Three years ago, Jack Trout wrote an article for Forbes that discussed the danger of making growth your mission.
That desire for growth is at the heart of what can go wrong for many companies. Growth is the by-product of doing things right. But in itself, it is not a worthy goal. In fact, growth is the culprit behind impossible goals.
People do damaging things to force unnecessary growth.
This also applies to churches. Great attendance is the by-product of doing things right. Your goal is your God-given mission. When attendance becomes your goal, you risk doing damaging things for growth’s sake.
Remember, God cares about changed lives not accumulated lives. As long as you are focused on your mission and continually getting better at fulfilling it, you should be content with the by-product of doing things right.
And if your church has been thrust into the spotlight because of your attendance, methods, or pastor, be extra careful that you do not swap your God-given mission with the pursuit of growth. Jack Trout continues:
Did you ever wonder why very successful, privately held companies, such as Milliken or Gore-Tex, rarely show up in the press? It’s because no one is staring at their numbers quarter after quarter. All they have to worry about is their business. And if they are happy with it, that’s all that matters.
When people start staring at your ministry to see what you do next, it can be tempting to do things to please them rather than to please God. It can be tempting to make the newspaper, the blog posts, and the “cool” church lists. But if you are being a good steward of your God-given calling, that’s all that matters. Do not be concerned what anyone but God thinks.
For Discussion:
- How do you stay focused on what really matters?
could you send this to my sr. pastor.
he’s been hounding everyone about growth over and over and over. he’s draining everyone. HELP!
Oswald Chambers’ entry for March 12th in “My Utmost For His Highest” is what I go back to when I need to re-focus.
http://www.myutmost.org/03/0312.html
Agree that we (the church) should focus on what we’re supposed to be about at our core. Numbers, etc just get in the way and really aren’t vital.
However, I disagree that ‘Great attendance is the by-product of doing things right’. I could get great attendance by doing things very wrong; the reverse doesn’t have to apply. As Christians we’re not promised great attendance, we’re called to be faithful and trust God for the rest.
Do great stuff for his glory, not for numbers.
@Phil
To clarify, I did not say that great attendance is only achieved by doing things right. In fact, the point is that rather than becoming consumed with growth and risking doing things wrong, we should be happy in fulfilling our calling, and a natural by-product of good stewardship is growth.
How then is one to measure success?
What metrics are you using to know your organization is doing what it was called to do?
If you count anything… “Number of people who committed their life to the Lord”, Baptisms, etc. then you obviously want these numbers to go up and not down.
This is by its very nature, growth. And your organization better want that.
When talking about church growth, it’s important to explain what growth your measuring. Square footage means nothing to the kingdom of God, but baptisms mean lots.
If your organization isn’t called to grow these types of numbers, ask yourself, what is your organization called to do?
@Peter
I am not saying that you should ignore these numbers. I happen to love stats.
What I am saying is that growth for growth’s sake is a dangerous goal. Quality of discipleship is more important than quantity of attendance.
Its seems that comlexity and size cause paralysis of the masses, when forces the people to rely more and more on the organization of the basics of spiritual life…sort of like socialism.
Suggestion? Integration, and it works best when it is relatively small. It forces people to be functional and reliant on God and not on the organization.
Why not train people to live a lifestyle of reaching people, and then disciple those people in the context of their lives…i.e. at work, at the gym, at home, over lunch, etc…so that their faith and their life are one. This works if people know how to share their faith, how to disciple others, and have eternal motivation (i.e…have taken an honest look the end game of death without a relationship with Jesus Christ, for themselves and others around them).
This sounds a little Pollyannish, but the reality is that this simple version of Christianity is more effective and more powerful, and more “doable”…and a lot less busy. We are living it right now….and the screen on my Blackberry actually just cracked…maybe it’s a sign (cue sinister music).
When we switched to a more simple model of church, one initial question was “if we don’t have kids programs, what will our kids do?” Well, the answer is obvious and embarrassing: I guess we will have to invest into them ourselves, ya know…teach them about the Bible and faith by showing them through other ways than flannel graphs (…preposterous). “What about their social lives?” Well, I guess we will have to encourage them to make friends in our neighborhood. “But, what if those friends aren’t Godly folk?” Well, I guess we’ll have to have them and their families over for dinner. “What if those folks aren’t Christian?” Well, I guess we (not anybody else) need reach out to them and share our life and faith with them…starting with helping them and then sharing how to be saved.
But…this is totally crazy…unless is works.
And if it does, then why spend millions on facilities?
…i linked this article to http://www.newchurchreport.com to share it with others…thanks!
scott,
we’re in the same boat. my wife and i were led to a house church after years of really struggling in the “big church” system.
at house church we sometimes joke about “gotta get butts in seats!” or having some kind of event that people should come to. it’s a joke because the come-to-us theology is not what Jesus is about - on any level.
in all honesty, when i drive by a mega church or see a new building being erected, i mourn. i simply cannot see how all that money, time, and people resources were better spent on a worthless piece of property than on simply helping, befriending and serving ordinary folks - neighbors, co-workers, family, etc.
but maybe i’m not seeing it as God sees it. i’m open to correction on this - the whole mega-church system. it’s just that having been part of a mega-church system for so many years, and now to be part of something so simply Church, it’s hard to justify the millions of dollars poured into buildings, A/V equipment, salaries, etc.
cheers, brother!
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[...] mindset can and has invaded the church. Here’s an excellent post from the Church Relevance blog which takes Trout’s thoughts and applies them to the church. One thought I’d like to [...]