The Church is a Business

Last night as I was hanging out with a group of guys from my church, one of them essentially stated that the church was just like the business world.  Pastors are often seen as moving up the corporate ladder of church hierarchy.  They may start out at a little church or as an associate pastor fresh out of seminary, then after a few years move on to a bigger church with more responsibilities and then a still bigger one after that.  The best of them will end up pastoring mega churches with thousands of people.  Essentially pastors are just looking out for themselves and their families, looking to make it big.  Point is, every few years; pastors get “promoted.”  That’s all the church is, a business hawking religious wares.  That makes the pastor a salesman for religion. 

It is a sentiment I’ve heard all too often.  I remember hearing a deacon once say in a consistory meeting that “The church is a business; you have to give the people what they want.”  It absolutely breaks my heart to hear such things.  I know that is not how things are meant to be.  Our congregations should not be concerned with the bottom line like the corporate world is.  Our goal is not to make money.  Our goal is not to get bigger and better.  Our goal is not “to give the people what they want” (if we did that we would never come close to plumbing the depths of the mystery and we would never truly grow).  Our goal is to seek after Christ, making disciples of all nations, bringing hope to a dark and foreboding world that so desperately needs a glimpse of the glory.

I see the local church as a community of people brought together by the Spirit to grow in faith with each other.  I see the church as a place where we can turn to when the chips are down, knowing that we have a place for support, a safe harbor amidst the stormy gale of life.  I see the church as a community of broken people bound together by God’s grace.  I see the church as a community of people that seeks after justice, working little by little to right the wrongs of this world.  A church is an oasis, a tiny reflection of the glory that is to come.  It is a microcosm that serves as the perfect example of the “already, not yet” that the theologians wax so eloquently about. 

Growing up in the church, I have seen some moments that reflect our brokenness.  I have friends that have been greatly hurt by the church and the people in it.  I certainly don’t want to gloss over that, it’s a huge problem.  Too many people get pushed to the margins because they don’t quite fit in or they made some terrible mistake that the church shuns them for. Yet I have also seen moments that serve as a foretaste of the glory that we do not yet see clearly.  I still look back in wonder at some of the mission trips I went on in high school.  The service rendered to others and its deep value was not the only lesson I received.  I got a picture of the people of God, working together to alleviate a little bit of suffering in this world.  I saw the people of God coming together for a purpose, with no concern for the bottom line, trusting that God will provide a way.  I saw the people of God standing defiantly in the face of the darkness of this world; though at the time I was unaware of that very idea.

The reality of the matter is that many do indeed treat the church as a business, concerning themselves only with the bottom line.  It will be one of the things I have to confront in the not too distant future.  To that end, I have been blessed to read Eugene Peterson’s memoir The Pastor in my break times while subbing the last few months.  In Peterson, I have found a good voice to listen to as I prepare to enter into full time pastoral ministry, Lord willing, in the coming months.  I admire Peterson because he set down roots at a church for decades, not leaving when times got rough and greener grass appeared on the other side of the fence.  It was good for me to read that kind of thing.  When I enter into pastoral ministry, I don’t want to be looking ahead and moving every few years, seeking to head up the ladder.  That’s not my ambition, I hope it never is.  Instead, as pastor, I want to see seeds planted in the hearts and minds of the people.  I hope that God then gives me a chance to see those seeds grow.  It would be a boon to me someday, to see an individual I had baptized as a little infant make profession of faith as an adult, confirming their baptism as a mature believer.  I won’t get to see that if my ambition is to climb up the corporate ladder of the Reformed Church.  I won’t stick around long enough to see the seeds that were planted grow into something good and beautiful. 

If all we are concerned about is the bottom line.  If we want butts in the pews and bucks in plate, using that as our yardstick of a good Sunday, we miss the glory.  We miss the glory of seeing the Spirit at work.  We miss the glory of lives being changed.  We miss the glory of deep wounds being healed.  We miss the glory of those who were once lost being found.  We miss the glory of the light and continue to fumble around in darkness.  Our faith then becomes but a lifeless shell, that is easily cast off as if were mere chaff.  We cannot reduce the church to a business model.  There is too much at stake for us to be so foolish as to do so.