This is Part 2 of 4 in a series of posts reviewing and sharing ideas gleaned from REWORK.
Disclaimer: This post isn’t about the work of the Church [proclaiming the Gospel, being a biblical community, loving God, loving others, etc], this post is solely about HOW the church works.
Dear Church Leader,
The Church is a business… get over it and start acting like one.
Sincerely,
Tim
I think one of the tensions most church leaders deal with is the issue of the church being like a business.
No one likes organized religion.
And the idea that the church is a business where the pastor is a CEO and the product we sell is salvation [or fire insurance] isn’t completely accurate.
The fact that I’m a paid “professional Christian” give me anxiety some days.
We can try to ignore it or deny it, but the truth is, churches have a business side to them…
THIS IS TONGUE IN CHEEK: We have customers [our congregation] who pay us, well… God, [tithe] for the services we provide [services, classes, experiences, etc].
Some churches employ hundreds of people and bring in millions of dollars each year. My own church employs over 30 people and has an annual budget of $4 million.
You can say all of that is wrong and that churches shouldn’t be like that, but it’s the reality of what the Church is… and we need to figure out how to live and do what we do in spite of it.
This isn’t consumer-driven Christianity, it’s just Christianity in a consumer-driven world.
This tension is nothing new.
In Acts 6, we read about the early church and how people [customers] started complaining about systems in the church that were broken. The apostles realized they needed to focus on what was important [preaching/teaching] so they appointed people who were good at business [elders] to run the day-to-day operations of the church. They had to REWORK the system. And you know what happened? It says that Church grew. [Coincidentally, one of the people chosen was also the first martyr of the modern church, but we'll overlook that.]
That doesn’t mean pastors need to be professionals, it just means we need professionals in the areas of the church that act like a business.
At Park, our lead pastor focuses completely on what he should… teaching and providing vision for the church. We have an executive pastor [who acts like a CEO] and a director of operations that oversee the day-to-day operations and finances of the church. Our lead pastor has no clue who gives what and isn’t involved in issues that relate to finances… that’s not his area of giftedness or what he should be doing with his time.
From first-hand experience and leaning in to the experience of others, I’ve seen that churches are notorious for turnover, burnout and low employee morale.
I think there’s one key reason why: the way we work.
We say “we’re a church” too frequently as an excuse to be unprofessional, work inefficiently, and do things that no other business or organization would get away with doing.
Have you ever wondered why many of the premier church leadership conferences feature speakers from the business community? They say things most of us would be stoned for saying and challenge the ways our systems work.
Think about how many pastors and church leaders have books by Seth Godin, Maclom Gladwell, Jim Collins, Daniel Pink, the Heath brothers, etc. on their bookshelves. We love what they have to say but often fail in implementation.
We’re afraid to act like a business in the areas and spaces where need to the most.
I’m tired of seeing churches that have great potential never reach it because they can’t figure out how to work properly. I can’t tell you how many incredibly gifted and talented people I know that have been a part of churches who have been burned out and would never work for a church again.
As the Church, we have a responsibility to wisely steward the resources we have… be it money or our people… and while everything we do is ‘spiritual work’, it’s all influenced the decisions we make day in and day out as to how we run and operate.
We need to change the way we work, we need to REWORK.
Tomorrow I’m going to post 10 Things That Drive Me Crazy About Working for a Church.
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This post was inspired by reading REWORK by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson of 37signals. It’s an important book that I think should be required reading for any next generation church leader.
I’m giving away three copies this week…
Here’s how to win…
- Tweet This: I just entered to win a copy of REWORK! Comment here and RT to enter: http://bit.ly/9oe5rI
- Comment Below: With your Twitter handle [so I can verify you did step 1] and share something that frustrates you about the way the Church works.
- Check back at 5 PM CST Thursday: I’ll randomly choose someone to win!
Congrats to @DaveSandell, you’re the winner!
