I sat down with a senior manager of an international company and I asked him, “What insight have you gained about management in the past year?” He thought it was an interesting question, but that was why I asked it. He then shared with me the insight he had gained.
This was the insight: you need to set high goals for the people you manage. He then went on to give me an example. In the company he manages they wanted to improve efficiencies. The area they looked at had an efficiency score of 4.5. The highest efficiency scores ever attained by similar companies was 6.4. So I asked him, “What target did you sent for your junior managers overseeing efficiencies?” He said, “6.4.” He had set a very high efficiency target! He wanted this company to reach the highest efficiency score possible. I was curious about the outcome. Did they reach parity with the top scores of others? He told me, “Not only did we reach 6.4, but we exceeded it and now have an efficiency score of 7.5!” The company has now set a new highest efficiency target! In fact, his junior managers are committed to be the best ever! And it all began when as a manager he set a high goal for the people he managed.
I am heading home from the CRCA Synod 2015, enroute from Perth to my home in Brisbane. Flying 12,500 meters above the great expanse of this vast country I could not help think of this manager’s learned insight as I reflected on the Synodical proceedings of the past week. Synod began with Rev. Dr. Leo Douma challenging all of us to do “our utmost for the glory of God.” His concluding words on Friday afternoon echoed this challenge. He encouraged us to do our utmost for the glory of God as we return to our various states, local churches, and ministries. Like my manager friend, he set high goals for us as a denomination for the next triennium.
What might this mean for us as a denomination? Do we set numerical goals? Rather than seeing the number of members across the CRCA decline, should we set a target of growing by 10%? Healthy growing churches set 10% as a benchmark for positive numerical growth. We have planted 14 churches since 2006. Do we set some new targets for church planting? What about 3 new church plants in 2015-18? Do we set new targets for the distribution of mission dollars overseas? What if we raise a further $100,000 to support the work of relief through World Transform (WD&R), G.O.S.P.E.L., and/or our Word and deed ministries in Solomon Islands? What does it mean to do our utmost for the glory of God?
Allow me suggest that perhaps we do not focus on numerical growth at all! Nor should we measure our ‘successes’ on dollar values. Not that increasing membership and mission dollars are not important. They are! But what if our focus is on the practices of the early church post-Pentecost as recorded by Luke. He tells us that these first century believers “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” But that was not all. “The believers were together and had everything in common…. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts….” (Acts 2:42, 44, 46-47) What if we as churches begin to set some high goals for the way we devote ourselves to Scripture and prayer? What if we give our churches some high targets for increased table fellowship, meeting in each other’s homes, worship attendance, and community benevolence? That in each of these areas we do our utmost for the glory of God. We don’t just settle for the status quo or accept our current church situations as the new normal. We give our churches and church members the highest goals possible. My manager friend might tell me that what we are trying to achieve is greater efficiency in the key areas of church life. And this might be a good way to think about it. But however you might describe it, it really boils down to doing our best for God, in fact, our utmost!
I find it interesting, if not telling, that Luke ends his description of these early days of the Christian church in three ways: they were found to be “praising God, and enjoying the favour of all the people, and the Lord added daily to their number those who were being saved.” (Acts 2:47) As these Christians did their utmost for God, the outcomes were giving glory to God, being effective in witness to their neighbours, and there was numerical growth! I truly believe that if we as a denomination do our utmost for God, He will be glorified, our witness to Australia will be favourable, and God will add daily to our number.
This is the challenge I accept, and hope to continue to promote in my denominational role! I will do my utmost for the glory of God. And I will challenge individual churches and classes to do likewise! To borrow the phrase of the old Christian classic devotional: our utmost for His highest!