4. Importance of careful planning. Every outstanding business organization in this country has its post-war plans already worked out. It has its blueprints drawn, and those plans have not been made hastily. They have been worked out after a great deal of research, investigation and study. The directors of those businesses have come together and have consulted with each other. They have exchanged ideas. They have weighed details. And after all of that study and work, they have mapped out their plans for the years ahead.
Many of these business men are members of the church, and I maintain that, if men who are able to succeed in the commercial and professional world will apply the same diligent study and careful planning to the work of the church, then it will succeed far more than it has in the past. There is no other organization in all this world which would have survived as much mismanagement or neglect as the church of Jesus Christ has survived. Someone has said that the church is certainly a divine institution or it would have perished from the earth long ago through neglect or bad management. I have confidence in the leaders of the churches. I have confidence in their ability. I believe that they are interested. If they will give to the work of the church the same careful study which they devote to the plans for their business enterprises, I believe we will be able to make greater progress.
Just to give you an illustration close at hand, everyone will agree that the effectiveness of our Thursday evening services has been very greatly increased by a group of men coming together and carefully planning the programs. If the attendance is to be taken as indication of what you think about them, then they have been improved at least one hundred per cent. The attendance is now twice as much as it was before. I am of the firm conviction that what has been done for the Thursday evening meeting can be done for every other phase of the work of the church if it is properly studied and planned.
In some of my connections outside the church I have been greatly impressed with the conscientiousness with which certain people go about their work. The head of a department out at Peabody, who is engaged in educational work, which certainly isn’t one tenth as important as the work of the church, studies every little detail. He takes into consideration all the facts that are at his disposal. He is continually revising his program and endeavoring to improve his methods. He listens to every report that he receives. He will call a conference of those who are working under him and discuss ways and means of making his work more effective.
Now, if educational work deserves such careful study as that, surely the work of the church deserves even more. And yet, friends, I know congregations—great, big congregations—that never do have any sort of a business meeting. Just think of it! They don’t even have a business meeting! The overseers never get together to ponder the problems which confront the local congregation, or to study ways and means of improving their work.
Now, please remember that the fact that the Bible furnishes us completely unto every good work does not relieve us of the responsibility which I am emphasizing. Anyone who stops to study the matter will realize that this is true, because there are so many questions which the Bible does not answer specifically. We must study and give diligence and pray for wisdom and use whatever talent the Lord has given us to make His work just as successful as possible.
III
Difference in Success and Failure
It needs to be emphasized that the difference between success and failure very often consists not of any one great big item but of a great many details or small factors working together. Not one big thing but many little things working together very often makes the difference between success and failure—in every phase of life except the church. In the church they make the difference between outstanding success and just mediocre success. It is very difficult for the church to fail completely. As long as it follows the Bible there can be no failure, but those little things frequently make up the difference between outstanding success and merely mediocre success, between doing something that’s really worthwhile, outstanding and unusual, and just drifting and dragging along.
1. Running a store. I want to try to make this point clear by use of an illustration. There are some of you here who are in the mercantile business. You know lots more about running stores than I do. I believe you will agree that very often the difference between success and failure there consists of many little items working together—the manner in which you display your goods on the shelves, the spirit with which you meet your customers when they come into your place of business, the courtesy with which you render service to your patrons, and just a lot of these little things make up the difference.
You don’t make a lot of money on any one item, but making a small profit on each of a great many items is what finally spells success. If you will consider the men who have made fortunes in this world, I believe you will find that they did not get rich by making a whole lot of money on one item or unit of business, but by making a little money on each of a great many items. The difference between success and failure then is not always one big thing, but frequently many little things working together. You can never fill a barrel by pouring water into the bunghole while it is running out a thousand nail holes.