Growing or Exploding?

GROWTH IN BUSINESS

Where ever I go, I ask a lot of questions. One thing I really like to do is ask different businesses and corporations about how they work. It has always amazed me how talkative people are, and how willing they are to tell you about their companies, and how they function. And I've learned a lot about how success is measured.

I've also owned my own Landscape and Lawncare business for five years, and that's helped me see some things too. Probably the most imporant lesson I've learned from my experience/experiences of hands on and by word of mouth about economical and financial lessons is that in our modern economy sucess is not measured by how much money your business MAKES but rather by how much your business DOES.

Let me see if I can explain.

Most big companies have quarterly reports. Everyone looks at those reports and looks for one thing: GROWTH. They are not looking to see if that company is in debt up to their ears, or if that company is laying off employees, or if that company is making a profit. All they want to see is if this quarter is better than last quarter. In other words, they only wish to see if that company is doing more business than before: that the company is GROWING. But growth doesn't always measure profits.

But what if that business had to lower its prices in order to show growth, and is now making less money than it did before? No one seems to ask that question. And sadly, I've seen just that happening over and over.

Sucess in our society is measured in GROWTH, and not in INCREASE. That is to say, people aren't judging a company on how much capital it has accumulated, only how quickly and rapidly it seems to appears to be growing, compared to other companies.

GROWTH IN RELIGION

The best way to illustrate the modern "growth doctrine" is with the MEGA CHURCH MOVEMENT in America. Just because a church grows BIGGER doesn't make it BETTER. In fact, most mega churches in America, although they are growing in numbers, are in debt up to their eyeballs as they are constantly borrowing money to build bigger buildings. And what kind of people are they getting to come to such a church? I'll give you a hint. It's not good, godly, sanctified, spirit-filled Christians who love God. Instead, it's usually people who go to church on Sunday Morning only, and then never darken the door the rest of the week. The kind of people who feel they are doing God a service by going to church, and doing their duty so they can spend the rest of Sunday doing their own thing.

That's why most Mega Churches usually have two services: An early morning service (for those who wish to go fishing and hunting right after) and a regular service, for those who are used to going between 10:00 to 11:00 and then 11:00 to 12:00.

The kinds of services in churches also show the kind of people who attend. There is usually a contemporary service in the morning, and then a traditional service shortly thereafter. What is a contemporary service? It's usually a meeting where they turn the lights down and sing "Christian Rock Music." In other words, it's the same atmosphere they are in Saturday Night at the bar, only now it's "Christian," because the words are about God instead of about beer, sex, and loose relationships.

After the Rock 'n Roll is over, the pastor usually preaches a limp sermonette, lasting about 15 minutes, and then prays for God to bless his people as they leave. It's a shallow Christianity which doesn't produce much results! Growth does not equal spirituality.

A lesson that everyone should take to heart is that just because something is "growing" doesn't always mean it's getting better! It just might be something is corrupt on the inside, and it's getting bigger cause it's about to "EXPLODE!"

The Mega Church movement is the exact opposite of the early church. It grew and spread across the known world. The church grew, and lasted for almost 2000 years. The reason? SACRIFICE. Christians willingly laid down their lives for the cause of Christ.

Compare this to the modern church, which knows very little of sacrifice. They boast how they are "rich" and have "need of nothing." But God said they were poor, and blind, and miserable, and naked. (See Laodicea in Revelation chapter 3).

Sadly, modern Christianity today judges others and judges the spirituality of churches as a whole by their SIZE. They have bought into the worldly idea that "GROWING" is truly what makes one sucessful.

GROWTH IN POLITICS

Now back to the secular world, and the global economy, where sucess is measured by GROWTH alone. What if GROWTH were attained at the expense of something or someone else?

In politics, we find this is the case. Our government has now turned into a BUSINESS, and it is growing. The U.S. government now owns 70% of America's economy. But it's at the expense of the American people, who have to pay for the governmental takeover of the private sector.

The typically line from politicians is, "Look how much we are doing and how big we are growing. That means we are doing something, and it must be something good, because we are growing!"

But growing isn't always a good thing, especially when it comes to government. History proves, the more government controls things, the worse things get.

I'll never forget the story in the news a few years ago about the governement run cafeteria in Washington that was supposed to feed the congressmen and representatives. Care to guess what happened to it? IT WENT BANKRUPT!

The United States government can't even run a meager cafeteria, why oh why then would we expect them to be able to run anything else?

The attitude of the government really defies logic. Their answer to everything is SPEND MORE MONEY AND THAT WILL FIX IT!

The standard line is that Stimulus packages (i.e. SPENDING) will lead to more growth! Yeah, it does just that. It makes our country's national debt, GROW EXPONENTIONALLY!

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that a growing debt will lead to disaster. Especially when no one has the money to repay that debt!

SPENDING MORE will never get you ahead. You cannot spend yourself to success!

So there you have it. We should never judge success based on growth! Instead we should look at PROFIT, SACRIFICE, and, RESULTS to see real growth.