When you can't measure what is important, the temptation is to take what you can measure and turn it into what is important.
Ken Burns
This quotation by the renowned American filmmaker contains tremendous insight.
What’s his point? Well, he has two.
First, he implies that we sometimes struggle to identify what really counts. Second, our response to this is to find a metric we can deliver on and present that as ‘the thing that really matters’. Once we think like this, we’ll come to believe that ‘bigger and more popular’ equates to success. Why? Because they’re measurable.
What implications does this observation have for the church?
What happens when ‘bigger and more popular’ is achievable but at the expense of healthiness? What if we can increase our numbers but only by entertaining people and airbrushing out the less culturally palatable bits of the gospel? Like sin, for example. When Jesus (intentionally) lost almost all of his followers overnight by teaching unwelcome truths (John 6.66), was that success? Not if you believe the metrics of size or popularity.
Imagine what happens when, unable to identify what’s important (because it’s not measurable), an organisation picks a metric that can only be delivered by unhealthy means—driving your team; massaging the figures; authoritarian control; creating impressive but false narratives about yourself or the organisation. Imagine further what happens when leaders either acquiesce or actively collude, and are evaluated or congratulated on delivering this apparent success. Remember that it’s very common that, at least to start with, everyone likes it and applauds it. Unhealthiness then becomes baked into the organisation at a fundamental level.
And worse, from within it is invisible.
A CRUMBLING CULTURE
Organisational cultures—and it is no less true for churches and Christian organisations—lose their way when they allow their ‘shadow side’ to become normalised, slice by slice. In fact, they increasingly veer off course by creating a culture that’s resistant to examination. Inside the organisation, people just learn to live with it, as with a dysfunctional family. At first, some will put up with this state of affairs for the sake of the apparently successful outcomes. They get used to holding their tongues, in case they’re responsible for the ‘success’ drying up. Sadly, the act of wilfully turning a blind eye eventually becomes actual blindness. What makes this more disconcerting is that the good is mixed in with the bad, and because there are no overt ‘red flag’ sins, the issues can’t be seen from the outside either.
When churches start doing things that are neither healthy nor faithful to the gospel, it is by no means guaranteed that those things will be unpopular. On the contrary, they might be the very activities that increase the church’s popularity, especially if they deliver something that looks buzzing, growing and—most attractively—big.
A feedback loop between leaders and organisation develops in which measurable successes reinforce the leaders' popularity, identity, and position. The leaders continue down the same path because that's what people like and demand. Even if they start to realise they’re on a hamster wheel, they have little room for manoeuvre. They can’t jump off without alienating everyone.
CRACKS WILL START TO SHOW
Sooner or later, the cracks will probably start to show. But not for a while. By this time, leaders have often painted themselves into a corner, and they don’t want to see them. They have a strong interest in avoiding them, or explaining them away. But you can't build on sand forever, and eventually the building will collapse. In fact, the larger the building (the higher the numbers), the louder the crash will be. Sooner or later, someone will end up with a nervous breakdown. Either the leaders themselves, or prominent people in the organisation.
Or more likely, both.
Sometimes, a leader starts to realise that they’ve made a mistake. They come to understand that the focus on numbers has had a negative impact on their faithfulness to the gospel. They may even feel trapped. As this self-awareness increases, a rift with the organisation can open up. The leader wants to become healthier but the organisation doesn't. Or, the other way around. Either way, a lot of people become caught up in the aura of success and they will fight against any change because they believe in current ‘successful’ practices. In fact, it’s important to avoid looking too carefully, since this rocks the boat, and looking the other way keeps everyone feeling safe.
Sadly, during this process, spiritual healthiness has disappeared. It has been replaced by the need for an appearance of perpetual success, which is deemed essential to the organisation, the leaders and maybe to a wider brand. Perhaps most tragically, while things were going wrong under the hood, nobody really intended it, or did it deliberately. However, you can guarantee that people within have started to feel sinned against at an organisational level.
Is that possible? Can an organisation sin at the level of organisational culture?
I believe they can when feeding the success machine becomes the most important thing. People are no longer treated as dearly loved children of God and instead become cogs in the machine. Helping people rest in and delight in Jesus is no longer the aim. Success becomes more important than the people, and leaders become strategists for the machine rather than shepherds of the flock.
This is when a church (or parachurch ministry) has truly lost its way.
So, let me leave you with a question.
Are you building a culture of healthiness—growing a grace community of people knowing and delighting in Christ and his gospel, full of prayer, thanksgiving, and worship—or are you delivering something that is actually an impressive-looking substitute for spiritual healthiness?
It’s a chastening question.
We should never assume that simply because we consider ourselves to be leaders who want to walk in repentance and faith, that we will never veer off course. Any leader can lose their way, which is why all leaders and organisations need to be open to accountability and challenge.
Perhaps most of all, we need a recognition that whatever the numbers may indicate, they mean nothing unless we remain faithful to the gospel. As I finish, a couple of verses to consider. For we are weak and fallible, ever in need of the Lord’s guidance and the leading of his Spirit.
The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.
Who can understand it?
Jer 17.9
For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.
Matt 23.12