“How beautiful is your love, my sister, my bride!
How much better is your love than wine,
And the fragrance of your oils
Than all kinds of spices!”  – Song of Solomon 4:10

How could a man so devoted, so mighty, so captivated, so in love with ONE woman end up having 700 wives and 300 concubines?!?!

“…Solomon held fast to these in love. He had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines…”  – 1 Kings 11:2-3

Hold that thought, and let me switch gears for a second.  Last year, several of us Rockstars packed up and headed to Catalyst.  One of the speakers was Jim Collins, author of Good to Great (Good is the enemy of Great…love that quote!).  I want to focus on Collins’ newest book, How the Mighty Fall.  Business Week has an article from the book here.  Its a little lengthy, but worth the read.  Here are some highlights that explores the question: Why do the mighty fall?

• …people become arrogant, regarding success virtually as an entitlement, and they lose sight of the true underlying factors that created success in the first place. When the rhetoric of success (”We’re successful because we do these specific things”) replaces penetrating understanding and insight (”We’re successful because we understand why we do these specific things and under what conditions they would no longer work”), decline will very likely follow.

• …the Undisciplined Pursuit of More—more scale, more growth, more acclaim, more of whatever those in power see as “success.” Companies in Stage 2 stray from the disciplined creativity that led them to greatness in the first place, making undisciplined leaps into areas where they cannot be great or growing faster than they can achieve with excellence—or both. When an organization grows beyond its ability to fill its key seats with the right people, it has set itself up for a fall.

• …leaders discount negative data, amplify positive data, and put a positive spin on ambiguous data. Those in power start to blame external factors for setbacks rather than accept responsibility.

• The critical question is: How does its leadership respond? By lurching for a quick salvation or by getting back to the disciplines that brought about greatness in the first place? Common “saviors” include a charismatic visionary leader, a bold but untested strategy, a radical transformation, a dramatic cultural revolution, a hoped-for blockbuster product, a “game-changing” acquisition, or any number of other silver-bullet solutions. Initial results from taking dramatic action may appear positive, but they do not last.

• The point of the struggle is not just to survive, but to build an enterprise that makes such a distinctive impact on the world it touches (and does so with such superior performance) that it would leave a gaping hole—a hole that could not be easily filled by any other institution—if it ceased to exist. To accomplish this requires leaders who retain faith that they can find a way to prevail in pursuit of a cause larger than mere survival (and larger than themselves) while also maintaining the stoic will needed to take whatever actions must be taken, however excruciating, for the sake of that cause.

As church leaders, we must must MUST face the reality that apart from God we are capable of anything… and I don’t mean it in a positive way.  Many men adicted to pornograpy never think they could become the man who hires prostitutes or molests children… but it happens.  Solomon was filled with love and devotion, but apart from God, he fell to sin.  Without Jesus, we have a hole… a hole that could easily be filled with all kinds of worldly junk.

As church leaders, we must accept responsibility for our sin and failures.  Else we are destined for our demise…

Is there anything you fear happening? Is there one thing you continually tell yourself, ‘I’d never do that.’  Is there anything you are doing now that could lead you to do the unthinkable?

I’m interested to know, in what ways are you ensuring your mighty marriage, mighty business, mighty church will not fall?