Efficiency, management theory, spiritual development

Efficiency is a key concept to 20th century industrial processes, and much of 20th century management thought has been devoted to improving the efficiency of processes -- Taylor and Henry Ford were early pioneers in this field, and the Japanese concept of "Kaizen" is a word that means the continual improvement of processes (or the continual increase of efficiency).
This approach has been profoundly successful, especially in the manufacturing industry. Henry Ford could produce cars vastly more efficiently than his competitors, and today Toyota can build a car in far fewer hours than GM, thanks to a relentless focus on efficiency.

Church practice always reflects the cultural milieu in which it is found, and 20th century North American Christianity is no exception.

Here is the problem: for efficiency to be a meaningful concept, we need to be talking about a process, and measurable inputs and outputs. But the calling of the Church does not easily lend itself to this characterization. Can we measure spiritual growth? Can we put a numeric value on a soul? Is one lost sheep worth exactly 1/99th of the value of the remaining flock? I contend that the answer is no. Faced with the inability to quantitatively measure the Church's true callings, such as being bearers of God's light in a dark world, the Church has had to substitute less useful - but more quantitative - concepts. Typically these have been attendance and money. Both of which are easily measured.

Even the management theorists will tell you that if you measure the wrong things, you'll get the wrong results. People who are being evaluated toward a metric will work towards the achievement of that metric, even if it doesn't represent their fundamental goal.

For example, in the UK schools are evaluated on their ability to have a certain number of their students achieve a passing grade on annual standard tests. The unforeseen consequence of this legislation is that the vast majority of teacher's time can often be spent on students judged to be just below and just above the passing grade. There's no point in wasting time on struggling students who have no chance of passing the exam, or on gifted students who are expected to pass easily. The setting of the wrong quantitative metrics has unintentionally had a negative consequence on the education of a large number of children.

So it is with the Church. If we hire our staff on their ability to increase the headcount, or improve the financial turnover, that is exactly what they will do. It is far easier to increase headcount by recruiting from other congregations, than by introducing newcomers to Christ. Staff hired to achieve such requirements will be duty bound to stand against activities that measurably decrease "efficiency", such as spiritual growth at the possible expense of numerical growth and seeding new church plants.

Back in the land of ice and snow

Well, we've been quiet the last couple of weeks, but that's mostly because we've done a bit of a 'scene-change'! We are now back in Canada, and following yet another snowstorm this weekend, Trevor and Kaitlyn took advantage of the snow to build an igloo.

For the record, this is how its done:

1. The snow is packed down.
2. Then, you tramp it down a bit more and make it smooth ...
3. The first cut is made.
4. The first block is out:
5. The igloo begins to take shape.
6. More blocks are needed.
7. Trevor moves inside to continue building up.
8. More blocks are cut for the entrance.
9. Kaitlyn goes inside to check the igloo - its still drafty, but the perfect size for hiding away with a book! (note that Kaitlyn is completely inside the igloo!)
10. Kaitlyn and Trevor pose in front of the completed form.
11. After filling in the cracks, Trevor relaxes inside.