The whole world knows the importance of quality and works its best to pursue progress in quality.
Why? Because quality is the only way to ensure our survival. No matter what industry you are in, from agriculture, manufacturing, services, tourism, technology, internet, finance, education, politics, etc., everyone is pursuing for quality, and those who do not have quality cannot survive.
In Ipoh, there is a shop called Funny Mountain which sells soya beancurd at a higher price and in small portions, but it still has a long queue of customers every day and its business is very good. Why do so many people pay more than the average price for a smaller portion of soya beancurd? Are people following blindly? Is it the power of advertising or internet celebrities? Possible in short term, but not in long term. Funny Mountain has been in business for decades and still has a long queue every day. This shows that there is only one reason, and that is delicious beancurd and high quality. There are some other shops around this shop that sell soya beancurd, but the business is just average. This shows that Funny Mountain has maintained its quality for a long time, and no one else can shake its market share.
If you dine in the Klang Valley nowadays, it is difficult to find local cooked food. Most of the shops or stalls have foreign workers at the helm of the kitchen and the taste has suffered a lot as a result. This is why many tourists appreciate the food in Ipoh, as the foods still cook by the local. In fact, shops or stalls helm by foreign workers cannot survive in Ipoh. In Ipoh, you will still see many elderly people cooking, and their decades of culinary experience delight your taste buds. Simply put, the quality of food in Ipoh is the main reason for the holiday traffic jams here.
Malaysia has a system of quota in many fields to ensure that a particular race can survive without competition in some areas. Take the education sector as an example, the number of university graduates of a certain race has indeed increased significantly, but employment opportunities are only available in the public sector, and private sector employment opportunities are only available through mandatory quota or unspoken rules. Generally, private sector’s appraisal of them is not so favorable. Why is that so? The key is quality. Their number of graduates has increased, but the quality is generally poor and they are not competitive. Is this good for the growth of the country?
Quality is the way to survive. We will end up losing more than we gain if we sacrifice quality for quantity. Quantity will not make us last; only quality will last. Look at the 97 new IPO companies in Bursa last year, only one is own by them.
One of the deviations of the church is the overemphasis on quantity. Although we all know the importance of quality, we still deliberately focus on quantity and are proud of it. We presume churches with high numbers are successful churches, while churches with low numbers are nominal churches. Many pastors also pride themselves on being pastors of large churches. Some pastors are ashamed to present themselves as pastors of small churches.
Discipleship requires both quality and quantity. Discipleship believes that quantity has value only when quality grows. Quantity alone without quality growth is meaningless. The goal of discipleship is also to correct this deviation in the church.