Have We Turned the Church into a Business?

So I have to come clean and admit that I have been struggling with my ecclesiology (my understanding of the function of the church) lately.  Article 7 of the Augsburg Confession, which is part of our Lutheran confessions/doctrine (see Book of Concord), states: “The Church is the congregation of saints, in which the gospel is rightly taught and the sacraments are rightly administered.”  Now, while I believe this statement to be the true identity of the Christian Church, I feel like a lot of churches in the United States are not operating with this understanding.  In fact, I feel that a lot of churches in this country are operating under a business model instead of a gospel model.

Business model?  I’m really beginning to question of what is the true goal of churches in the United States.  Now, I realize I’m generalizing here and hopefully not all churches function this way (I’m certainly trying to keep the church I serve at from functioning as a business), but I also know that I have heard many a pastor and congregation talk about growth from a business standpoint instead of a gospel standpoint.

 So what do I mean by a business model?  Well, a lot of churches have to measure their success by tangible numbers of members.  One of the questions I frequently get asked from other pastors and church goers is: “So, how big is your church?”  That’s it.  We are asked to measure success by the amount of active members we have at our churches.  The more active members you have, the more successful you are considered to be as a church.  And, obviously, the more active members you have, the more money your church can use for various programs in order to draw more people into the church.  So, lots of members = successful ministry!

Because this is how many churches view success, we have turned the Church’s mission into a business model where the main goal is to “convert” more people to become loyal to the Church; more specifically, “my church.”  Like a successful ad campaign, the more we can entice people to the programs of our church, the more likely they will “buy into” our church.  And, of course, the more people we have, the more elaborate our advertising (a.k.a. our programs) can be.  The more money we can spend on awesome and fun programs, the more people we will get to buy into our church.  There’s a pretty big (in terms of membership) nondenominational church in my community that offers a summer Bible school program where children can learn horseback riding while learning about God.  How cool is that?!  Who wouldn’t want to bring their child to that program?  Only here’s the question, would they still come if you took away the horseback riding?

So, what’s the problem, don’t we want to “convert” more people to Christ?  Our calling as a church has always been to proclaim the gospel to all whom we meet through conversation and action.  The purpose of doing this is to make others aware of the good news that we all have been freed from the punishment of sin and death through Christ’s death and resurrection.  The Holy Spirit uses us (which we are the church) in order to bring others to God through the proclamation of the gospel.  This should be the sole focus of the church.

The problem with putting so much emphasis on programs in order to get people to “buy into” our church (and I mean our individual churches, not the Christian Church in general) is that the focus of the church becomes all about growing the membership, “putting butts in seats” as the saying goes.  We turn the church into a business organism where the mission becomes about fueling the church’s membership, so that “my church” can last the test of time.

A lot of churches who are struggling to maintain membership numbers in order to keep their budgets in the black aren’t afraid of not being able to proclaim the gospel anymore (although, again, I’m generalizing from experience and I’m sure there are those out there who don’t want to close because they still feel called to proclaim the gospel), but they are afraid that they will lose their church building and their faith community.  They are afraid that their business-church will close.  So, they do all they can to encourage more people to join and give money to the church so that it can survive!  Like the stock market, the more investors you can get to buy into your business the more capital you will have to help your business grow.

But here’s the thing, Jesus never asked us to grow our churches.  Instead, Jesus has always asked us to go out and proclaim the good news to people; to proclaim the gospel!  This is the sole purpose of church—to share with the world the freedom we have in the gospel proclamation!  Because of this, the church’s mission has never been about creating more members; it has always been about sharing the gospel (a.k.a. God’s love) with all people. 

This means that, as a church, we need to move away from the business model and once again embrace the mission of going out a sharing the gospel with people, as well as gathering together to share in the sacraments, God’s physical means of grace, each week through the liturgy.  Success shouldn’t be measured by how many seats you fill at worship or how many people are in your Christian Education programs, but by how well we are proclaiming the gospel to others and how well we are building Christ-centered relationships with each other.

But what if my church closes?  I recognize that it can be hard to think about the fact that a church might have to close someday, especially if it was the church you grew up in.  Part of the gift of a faith community is the relationships we build with our church family members.  It can be hard to think that there could come a day where the church family we cherish will no longer exist.  However, I have two thoughts on this matter.  Firstly, we must remember that it isn’t “our” church, but it is God’s church.  Just because the church we grew up in might close does not mean that God’s church has died.  God has great plans instore for the whole Christian church.  This is why, in the ELCA at least, when a church closes we call it the completion of the church’s mission.  Their mission is complete, but other church’s still have a mission to carry on.  Because of this, when a church closes, it should be viewed as a thing to celebrate (even though it is at the same time a powerful loss that causes much grief).  This also gives people, who were at the congregation that closed, the opportunity to bring their gifts and talents to another faith community so that the mission of the whole Christian Church can continue.

Secondly, if we are so afraid of our church closing that we spend a lot of time and money getting people to buy into our church through programs, then do we really trust that God has a purpose for the church?  Focusing on just proclaiming the gospel and building Christ-centered relationships is a huge act of faith.  It causes us to put the growth into God’s hands and let God take lead.  This can be really scary (especially if you’re a control freak!).  Yet, it is also freeing to know that God is in charge and that any growth we experience is really up to God.  All we have to do is go out and proclaim the gospel and build Christ-centered relationships, we then trust that God will do God’s thing and transform the hearts of others (yes, through us!).  After all, who are we loyal to; the gospel or “my church?”  I would like to think it is the gospel.

 

See you in the conversation,
Pastor Zach