Bigger, or Better?

Tom Barnard

 

“Two people can accomplish more than twice as much as one; they get a better return for their labor. If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But people who are alone when they fall are in real trouble.” Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 NLT

 

You read about them nearly every day in the business section of your big-city newspaper. Each day results in a new “marriage” between two and sometimes three or more large companies. The end result is predicted to be colossal success. One business expert has said that what the business world has seen in recent years is “a merger-and-acquisition frenzy unrivaled in history.” In 1998 a consulting firm reported that there had been a grand total of 10,401 worldwide deals that year, with a price tag of $1.3 trillion dollars. It’s called “the urge to merge.”

 

But does “bigger” always trump “better?” Does doubling or tripling the size of a corporation (or church) guarantee a doubling or tripling in consumer satisfaction?  Consumer advocate Ralph Nader stated, “The central challenge for any company, regardless of its size, is to keep doing a better job for its customers.” In other words, Nader was saying, “Better is better.”

 

I attend a church that will be celebrating its Centennial in a few years. I call it a great church, but its size doesn’t make it so. Rather, the quality of life within the fellowship of the church is like a magnet that draws people looking for true meaning in life. Some would call our church a mega-church. But size doesn’t dictate its quality. The church has a powerful mission statement, and the vision of its leaders from the very beginning has kept the church straight for all of these years.

 

I like these words from the pen of Edna Ferber:

 

“Big doesn’t necessarily mean better;

Sunflowers aren’t better then violets.”

 

Heavenly Father, this world wants me to believe that the size of my church or business is the measure of its success.  I have learned through the painful lessons of life that setting high, unrealistic goals is an exercise in frustration, and that insisting on measurable results is only one measure of success. Help me to understand that the Kingdom is built on the principle of two people standing back to back in battle for a good cause, and multiplying them. Don’t let me be trapped by numbers, but instead help me to see that numbers really represent people—people for whom Jesus died on Calvary. In his wonderful name I pray, amen.