Church is Business

As I minister, I tried sticking by the "Doing one thing, and doing it well" philosophy. I realize their are exceptions to this rule, but this idea is often overlooked in the church. It is often justified by stating "We are still doing a lot of good". However, this neglects the question, "How much more good could we be doing?" by only doing one thing and doing it well.

It has only been until recently that there has been quite a bit of push-back to the idea of pastors being and doing everything.  I still know quite a few ministers of whom the leadership wants way more than they are capable of.  Instead of playing to people’s strengths and their ability to do one thing really well, we often play to their ability to accomplish a bunch of things on a mediocre level.  This is not only true for ministers, but for the rest of the church.

If the church is to run like a well oiled non-profit, should not the church have the most important message to serve out at maximum efficiency?  If it is to be run like a business, should not the church have the best motivation for doing so? If you are going to do it, do it right!  Stop dilly dallying in crappy business practices and then try to hide the fact that the modern church isn’t a business.  If you hire and fire people based on performance, give them job requirements, a job description, monthly goals, a budget, benefits, a 401k, and they get a paycheck every two weeks...it’s a business!

The church has become a really odd entity. It’s not a non-profit, it’s not a secular business, it doesn’t sell a service or product (although some make it look like that).  However, it has a staff, a CEO, a board of directors and shareholders (Respectively ministers, senior minister, elders and members).  They hire and fire people like businesses do, negotiate salaries like businesses, they often market like businesses, they have mission statements, vision statements, budgets, annual budget reports (aka-the most boring Sunday of the year), and weekly meetings.  Many of the most revered, numerically successful church leaders often look to the world of business for “best practices” and “strategies” and encourage others to do the same.  For success in the modern church, are all of these things necessary?

What do you think? Is the church just a business in shroud?