The Mindsets

May 22, 2024

I’m in a resource writing mood and I have needed to allude to my Mindset teaching in several articles and conversations lately and am in a bid to move everything over to Substack. Besides for this, it’s been far too long since I’ve summarised what it means to have the mind of Christ in contrast to what other minds we regularly inhabit. So let’s get into it.

Mindsets in Theory & Practice

Mindset affects everything. Like a vibrational frequency our mindsets don’t just tune us into a channel, we become the channel that other people are forced to listen to and watch by the very nature of being within our broadcast radius.

Now, I want to be clear, mindset has very little to do with whether or not we are mentally well. I don’t believe that our job here is ultimately to flourish or to cause others to flourish in their mindsets—it’s just not something which the scriptures call us to pursuit. Too often we get caught in the trap of spiritually bypassing really traumatic issues that we don’t bring to healthy ends because it’s just spiritual warfare, Honey.

That being said, our mindsets are a part of the fruit of the Spirit of God who is in us. Peace that passes understanding must mean something other than spiritual bypassing and the mindset teaching I have developed and am sharing with you now, exists as a tool to help us examine the things we are seeing and hearing in the world and in ourselves.

There are three basic mindsets which we tend to exhibit; the Natural Mindset Nominal Mindset, and the Spiritual Mindset. I shy away from calling the Spiritual Mindset the Mind of Christ because we honestly don’t have to be Christians to have a spiritual mindset—there is nothing to stop people from shifting from Natural or Nominal thinking into Spiritual thinking. However Jesus is the exemplar of spiritual thinking and so, if it helps, every time I refer to the Spiritual Mindset, read it as The Mind of Christ.

I want to guide you through my thinking as I present a working definition for our purposes. I have written several definitions over the past two years and the first one is a doozy to look at, but don’t worry it gets easier.

A very rough first draft of a definition took place in Introduction to the Mindsets which I didn’t even try to make accessible for the eyes. Some of the grit of this definition informs how I think, but you can see how weak the concept of the Spiritual mind was compared to the Natural and Nominal understanding. This is likely because I was more practiced in them.

Natural Mind—The natural mind is ultimately concerned with factual correctness as a means of evaluating ethics. It equates righteousness with being “right,” and is ultimately motivated by being right. The endgame of the natural mind is to have the final word and have it be right.

Premise: Right is Righteous

Common Arguments:

2+2=4 and nothing can change that!
Don’t you want to be right/safe/pure/holy/loving?

Characteristics: Doubles down on raw data and/or the company line for the sake of being right—the endgame is to be found right(eous) at the final judgment.

—

Nominal Mind—The nominal mind is concerned with finding the ultimate motivation. Ethics are ultimately determined by their motivations and the endgame is to reach your full potential as a result of the ultimate motivation.

Premise: Motivation & Discipline = Success

Common Arguments:

Can you imagine what it would be like if we all obeyed Jesus?
What we need is revival (of motivation)!

Characteristics: Seeks the ultimate motivation and defines success as doing the right things for the right reasons—the endgame is fulfilling our potential!

—

Spiritual Mind—The spiritual mind is concerned with obeying the Father in achieving His endgame. Ethics are determined by the Father. The motivation for obedience is love.

Premise: Obedience to the Father

Common Argument:
Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will be Done on Earth as it is in Heaven

Characteristics: Realizing the Father’s endgame in all areas of life motivates obedience to Him in all things. Nothing is left ambiguous or untethered so as to assume good and evil are ours to decide.

Mindset Definition 1.0 Introduction to the Mindsets (2022)

As you can see, a little clunky. I really struggled to present the Mindsets as anything other than abstract concepts because as soon as I attached them to a topic, it rendered the concept nearly useless to share as a concept to apply to all of life. The issue is that it is a very simple concept like a formula that takes only a minute to write down, but as we dig deeper into the concept it shows just how fundamental our mindsets are in placing us on a track of thinking. As a result every time I’ve had to reintroduce the concept I created an adjacent definition to fit whatever topic I was covering. My favourite was the one I wrote deep diving deconstruction.

The Natural Mind makes a religion out of seeking truth.
- Right ethics beget right motives which beget right end games.
The Nominal Mind makes a religion out of seeking pure motives,
- Right motives beget right ethics which beget right end games.
The Spiritual Mind, makes a religion out of seeking God.
- Right end game begets right motives which begets right ethics.

Mindset Definition 2.0 Source: Deconstruction (2022)

I love this definition but for the purposes of this article I am going to further reduce the Mindsets to three basic drives.

The Natural Mindset —Data Driven

The Naturally minded person seeks to live life utilising the best information.

The Nominal Mindset —Motivationally Driven

The Nominally minded persons seeks to live life out of the best motivations

The Spiritual Mindset —Purpose Driven

The Spiritually minded person seeks to live life out of the best purpose.

Mindset Definition 3.0

None of us start out in one or the other mindset but are a formless mess of data, motivations and purposes that we have inherited from all over the place. Over time we solidify into natural, nominal or spiritual thinking in most of life but dip into the other mindsets in moments of uncertainty. All three find manifestations in Christianity—naturally minded Christians are usually conservative. Nominally minded Christians are usually progressive. Spiritually minded Christians are usually those conservatives and progressives at the end of their lives looking back wishing they had loved more.

My purpose in presenting the mindsets is to hopefully bypass the regret of reaching old age and wishing I had loved more. This requires a lifetime of seeking after love in the same way most people seek after data and motivation. Love is the essence of following Jesus that shows the world that we have been with Jesus and that He came from God. This is not just another data point on our way nor a particular motivation in which to dwell in warm fuzzy feelings.

In Practice

Recognise when data, motivation or purpose are at the forefront of your mind and learn to recognise it in the writing and lives of others.
Shift from Natural or Nominal thinking into Spiritual thinking by asking out of the box questions of old issues; this entails leaving the data and motivation to the side for a time to asking about the overall purpose.
Practice Ideological Agility in your dealings with others you have previously maligned due to poor knowledge or motivation. Learn how they think and move in time and space.
Love others well. See them as they are and not as we wish them to be. It is only in truly seeing them that we truly see ourselves in their light which reflects from Christ. Too often the reason we do not love is because of the natural light people shine on our dark places in which we fully intended to hide.

Video Resource:

Extra Credit if you make it through the first deliverance of this material. If there is interest I would like to run this study again. Let me know if you would like to take part.