One of the most challenging sessions at this year’s Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit was the session by Harvard Business School’s Michael Porter, entitled Doing well at doing good. Professor Porter argued that churches on the whole are inefficient in the way they use their resources for “doing good”, such as by serving the poor. We fail to measure the effects of our charitable efforts, and we fail to notice when our efforts sometimes do more harm than good.
Good intentions are not enough, and the act of charity is not enough. If we are serious about serving our neighbours, then we should be making sure we maximise the social value of our actions. If someone else can provide a service more efficiently than us, we should be helping them to do it, rather than attempting to compete with them. There are many worthy causes, but we should only involve ourselves in ones where we can provide significant benefits relative to the resources expended.
Unfortunately, I am not sure that Professor Porter’s words were resonating with all of his listeners. There is a great tendency to pride amongst volunteers – “This is what I have to offer; I’m doing this out of the goodness of my heart, so you can take it my way or leave it” – and this prideful attitude causes incalculable harm to the cause of Christ. No true follower of Jesus thinks of himself or herself as a “volunteer”.