The name of the game these days is "how can we make it more efficient?" From factories to schools to government to finding a taxi, efficiency is the gold standard. If a company can cut it's costs by a set percentage by replacing expensive human workers with "autobot" workers then the company will move see that as the most effective way to be a company. If a text is more efficient to have a conversation with someone than meeting for coffee then texting is seen as effective. If churches can move quickly to respond to a need then that church must be effective.

We all know this but perhaps we all need to be reminded that @@efficient is not the same as effective.@@

I can yell at my children and put the fear of God into them and they will do as I say. My household will be efficient since we will not have any arguments - only decrees from one voice. While this is an efficient environment to make my children do as I want, it is not effective in making my children functioning adults. While it is efficient to get people to behave in a specific way if God is waiting to bring the hammer down on you if you step out of line, it is not effective to lead people to greater maturity. We can guilt people and make them feel bad about their lives in order to be more efficient when we ask for donations, but this approach is not effective to help people be generous.

The temptation to focus on efficiency may be rooted in the fact that efficient is much easier to work on than effective. Effective takes time which makes it antithetical to efficient. To put it another way, there is not a way to "life hack" spiritual formation and maturation.