I have been watching a very interesting and insightful video by the author of the very succesful book, “The Tipping Point”.
In this groundbreaking book, the author details what makes great service in a company.
In the video he makes the assertion, and backs it up with real stories, that asking people what they want is the last thing a succesful business should do. For example if you ask someone what sort of coffee they like, they would probably say something like, “I want a dark rich roasted coffee”. However most people actually want a milky sweet weak coffee. Thats the truth!
He talked about the most spaghetti sauce manufacturer in the USA. He found out that while people said they wanted an authentic Italian Tomatoe sauce for the Spag Bog, they in fact wanted a chunky sauce, totally inauthentic (like their favourite pizzas, which have little relation to real Italian Pizza).
Its like Chinese. Friends who have been to China say that real authentic Chinese food is a definete “aquired” taste. Yet ask someone what they want, and they will say, I would want to eat authentic chinese food.
What relation does this have to the church and leading?
NCLS have this statement on their website, “As many as half of Australia’s church-goers also thank Mum for the positive influence on them becoming a Christian, at least within Anglican and Protestant congregations. While important, fathers are less influential in faith development.”
(http://www.ncls.org.au/default.aspx?sitemapid=4274)
I DONT GIVE A STUFF WHAT THEIR RESEARCH SAYS (Yes I am shouting)
They are dead wrong.
There is a lot more I could say about this. Their conclusions are since mums generally lead their children to Christ, they are more important. CRAP
The reason more mums are leading their kids to Christ is that more mums are Christians.
The single most important thing we as churches have to do to get our churches, our families and our churches back on spiritual track is see dads come to faith in Christ.
We have to lead, not be lead by what is.
