Factfulness: The Size Instinct

Can a single number really upend your church's priorities? Join me, Todd Rhoades, on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast as we explore the "size instinct" from Hans Rosling's transformative book, "Factfulness." Today, we unravel how our tendency to give undue importance to isolated numbers can distort our judgment, leading to misaligned priorities and overreactions. From fluctuating attendance figures to the lure of large donations, we'll dissect how to see beyond these immediate metrics and focus on what truly matters in ministry.

In this episode, we delve into practical strategies for overcoming the size instinct by placing numbers in their proper context and focusing on long-term faithfulness rather than short-term gains. Learn how holistic evaluation—considering the depth of engagement and quality of relationships—can provide a more accurate picture of your church's impact. I challenge you to shift your focus from mere numbers to the transformative work God is doing in your ministry. Join the conversation and let’s redefine success together.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

This week on the Healthy Church Staff podcast, we've been doing a series on Hans Rosling's new book called Factfulness, and each day on the Healthy Church Staff podcast we are looking at what Hans calls instincts. Each chapter in his book has different instincts and every day we are unpacking one of those. So far today and if you haven't listened to all of the podcasts on this series, starting Monday or this week, you can do that. We started off Monday talking about the gap instinct, and then the negativity instinct. On Tuesday, wednesday, we talked about the straight line instinct. Yesterday we talked about the fear instinct and today, to round out our week, we're going to talk about the size instinct. Hi there, I'm Todd Rhodes. I'm one of your, I am your host for the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. I'm also one of the co-founders, along with Matt Steen over at chemistrystaffingcom, and today we're unpacking, like I said, this fifth instinct from Hans Rosling's Factfulness book.

Speaker 1: 1:00

It's called the size instinct, and this instinct is our tendency to misjudge the importance of a single number, often blowing it out of proportion, without any even considering its context. Now, in the church we are no strangers to numbers. We track attendance and giving and baptisms and a whole host of other metrics, at least we should be right. But it's easy to get fixated on a single number and to let it dictate our mood, our hello, our strategy, even our sense of success or failure. Man, that is so true. And the size instinct can lead us to overreact to short-term fluctuations. How many times have you had a bad Sunday? And you think every Sunday for the last four years has been horrible, but it was just last Sunday. A dip in attendance one week can send us into a panic, while a generous donation can create a false sense of security. It works both ways, and we forget to look at the bigger picture and to consider longer-term trends and underlying factors. So the size instinct really can distort our priorities. We might focus on boosting attendance at all costs and, while we're doing that, neglect the deeper work of discipleship and spiritual formation. We might chase after big donors, overlooking the faithful giving of those with fewer resources. And if we're not careful we can lose sight of the true mission of the church which, honestly, is not really about those numbers but a whole lot about transformation.

Speaker 1: 2:32

How do we overcome the size instinct? Hans Rosling, in his book, advises us first of all to get things in proportion. This means comparing numbers, looking for context to get things in proportion. This means comparing numbers, looking for context, dividing to get rates and percentages. It might mean looking beyond the single isolated number and understanding its relationship to other numbers and other relevant factors. And in the church, it just means taking a little bit more holistic approach to evaluating our ministries. It means looking beyond just attendance figures, just offering figures, and considering the depth of the engagement and the quality of relationships impact that we're having on people's lives. And it really means celebrating faithful giving, regardless of the amount, and recognizing that true success is not measured by numbers alone. So here's your bottom line the size instinct can really cloud your judgment, it can really distort our priorities and we need to be mindful of the power of numbers and seek to understand them in their proper context.

Speaker 1: 3:37

So, as I've done each day in this series and hopefully just about every day on this podcast, what I want you to do is consider this instinct, this size instinct, as you go through your day, and I'm going to ask God to prompt your mind throughout the day on what you're listening to right now. And here's some things for you to consider. Maybe you've got a number in your mind right now, maybe it's a single number that you have given preeminence in your ministry. My challenge to you today is look beyond that single number when evaluating your overall ministry. Consider a range of factors not just attendance, not just giving and then compare and divide, look for context and comparisons to help you understand the significance of that number that you have just domineering your brain, and then focus on the long-term. Don't get caught up in the short-term fluctuations. Look at the long-term and celebrate the faithfulness that God is already doing.

Speaker 1: 4:39

The church is not a business and its success is not measured only by numbers. Numbers are still important, don't hear me wrong but we need to focus on not just numbers. We need to focus on the things that truly matter, the things that God has called us to do spiritual growth and transformed lives, faithful service to our Savior. So I hope you'll think and pray on these things today. I would love to hear your feedback, pushback, snide remarks, anything you want to tell me. You can reach out to me anytime.

Speaker 1: 5:12

Podcast at chemistrystaffingcom. I read each and every comment and input that comes in and I would love to hear from you today and I hope that you will if you're listening to this on a Friday, which is the day it's released. I hope you have a great weekend, hope you have a great set of weekend services wherever you're serving, and know that we will be back here for you again on Monday and we're going to continue our series with more of these instincts from the book Factfulness right here on the Healthy Church Staff podcast on Monday. Have a great weekend.