. Often, it really does seem that an outside expert has great persuasive powers.

But the concept is explained in the Bible. In discussing how we as Christians are to relate to others, Jesus used the illustration of salt in Matthew 5:13: “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.”

Salt has the ability to ‘season’ things. In ancient days, salt was the best preservative available, and to keep meat from rotting, salt had to be rubbed in.  But one important element of salt is how different it is from the meat. To change something, you have to be different from what you’re trying to change.

After a long time within any organization, most people seem to lose their saltiness; their unique or impartial perspective and authority. Human nature being what it is, others don’t take advice as often from inside people because they seem to be like part of the problem they are trying to solve.  That’s why we are open to outside advice; it does bring a fresh perspective.

Salt changes things because it’s not like what it’s trying to change. Certainly being different in your views, will not always be appreciated, but it does mean you offer different ideas. To become ‘salty’ again we need to step outside of things and become renewed in our thinking. Holding the same old views means we have little to no impact on the way things are.