What is The Goal?
A repost of a crucial question.
This is an update of a previous post because I think this is a crucial concept for pioneers. We might end up hitting 100% of our metrics. But if we don’t know what we’re aiming for, they might be the wrong things.
I recently read an old business book called “The Goal.” It’s a fictional story about a man who is the top executive at a manufacturing plant. Early in the story, his mentor asks him the question:
What is the goal? Why does your manufacturing plant exist?
Hilariously (almost), the main character can’t actually answer the question. He and his executive team are pursuing things like cost reduction, increasing efficiency, technology, automation, and inventory. They are using metrics to track how they are doing in each of these areas.1
And the whole time they pursue those metrics, the plant is losing money.
The goal of the plant, the main character discovers, is to make money. Without money, the plant will close (and almost does). Seems obvious? But it’s so easy to get distracted.
Got the back story? Okay, let’s pivot:
What’s The Goal?
In your life and ministry, what is The Goal? Lest we scoff at the simplicity of the question, let’s throw out some alternatives that might get us distracted.
• Planning a Sunday morning service or other program.
• Giving a good sermon.
We probably know these aren’t the goal, but are we practically living and working like they are?
What about these?
• Spending time with lost people.
• Sharing the Gospel abundantly.
• Building your specific movement tribe.
• Starting a house church. (Am I messing with you yet?)
What else can you come up with? If we’re honest, we can chase a lot of metrics that are not The Goal.
“Go, therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you;” - Matthew 28:19-202
Simply stated: The Goal is Making Disciples.
To reach that goal, we’ll need to spend time with lost people. We’ll need to share the Gospel. We may find that a house church is one of the best ways to make disciples. But none of those on their own is The Goal.
We may need to surrender our house church to join an existing church so we can train more broadly and make more disciples. Or we may need to leave our legacy church to start a house church where we can make a few disciples.
We may need to sow the Gospel way more abundantly. Or we may need to invest deeply in a spiritual seeker who hasn’t yet come to faith.
I don’t know what you need to do, but if you’re like me and are easily distracted from The Goal of Making Disciples, it’s important to hit pause and make sure you haven’t made something else The Goal.
A couple of quotes to end:
“Just because something is easy to measure doesn’t mean it’s accurate. Or that it matters.”2
“When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.”3
I read the book “The Goal” by Eliyahu Goldratt. I used claude.ai to help me remember this specific list.
Godin, S. (2023). The Song of Significance: A New Manifesto for Teams. Penguin Publishing Group. p70
This was a footnote on page 26 of the book “Reset” by Dan Heath. It has stuck with me more than most footnotes. An anonymous friend let me know this is known as “Goodhart’s Law”.
I totally agree with Faithfulness as a metric. The problem is, faithfulness is a really hard thing to quantify or write home about. It also requires us to be brutally honest with ourselves and other believers/coworkers. We can fake our faithfulness if we have a new disciple (which is always a result of God's work, not ours).
At the same time, if we don't have any new disciples, I think we should question ourselves, look to the word, and seek Godly counsel on what we could do to change. The answer might be to keep persevering. Or maybe we have some changes to make, and God is withholding new disciples until we do. I think we hear Jeremiah wrestle with this in the Old Testament. Bro literally had zero fruit from his ministry, but he was 100% faithful to what God called him to do. (I know his goal wouldn't have been 'disciple-making' but I think the principle applies).
Thoughts? Let's continue the dialogue.
I recently saw a post from a Disciple-Making FB group. The question was about how to measure success. Their answer had to do with how many disciples were made. I agree with your goal 100%, but I was unsettled by the metric posed by the other group. How would you answer their question? I can't get past the passages of the Parable of the Sower and of the Seed. Jesus himself said that a small percentage will actually become disciples, and the farmer isn't the one who convinces someone to become a disciple. The Father is in charge of that. All that to say: I am leaning toward "faithfulness" as the metric. Faithfulness will look different for each person, and it may only have an outward show some of the time. That would mean this metric isn't as public as it is precious to The Father. It will change the life of the faithful person and likely produce fruit in many areas, including disciples. Your thoughts would be welcome!