The Idol of "Impact"

Shaun Groves reports on an interesting story from Skye Jethan's new book, The Divine Commodity: Discovering a Faith Beyond Consumer Christianity. He recounts the testimony of Veggie Tales CEO, Phil Vischer:

“The Christians my grandparents admired - D.L. Moody, R.G. LeTourneau, Bill Bright - were fantastically enterprising. The Rockefellers of the Christian world. Occasionally I would read about different sorts of Christians that would confuse me, like, say, Mother Teresa. Mother Teresa seemed like a great woman, but her approach struck me as highly inefficient. I mean, she was literally feeding the poor. One at a time. Didn’t she see that her impact would be much greater if she developed some sort of system for feeding the poor that could be franchised around the world? She could be the Ray Kroc of world hunger! Wouldn’t that be better?”

After the financial collapse of Phil‘s company Big Idea Entertainment, makers of Veggie Tales, Phil explained the belief system that had driven him to make the motion picture that caused it all:

“God would never call us from greater impact to lesser impact! Impact is everything! How many kids did you invite to Sunday school? How many souls have you won? How big is your church? How many videos/record/books have you sold? How many people will be in heaven because of your efforts? Impact, man!”

He began questioning this belief system:

“The more I dove into Scripture, the more I realized I had been deluded. I had grown up drinking a dangerous cocktail - a mix of the gospel, the Protestant work ethic, and the American dream… The Savior I was following seemed, in hindsight, equal parts Jesus, Ben Franklin, and Henry Ford. My Eternal value was rooted in what I could accomplish.”

He eventually concluded that the Christian life “wasn’t about impact; it was about obedience.”

Thanks, Skye, for telling Phil‘s story. As I guy who backs up to one measuring stick after another, I needed to hear it. Again. And again.

If you haven’t yet ordered Skye’s book The Divine Commodity: Discovering a Faith Beyond Consumer Christianity, I highly recommend it. It’s helped me understand what consumerism is and exactly how it affects my/our understanding of God in Western culture. It’s very well written, never dry, conversational and not academic, full of beautifully told stories and never wanders off into cynicism and needless negativity. It’s re-inspiring for anyone who’s discontent with America’s Jesus...and anyone who actually believes he’s the real thing.

My comment:

I think this post is probably for certain personality types. Some people need a swift kick in the rear and should be exhorted to pursue greater impact because they are simply lazy. Other people with tremendous energy will make an idol out of "impact" and quantifiable results. This post certainly should be taken seriously by them.

(HT: Jared Wilson)