church vs. business (part 2)

a friend of mine blogged about some thoughts he had regarding my post “church vs. business.” in his post titled “church is about peopleadam disagreed with my analogy that church should be more like a business. and he goes on to say, “Sure, we do a lot of things for people… But our focus is often times on the program and not people. How can we reverse that? How can we make our primary “thing” people again? How far do we have to go? What do we need to get rid of?”

and i have to say that i agree with him that churches should not act more like a business, because it is a ministry and ministry is about people. i was taking an absurd point to try and get us to the point of asking and hopefully answering the questions he asked in his blog that i quoted above. the problem is not that the church isn’t acting like a business, but that it is not acting the way the church needs to nor should. instead of realizing that there are students and children that need taking care of on more than a voluntary basis, if the money is there to afford a paid staff position for them. we find senior pastor’s who are consumed with pet projects around their buildings.

the money is poured into painting their building or obsessing over the cleanliness of it, or whatever else they can (in my opinion) waste the money on. instead of spending the money a little more wisely on getting the necessary personal to take care of the needs of the people. and this is a problem i have seen in many churches and heard from many other youth pastor’s happening in their churches. and so we are left with adam’s questions…..

“Sure, we do a lot of things for people… But our focus is often times on the program and not people. How can we reverse that? How can we make our primary “thing” people again? How far do we have to go? What do we need to get rid of?”

in the words of arsenio hall…. things that make you go, hmmmmm!

I am a follower of Jesus, a husband to Kim, father to Hannah & Caleb, and the connections pastor at The River Church. The thoughts expressed here are my own and not The River Church's.

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