The 1989 motion picture Field of Dreams made famous a phrase that has, does, and will forever shape our way of thinking about this world, our lives, and about everything we do in our lives.
“If you build it, they will come.”
Family, business, church, entertainment, and marketing, to name a few, have been both beneficiaries and victims to this way of thinking. Though in several areas of life this may work effectively, the fact still remains that there are many more factors involved in a person’s decision making process that would cause them to grasp or accept anything, or to go anywhere. Furthermore, we tend to narrow our parameters and begin to lose result as we lose purpose.
The fallacy and misconception of this ever-popular philosophy is not just in underestimating the complexities of choice, but also in ignoring purpose and in turn believing that by simply “building” something people would just “come.”
The solution is not in building, but it’s in first finding a commonality, and then strengthening that link to a level of appeal that would result in the formation of an infrastructure or organization. The success in the formation and strength of any organization or infrastructure begins with the strength, might, will, and purpose of the intangible foundation.
In families, the commonalities are most likely a surname and genealogy. Some say that there’s no greater bond than that of family. Yearly reunions are formed and wars have been fought for family. Small towns have been split and treaties have been signed for the sake of the family name.
In business, there are local, regional, and national organizations formed over commonalities. Whether it’s philanthropy or community growth or profit margin, common bonds in business have a foundation that stands the test of pride, money, and time. It’s evident from the well known LIONS Club to the community business associations or from trade schools to unions.
But one area that lacks in solid foundational understanding of commonalities, and that continues to struggle to survive under the aforementioned philosophy of “if you build it, they will come”, is the church. And, more notably, the religion that usually forms or attempts to form churches.
Whether a church or not, no matter the deity of belief, there’s a basic cause and effect relationship between what we believe and what we do; between belief and religion. A revealing, sometimes disheartening, and often avoidable question is: Which is the cause and which is the effect?
Consider This: Religion should be the result of your relationship with God, not a vehicle to Him.
