The Quadruple Line for Business as Mission is an important benchmark metric often used to measure alignment with the definition and values of the BAM movement. There is a tendency to utilize (and rightly so) metrics of business which rely heavily on an outcome-based mindset. Profit is important, and it is easily measured quantitatively. Job creation is important, and is easily counted and reported. While a little more difficult to quantify, respect, and understand how to steward creation and care for the environment, it too can also be measured.
But what about the spiritual side of things? Can we quantify spiritual transformation? Enter an interesting book, It is not your Business to Succeed, 2023 by Brandon West.
Mr. West does not provide a conclusive answer to the question of an effective metric for our spiritual initiatives, but he does provide the proverbial “food for thought”. If we are all about businesses which bring glory to God and represent His Kingdom purposes in the world, it is mandatory that we at least understand our processes, because we have a lot of trouble controlling the outcomes. After all, the spiritual transformation of the human heart and perhaps also societal transformation is God’s work (Proverbs 21:1). It is nigh unto impossible possible for us to measure outcomes because the metric for success has a silent partner – the Spirit of God.
Business as mission describes the end result of the spiritual dimension in general terms (www.businessasmission.com) to include terms like; Kingdom of God purpose and impact, holistic transformation, and spiritual outcomes among the poorest and least evangelized. IBEC calls it “spiritual capital by making followers of Christ.” Jesus’ followers have a relationship with Him – the creator of the universe and the giver of salvation, so it is almost impossible to know the internal complexities of a person’s relationship with God.
Enter the ideas of Brandon West.
The subtitle on the cover states “Your Role in Leadership When You Can’t Control Your Outcomes”. Rather than providing a less than competent summary of 196 pages, how about some quotes to further our thinking on the subject of spiritual impact?
- The outcome-based mindset rewires our priorities, pleads with us to do whatever is needed to achieve what we want, and distracts from the things that really matter.
- It is not our business to succeed. Our job is to do what is right, then trust God for the results.
- I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing (John 15:5)
- What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals. (Zig Ziglar)
- It is not your business to succeed (no one can be sure of that) but to do right; when you have done so, the rest lies with God (C. S. Lewis)
- Faithfulness calls us to focus beyond the immediate and to consider and be transformed by the eternal.
- God’s glorious agenda for our ambition, like his glorious gospel, begins not with what we achieve but with who we are. (Dave Harvey)
- I judge all things only by the price they shall gain in eternity. (John Wesley)
- I pray to God to give me perseverance and to deign that I be a faithful witness to Him to the end of my life for my God. (Saint Patrick)
- Faithfulness defines success not as a place reached or as a goal accomplished, but as a heart posture sought and a consistent lifestyle lived.
- We are living our whole lives to hear six words. “Well done, good and faithful servant.” (Matthew 25:23)
All of this is not to denigrate the importance of robust metrics for the goals of profitability, job creation, or creation stewardship, but to wrestle with what it means to pursue God and His likeness in the world… and thus come a little closer to spiritual transformation outcomes for all of us.
- James Waters had led the charge in the search for serious answers to the question of how we measure spiritual impact. Read more at: https://www.eidoresearch.com/insights/how-to-measure-an-organisations-spiritual-impact
John Quincy Adams said, “We need to do our duty, but the results are God’s!”
Larry Sharp, Director of Training, IBEC Ventures
Larry.Sharp@ibecventures.com