Subscribe to RSSGrowth: Prerogative or Pejorative?
This week, the New Iron team is at the Christian Bookseller’s Association (CBA) annual trade show, the International Christian Retail Show (ICRS). While it is my first time attending this event, there are multiple veterans of the industry present. Businesses looking for access to the Christian audience are spending several days meeting with buyers and suppliers of products and services; top authors and publishers are here to promote; distributors are looking for top talent, and vice versa.
But many believe this year’s show is not as large as last year.
This, of course, is only anecdotal and comes from the conversations we are having with other attendees. If it is true, the reasons for it are myriad. I only bring up the point for two reasons – due to the prevalence of the thought and as a backdrop for a maxim:
Life requires growth.
American Christianity is notorious for the mentality of “us four, no more” – we are many times exclusionary in our organizations. This is ironic considering the point of our message - that God loved the whole world so much He sacrificed His only Son to be in relationship with us. It is an inclusive idea.
Yet many times we detest the idea of growth. We would rather not do it; we see it as inconvenient. Growth requires change and that can be uncomfortable. It compels us to learn. It obliges us to action. To grow is to involve the unknown and to encounter that which has previously not been experienced. We can be, quite literally, in the dark as we attempt to do more and do it better. For all these reasons and more, we will often opt-out of growth, even so far as to sabotage it as a consequence of our other right actions.
And yet the only way to move is forward. Mankind is a creative race – it is both who we are and what we do. If we are not advancing, if we are not growing, we are not being what we are instructed to do. We also see that if we are not growing, we are shrinking; there is no standing still. If one goes too far backwards, they cease to exist. Life is growth while stagnation is death.
This is easily observed in the world around us. Any number of examples can be given. So why then do we believe that we are the exception, instead of the rule?
First, operating in what we know is comfortable; so, too, is the frog in the pan of slowly warming water. There is also the apparent aversion to the profit motive in the faith-space. However, the proper exchange of value for value results in more means to execute the mission (this is a literal definition of growth); without profit, an organization ceases to exist. Finally, growth almost always involves competition; and little else causes discomfort to the degree that can come in the confrontation between competing parties. We are more content to avoid these things – some go so far as to say that profit, competition, and confrontation are contrary to the Christian ethic. Yet the Bible is full of examples of these things, as well as instructions to grow.
Even with this said, care must be taken to grow in the right way. Growing in the wrong direction can be as bad as going backwards, as it requires correction. In today’s business and ministry landscape, however, there are ample opportunities for correct expansion of a mission.
To grow is to succeed and to fulfill that which we are created for, both as individuals and as organizations.
Tags: capitalism, CBA, christian business, commerce, Culture, growth, ICRS