The Great Omission, D. Eric Schansberg on Christ’s Commandments & True Discipleship

Response to the article: True Disciple Making by Ken Adams

Facebook Post of the article and context —  My Response:

Appreciate your examples. Another perspective: Variation is a natural part of creation- God’s design. No two people or things are or will be exactly alike. Variation is a gap between the ideal (perfect) and an actual situation. In the context of the bible, perfection (acceptable degree of variation) is described as all needs being met – Garden of Eden for example. When Adam and Eve sinned, an unacceptable degree of variation was introduced into the world. God’s intent is for us to help reduce it and the bible provides the guidance. The actions that you described are examples of reducing variation.

The So What? The quality profession has identified through the Taguchi Loss Function that the closer any service (an act) or product gets to the ideal, the higher the quality and the lower the cost to the individual and society, e.g., more needs are met; less harm to people as a result of unmet needs. Relevance? Surveys by Gallup, Barna, Rasmussen, et. al., identify downward trends in areas that include the belief in God, church attendance, and biblical worldview. People can abandon their belief in God, but variation is a constant and can shift the discussion and awareness of God’s intent and contrast to other beliefs. In a biblical worldview, God defines the ideal, in quality management, the ideal is defined by the customer and producer, and in America, We the people define the ideal, e.g., what a more perfect union” should look like.

Everyone on the planet has reduced variation and few realize the correlation between their actions and a biblical worldview. Knowledge and understanding of variation can provide a common ground in support of the Great Commission.  A summary of the concepts at the following: SuccessThroughQuality.com.

The challenge? In support of the Great Commission, I advocate for a Christianity, Citizenship, and Quality Management apologetic.  Within the Christian community, feedback has included that quality management is a business thing. Within the quality profession, God is not mentioned, and in America, We the People think our obligations end with the vote and are not aware of our responsibility to learn about and apply better methods for reducing variation from the ideal of “a more perfect Union.”

• The Great Commission, the Mandate to make disciples of all nations” given by Christ to his disciples following his death and resurrection.