Featured Is Your Church Really Just a Business?

From the Article:
It’s a hard, awkward truth: The churches most of us attend on Sunday mornings are businesses.

I realize this is difficult for us to admit. (I’ll address some of these biases toward the end of this article.)

Although religion in the United States is a $1.2 trillion dollar industry, I’m not making this case just because churches and other religious institutions bring in a lot of money. Churches meet many more criteria for being considered businesses.

(In this article, my goal is to refrain from drawing conclusions about whether it’s a good or a bad thing that most of our churches are businesses. As a business owner, I happen to believe business is an ideal place for Christian ministry. However, I do believe it’s disingenuous to operate a business and attempt to convince its stakeholders that it’s something somehow more noble and spiritual than a business.)

1 – Churches offer the same services people pay money for in the marketplace.
People pay billions of dollars to experience great music and great public speaking, which are two primary things people are pursuing when they attend a worship service on Sunday morning.

2 – Churches are legal entities.
When I say “church” in this article, I’m not talking about the universal “Church”, the sum total of God’s people around the world who confess Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and have repented of their sins (i.e., the “Bride of Christ”).

I’m talking about “church, Inc.”, legal entities located at a particular address (usually located within a few miles of another church), that typically host a gathering on Sunday mornings that includes rehearsed music and a speech delivered by a financially compensated public speaker, during which there is usually a collection of money requested from the attendees.

3 – Churches generate profit.
When churches reach the requisite $23.80 in revenue per attendee each week, do they stop taking offerings? Of course not. Why? Because they want to become as profitable as possible.

4 – Churches create jobs for local economies.
Because there are so many church job openings to fill, there are dozens of employment agencies that specialize solely in recruiting staff members for churches.

5 – Churches use tax loopholes to maximize profits.
Wise entrepreneurs take advantage of every tax loophole to avoid paying any more taxes than are absolutely required.

It just so happens that churches typically have the most lucrative tax classification possible: complete tax exemption. They pay zero taxes on any revenue they bring in.

6 – Churches are strategic about generating revenue.
I believe the main reason churches don’t charge admission–or make more forceful appeals for money–is to avoid deterring visitors, who are the prospective members and givers who will ultimately contribute extra funds to help grow the church. It’s a “taste and see” approach.

7 – Churches compete.
Many churches require new pastoral staff members to sign non-compete clauses to prohibit those pastors from starting a “competing” church across the street.

But, hey … that’s business.


8 – Churches that succeed financially typically scale that success through planting new churches that generate additional revenue.
The dream of most church entrepreneurs/CEOs I have met is to govern more than one church campus. This may occur through having “satellite campuses” where the preacher’s sermon is live streamed into church meetings at other geographical locations.

Why is it hard to admit that churches are businesses?
I think there are many reasons, but I’ll share three of them here.

1 – We generally have a low view of business as a tool for social and spiritual impact, and we want to assume that our churches are above businesses on the mythical sacred-secular hierarchy.
Some church entrepreneurs/CEOs go as far as to refer to their church buildings as “the house of God”, implying that every other institution outside the church building is something less than the house of God. Of course, this is unbiblical as the New Testament makes it clear that God’s people are the house of God, His temple made without human hands.

2 – We don’t want to threaten the financial engine of charitable giving that allows churches to host gatherings on Sunday mornings by threatening its tax-exempt status or by subjecting our churches to the same consumer-driven scrutiny faced by all other small businesses in the marketplace. (But that’s where we are in the 21st century. We’ve already created a highly consumer-driven church industry.)
Church entrepreneurs/CEOs typically instruct their congregations that 100% of his/her tithe should be “paid” to his/her local church … no questions asked. On one hand, the funds are solicited as something like a tax to sustain the Sunday morning operations based on the size of one’s income; on the other hand, church entrepreneurs/CEOs appeal for funds as a generous act of charity, usually framing the appeal around a cause like disaster relief, homeless ministry, or something other than the normal operations of the church on Sunday morning (which is the only way 95% of the attendees engage with the church on a weekly basis). But all of these funds typically get commingled in the same pot.

Because there is no New Testament requirement for tithes to be paid to a local church, it is typically suggested that the Old Testament’s system of tithing to the temple applies today because the church building is said to be the modern-day temple. Again, this concept of the temple in the New Testament is unbiblical.

3 – The “business” aspects of church are hidden from most members of the congregation.
What does it cost your church for you and your family to attend on Sunday morning?

How much money and other compensation does your senior pastor make?

How much do guest preachers get paid when they come to preach at your church (and when your pastor goes to preach at that other church)?

Is your church involved in any legal disputes?

Approximately how much does your church spend on advertising?

Most of the business questions never get asked because we’d rather not think of our churches as businesses.

Why Most Churches Are Businesses - Theology of Business Institute

 

Did you read the article? Is that how your church functions? Do you not have an "annual church business meeting?"

 

Is Shepherding a business or a lifestyle?
My concern is that our Pastor's (latin for Shepherd) are functioning as administrators of a business while the Church Council functions as the Board of Trustees to whom the admins give account.

The author is not wrong when pointing out how a church functions. Nearly every church I have ever attended focuses on providing an event that people will desire to come back to and pay for. It offers perks to membership and calls for financial support.
In all honesty, what makes a para church organization like Ligonier Ministries, Desiring God, or Truth For Life, any different from the local assembly? Is it the fact that the presentation is live rather than recorded? Is it "fellowship?" Most people come to the 2 hour presentation and go home to their own lives without giving any thought to those they have sat by in the pews. If there is more connection it is likely because they are connected by some family ties that are not due to church but instead are due to family lineage.

What makes your church any different than a business competing for dollars and profit?

 

How? In what tangible way?

So, your church functions just like a business by storing it's excess cash for a possible rainy day.

It doesn't take a collection? It doesn't talk about tithing and giving to the church?
Of course it competes for the dollars that individuals spend from their own bank accounts. You are not being honest here.

Sure you do. You offer Sunday school classes, a church service full of music that people will like and a "Ted talk" for listeners.
How many of your members talk with each other outside of the designated meetings? Of those who do talk, how many are connected by family lineage or marriage?

So, you never take a collection? How does your church pay its expenses?

My church isn't different from a business. In fact in a couple weeks we will have the annual "business" meeting. The administrators (called Pastor's) will give their reports. The treasurer will give the financial report. The stakeholders will listen and vote on approval of the plans for the next business cycle. The "shepherding" of the sheep will be ignored. No one will read Ezekiel 34 and wonder if they are indicted by God or not. Thank God that in Ezekiel 34 God promises to be the Shepherd that the others have failed to be.

As I said. Every church I have ever attended functions like a business. The culture of the church in America is a pure business model and we wonder why young people are leaving in droves.

 

Point me to a church in America that does not function under a business model. I would love to see what it is like and how it functions.

What is the criteria you have? Is that criteria found in scripture?

I would love to see such a church, but so far, I have not found one in any American denomination.

 

First, benevolence is biblical. We see it with the first deacons
Second, what ministry are people being equipped for? How many are actually ministering to each other and the community?
How does a business model accomplish God's call to Covenant fellowship?

 

So your church gives money to a para church organization that is working with pregnant women to encourage them to keep the baby and then provide resources after birth. These things bring in donor's to both the church and the parachurch organization. I suspect the vast number in your church participate in fundraiser activities while paid professionals do the work. It all functions neatly to get money allocated and support professional workers while the givers can feel good about their participation.

Jon, how much actual shepherding of the flock is being done in your church? Are the leaders truly shepherds or are they paid Administrators for the organization?

 

The para church is right in your own statement, which I have highlighted. Your association has a para-church ministry that you tie into. You give funds to your association which in turn gives to the parachurch organization it has created.

Jon, we run our churches like a business. We see business and we see efficient functionality. That's all well and good, but what gets flushed out the door is shepherding the members.

 

There is definitely a need for organization and accounting for money. Jesus and his disciples show this as well as the selection of deacons. Where I see the issue is in Leaders not shepherding, but instead planning out well rehearsed meetings and talks. Our church services take on a primary function so that people now expect a great service that attracts them or they go elsewhere. Instead of shepherding, the leadership plans attractive events and then claims that preaching is the main calling of the pastor so calling on people at their homes or contacting them to check on them is not important. Ezekiel 34 comes to mind when pastors don't care about members and let them go since the church is financially doing fine regardless if a person or three go missing.

 

That is, by definition, a para church ministry.