Give it another 10 yrs and I’m sure people will be saying the exact same thang - the church is the body of Christ not the Body Shop for example, lol…

it is a struggle for me as a youth pastor. how can i be part of the solution while being part of the problem? maybe the better question is, how do we as pastors or elders in our church move away from the management mode? how do we redefine our roles as leaders?

maybe i should check out that book. these are the questions that run through my mind as i read this post.

peace.

thanks for your insight. it goes a long way as i’m uncovering some things for myself. i’ll check out the post:)

brad

I’ve not blogged on this in any detail, but in essence the American business model adopted by most American faith communities have sets the Elders up as a board of directors, the lead pastor as the CEO, and associated pastors and other staff as corporate VPs over different product/service divisions. The products and services are marketed using the latest thinking on the subject. Members are human capital used to work the programs, maintain the institution and push the products and services. Increased membership, bigger building complexes, larger budgets, and growing staff are some of the key benchmarks used to measure success.

I know I’m cynical and lots of good is being done by most of these faith communities, but I really think a reformation needs to come on how we structure our communities if we want to move from the attractional model to a missional paradigm.

I did the following post (Leadership and the Missional Church) which may be of interest and does offer an alternative.

i really struggle with finding the balance here. my thoughts are still muddled a bit on this topic.

1. i’m not sure i’m familiar enough with a management model to speak intelligently about it. since i loathed any structural mogul even as a drugee.

2. aren’t there some things we can learn from the corporate world?

3. i don’t think Christ called the body to be a business.

do you have other posts where you unpack your thoughts?

brad

It seems like the individual is devalued in this “IBM style” of church management. It herds people through a process as though they were cattle. No one asks, what has God been doing in your life? What do you think is a next step for you? People do not get to know the individual in the process of training a good church member to build up the organization.