BOOK REVIEW: “HOW THE MIGHTY FALL”

Hi All,

I really like Jim Collin’s books; they are very readable with a lot of great business anecdotes and real-world applications – for those in business. But, the question I always ask, as I’m sure you do too, when reading a great business book like this, is how does it relate to the local church?

The full name of Jim Collin’s book is “How the Mighty Fall and Why Some Companies Never Give In”. The bulk of his book summarizes “The Five Stages of Decline”, which are:
Stage 1: Hubris Born of Success
Stage 2: Undisciplined Pursuit of Moore
Stage 3: Denial of Risk and Peril
Stage 4: Grasping for Salvation
Stage 5: Capitulation to Irrelevance or Death

The first question I want to ask is whether or not it is even possible for a book squarely aimed at business leaders, and filled with business stories and illustrations could have ANY application for the local church. To this, I have to say that ‘yes, the principles apply for one primary reason: both businesses and churches are filled with human beings! Human nature being such as it is, people are people wherever you are.’

Now, as Christians, we believe in the power of the Holy Spirit to help people to overcome the less positive sides of their personalities, and to overcome temptations. But this book is specifically about people who, because of great success are more prone to the temptations of pride or hubris born of success, or to a greed for more, whether money, power, or fame. It has to be admitted as we look at the history of the Christian church in recent history, that it is just as possible for Christian church leaders to be overcome by pride or greed. Although the Holy Spirit is there to provide guidance and wisdom and humility, we see that not all church leaders avail themselves of His help and support.

That is why, then, I believe that there are some lessons which can be learned for us in the church from this book. So let’s look at each:

Stage 1: Hubris born of success
We only need to read a few editions of Christianity Today, or USA Today, to find stories of churches which are incredibly successful, and whose leaders begin to display a taste for the trappings of success. It could be boards which give them an unprecedented raise in salary; it could be leaders who buy mansions for themselves; or begin wearing tons of bling as a conspicuous statement of success. Or in less visible displays of hubris, it could simply be the pastor of a large and fast-growing church who is walking with a little more swagger than appropriate for a Christian leader, and is a little too quick to tell you the attendance numbers of his church.

It happens. And when it does, we don’t even need Collins to remind us of the consequences. For three thousand years the Holy Scriptures in Proverbs have reminded us that pride comes before a fall. (A man’s pride brings him low, but a man of lowly spirit gains honor. Proverbs 29:23)

Stage 2: Undisciplined Pursuit of More
I’ve seen churches get into this when their success causes them to begin to focus on other things other than making disciples. We are here to fulfill the Great Commission of Matthew 28:19-20 and make disciples. Many churches in their youthful stage focus on the main thing, but then once they become successful, they start putting on conferences, hosting seminars, and basically telling THEIR story to other churches, instead of telling HIS story to the lost.

I’m not trying to be judgmental here; just making some observations which are hard to avoid. The vast majority of churches are faithfully serving Jesus and the exceptions which make the headlines are a really small percentage.

Stage 3: Denial of Risk and Peril
I don’t have as much experience with this one in the church world, but knowing something about human nature, I can see that there are things to learn and remember and apply to our churches from this section as well. This one could be evidenced in cases where the church begins to plateau, and maybe even decline, but the leaders are not concerned. The may believe it is only temporary, or they believe that it is unspiritual to be concerned about numbers. But if somebody doesn’t get concerned, the trend is only likely to continue to go downward. It is the role of pastoral leaders to assess reality and not deny it.

Stage 4: Grasping for Salvation
Hey the church is all about helping people to find salvation, but I don’t think that is what Collins has in mind here. What Collins is referring to is when the organization begins to decline and everyone knows it; it can no longer be denied. So the organization starts taking drastic action to try to address it, sometimes veering way off course from the central mission in an attempt not to die.

I’ve seen churches that do this in various ways. At one point, I was providing some guidance to a couple of churches that were considering a church merger. And the reason they were thinking about merger was the same as the number one reason why most churches consider the same – because they had small attendance each, and they felt that by combining they could get big, and do big things. Wisely, this merger did not happen. And the reason I say that is that you don’t get big to do big things; you do big things for Jesus, and then sometimes, as a result, you get big.

Stage 5: Capitulation to Irrelevance or Death
Businesses do this every day, and so do, unfortunately, churches. I have a factoid in the Church Growth Factoids section that says this: ”Almost three times as many churches in America are closing (3,750) as are opening (1,300) each year.” [LOST IN AMERICA, Tom Clegg & Warren Bird, p. 30].

It happens, but what Collins is saying in the final chapter of his book “Well-founded Hope” is that it doesn’t have to. He makes the statement,”If you’ve fallen into decline, get back to solid management disciplines – now!” [Jim Collins, How the Mighty Fall, p. 119]. This could be easily applied to churches. If you are experiencing decline, you need to get back to solid discipleship principles. Assess the needs of your people and start meeting them, both spiritually and otherwise.

Jesus has called us to ”make disciples” (Mt. 28:19). That is the number one calling of every church. Jesus has set the mission, and we need to make certain as churches, whether we are experiencing success or decline, that we focus on this goal. Jesus has called us to win people to faith and then to teach them to follow Him. It’s really a pretty simple idea, but the execution of it gets extremely tricky for churches; no doubt about that.

What I learned in reading this book is to focus on, ”the main and the plain”; do what Jesus called us to do: Make Disciples.

I know it is not easy, but I wish for God’s best for you in doing exactly that.

For Christ and His Kingdom,

Dr. Bill