Life’s Not Fair but Basing How You Do Ministry on Effectiveness is Stupid
There are some blogs I should be smarter than reading. Seriously, it would be better for my mental health. But I went against my inclinations and read a post by Tony Morgan titled “Life’s Not Fair.” Big Mistake.
In the post we see an argument for why churches need to get with the program like big companies like Apple and prioritize the ministries they have because consumers only have so much bandwidth to process about programs. Seriously, we’re comparing Apples to… er I guess not oranges, but churches. Here’s the concluding paragraphs, just to show you I’m not making this up.
The fact is we embrace fairness because it’s easier and not because it’s most effective. We embrace fairness because the people on the inside have a louder voice than the people we’re trying to reach.
Life is not fair. Just because we’ve embraced that as a value in our churches doesn’t mean we need to continue the tradition.
So here is my question-when the heck did we get the idea that church is about effectiveness?!
Seriously, if effectiveness and a streamlined campaign about making sure the right messages are getting out is our grid for whether or not church is successful, Jesus was horrible. Jesus is always reluctant to perform miracles, and at time healings because he’s on his way to something else, but he relents and does it. Sounds like Jesus had a hard time with his communication strategy.
How many times does Jesus purposely say something hard, which he knows will end up driving off the crowds that come to see him? If effectiveness is the goal, I just don’t think Jesus ends up being a good person to model ourselves after.
There’s so much crap written these days about churches’ marketing or branding strategies, about how to streamline your ministry to be more efficient, about what tech strategy you need to do to reach more people, salivating over so-and-so’s mega-enormous easter service where they rented a football stadium and did a big production. These sorts of things are great for us in the pastoral vocation, because it allows us to step away from the work of soul-care where we don’t have immediate results and instead step into a world of measurables. ____ people baptized, _____ people attended, ______ people read our e-newsletter.
You know what, I don’t think Jesus gives a crap about your measurables and your way of showing that you’re worth something.
But it makes sense, doesn’t it? Why do the underwhelming, little show, Jesusy work that doesn’t really draw a crowd when we can model our churches off of Apple or Crate & Barrel or McDonald’s or whatever other business people are worshipping at the moment.
The church has a major problem. We worship effectiveness, productivity, and our consumer appeal much more than we worship Jesus.
We shouldn’t give a crap about adopting whatever the latest business leadership or marketing trend is. We shouldn’t give a crap about how we make it look like we are brilliant people. It’s like when Jesus talks about how leadership following him is being a servant, and not a ruler like the gentiles, we just forget that and instead jump back into how we can do the flashy thing and gain a following for ourselves. Here’s the direct quote of what Jesus says to his disciples about being greatest and leading:
Jesus told them, “In this world the kings and great men lord it over their people, yet they are called ‘friends of the people.’ But among you it will be different. Those who are the greatest among you should take the lowest rank, and the leader should be like a servant. Who is more important, the one who sits at the table or the one who serves? The one who sits at the table, of course. But not here! For I am among you as one who serves.
I suspect if Jesus were around today, that little talk would sound something like this:
You know how people here are called great because they build these businesses or organizations and are practically worshipped for their productivity, and yet even though they walk all over people they’re still adored? You will not do that. You want to be great in the kingdom? Stop worrying about impressions, find the lowliest jobs available and do it. I’m not worried about how awesome your website is. Why don’t you try this instead - find the unlovable people where you are, and set about loving them. Don’t worry about your communication strategies or branding. Just serve. It won’t get you press, but when have you ever seen me worried about getting press. That’s the way I lead, and it’s how you should too.
