We also sense that today, we must “adapt or die.”  We will no longer succeed playing with old game plans.

This is the reason that executives throughout the entertainment industry both discussed the book when it came out and quickly bought its option. In just about every seminary across the country, there is the similar recognition that unless we adopt new measures and new metrics, unless we change the way we go about projecting our endeavors, we will no longer be effective in serving the church. We might not even long be in business. The same sense of a changing scenario holds true for those running hospitals. Even the very best stand-alone hospital knows that within ten years, it will be out of business if it doesn’t reinvent its business model. Does the same go for the church? I think it does.

To give but one example, my church is soon to celebrate its one hundredth birthday. It sits in the shadow of a mega-church with ten times our membership, multiple times our budget, and every specialized ministry conceivable.  Can we as a church of 250 members compete with them? Not if we adopt their paradigm. Not if we try to use the same criteria for selecting staff, try to develop the same programming (only dumbed down to our budget), try to have the same quality of professional excellence, and so on. Instead, a new set of metrics is called for; one based on a new vision of what our church can and should be.

Our less resourced church needs a minister, for example, who will be my pastor and not just my preacher; he/she needs to know the names of my children. We need a worship service that promotes community by building into it lay participation and congregational prayer, turning our size into an asset. We need a few well-focused outreach ministries (in our case, we house Pasadena’s only shelter for the homeless on cold nights) that both make a difference and allow for congregational participation.

If smaller churches simply aspire to become smaller versions of bigger churches, they will dwindle. If, instead, they opt for a strategy tailored to who they are, they might not only succeed in their mission, they might thrive. Moneyball invites its viewers to find in it a parable – a story about the art of winning given unfair odds. Here is a movie to show to your church’s leadership, and then to have a discussion about how its wisdom might fit your own “unfair games.”

HT: E-News for Pastors from the Office of Alumni and Church Relations. Sign up to receive monthly news!