Is Bigger Always Better?
Our Mission
To present Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord to business and professional men and to develop Christian business and professional men to carry out the Great Commission.
1 Samuel 15.22 asks, what is more pleasing to the LORD: your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to his voice? Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission is better than offering the fat of rams. Our thinking about God is rather ludicrous sometimes if we seriously consider how we treat Him. We like to think that God is pleased with us when we attend some religious activity, give a couple of bucks to a good cause or complete some random act of kindness.
We behave as though God is bought off by our token displays of affection. Seriously?
Wouldn’t a real God demand more than token acknowledgement of His presence in the universe? Wouldn’t a real God measure His creation by more than the least they could do for Him? Wouldn’t a real God expect more than an hour of our time, a tenth of our income or an occasional act of kindness toward our fellow man?
What kind of God can be appeased so easily? Supposedly the Christian God it would appear by the way most ‘believers’ engage their god.
The kindness of God is given to us in order to lead us to repentance. God as loving Father seeks intimacy in a relationship with His created children. Therefore He waits patiently and quietly for us to come to Him. That’s really His problem in marketing Himself to us.
We hate to be ignored or placated. We respond in anger and revenge. If we were God we would demand people recognize us as such and behave accordingly. Yet our children cause us to be like God don’t they? They have a tendency to disobey us, ignore us and placate us. We love them anyway. We desire a relationship with them that causes them to want to honor us, to seek our friendship and to serve us willingly. It is impossible to force or demand such a relationship. It has to be given.
This is what God seeks from us as well. God is love, His command is that we love Him with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength and love our neighbor as our self. God isn’t pacified by random displays of religious devotion. God is pleased when we love Him deeply and sincerely which causes us to seek Him diligently, give liberally and care for others compassionately.
God will judge each of us when we pass from this life to the next. The religious will expect God to measure them based on their performance and will find that their actions left them far short of what is required to enter the kingdom of heaven.
Those who love God will find God embracing them and welcoming them into His eternal kingdom with no mention at all of their previous performance because heaven is entered through a love relationship and not through religious performance.
His Opportunities
Next Special Luncheon will be on September 13th with 9/11 survivor Patrick Anderson. Buy a table and bring some friends, you wont want to miss this event. More information HERE
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CBMC Central Michigan 6011 W. St. Joseph Ste. 401 Lansing 48917 / 517 481 5996 www.lansing.cbmc.com
MONDAY MANNA
A service to the business community
A Publication of CBMC International
August 29, 2016
Is Bigger Always Better?
by Robert J. Tamasy
When a business gets started, the hope is that it will attract customers or clients. But once that’s assured, the question becomes, “How can we grow?” followed by, “How much should we grow?” While answers to both questions vary by company, growth is rarely regarded as a bad thing. The bigger the better, right? More profits. Greater impact. Bigger brand. Sometimes, however, it might be wise to ask a different question: “How big is too big?”
This came to mind after reading a post by marketing blogger Seth Godin. In it he cited a huge hotel in a large U.S.A. city that has more than 1,000 rooms. I have a good idea of which one he was referring to, since I have been to one much like he described on a few occasions. We might be tempted to wonder, what could be bad about a lavish, ornate hotel with more than 1,000 rooms?
As Godin pointed out, the hotel check-in line was always long, requiring a lengthy wait for guests arriving or preparing to depart. The fully equipped fitness center was usually filled, as early as 5 a.m., meaning the likelihood of getting a rigorous workout that fits into one’s schedule is far from certain. And as for personal service, there is virtually no possibility of any hotel staff member knowing, much less greeting, a guest by name or even recognizing their face.
Establishments like that become big because they generate money. Shareholders are happy. Their financial resources allow them to offer amenities smaller establishments could only dream about. But as Godin asked, is being bigger most important, or is striving to become better, regardless of size, the key?
I sometimes shop at the so-called “big-box stores,” where they can buy large quantities of products and offer them more cheaply than competitors. That has some appeal. But invariably, these stores are not known for customer service. Sometimes finding an employee to ask for help seems impossible. So for me as the consumer, bigger definitely is not always better.
That is not to say growth, and becoming bigger, is universally bad. But it should be pursued with caution, and with a clearly thought-out plan on how to avoid letting “bigness” undermine the fundamental values that helped the business become established and prosperous from the start. Here are principles from the Bible, some of them very familiar, that might be helpful to consider:
Service should always remain paramount. The best companies are known for excellent service, as well as products. When people are served well, they become repeat customers.“Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28).
Commitment to meet or even exceed expectations. In business we always hope for a profitable day, but sometimes committing to doing the best for the customer is the greatest reward, with the highest return rate. “…’It is more blessed to give than to receive’” (Acts 20:35).
Focus on the mission. We can entertain great dreams of growth, but at what point will growth make it difficult to remain true to the corporate mission and values? “A discerning man keeps wisdom in view, but a fool’s eyes wander to the ends of the earth” (Proverbs 17:24).
© 2016. Robert J. Tamasy is vice president of communications for Leaders Legacy, Inc., a non-profit based in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.A. Bob has written Business At Its Best: Timeless Wisdom from Proverbs for Today’s Workplace; Tufting Legacies; and coauthored with David A. Stoddard, The Heart of Mentoring.
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