Tuesday, February 17, 2009
All In The Family
Recently,Kruse Kronicle posted on church as "family business":
You see, if the "family model" church were composed entirely of genuine, people truly to allow themselves to be transformed into the image of Jesus it would work. If the mega-church were composed entirely of genuine, people truly to allow themselves to be transformed into the image of Jesus it would work. The model is not the issue - the people are.
I have clientele that range in size from less than 5 people and less than 1 million a year to companies with employees numbering in the thousands and revenues in the billions. I have been in small ones that were miserable places to be and big ones that were wonderful, and vice-versa. I have watched them reorganize again and again to no better effect. But when management changes, then things happen.
There is only one question I ask when evaluating a church - it has to do with the character of the leadership. No - scratch that - make it the discipleship of the leadership. If that is right they can choose any model they want.
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My experience with any number of small declining Presbyterian congregations is that they all have a similar vision of themselves. The universal refrain is “We are a warm friendly family.” And it often is true. They are so warm and friendly toward each other that they have become insular. Their motivation for survival has become to preserve the relationships, traditions, and history that they can’t envision living without. Newcomers will pose challenges to the status quo and are therefore a threat.I see his essential point and I agree with it in principal, but I also can nitpick the idea to death on both sides of the issue - actually on the fact that there are more than two sides. But why? The problem, I think, is the limitations our models, any model, puts on us when we are talking about the church. Each model has strengths and weaknesses, but no model is sufficiently robust to take the best of all and reject the worst of each. If such a model existed, I have to think that God would have taught it to us rather more directly.
When I raise this issue, others chime in with another context: The mega-church (or the mega-church wannabe) model. Here the complaint is that everything is run like a business and the wannabes are trying to convert their congregations into businesses so they grow into a big church. Critics want these churches to behave more like a family.
[...]
I would suggest that in addition to lifting up the family business metaphor, that the most effective challenge to congregations trapped in a business mindset is not the condemnation of business and marketing. Rather, embrace the business marketing mindset but press them to define what business they are in. Are we really about selling “fire insurance?” Are we a self-help seminar business? Are we a group therapy clinic? Are we a spiritual experience department store? What is the church’s mission and how does every aspect of our life together relate to our mission.
Furthermore, the pervasive image of the church in the New Testament is one of family. Can we say we have truly embraced the God’s “business plan” of familial communities bearing witness to the kingdom? The absence of family is a deviation from the business plan.
We need to recover the image of the church as family business.
You see, if the "family model" church were composed entirely of genuine, people truly to allow themselves to be transformed into the image of Jesus it would work. If the mega-church were composed entirely of genuine, people truly to allow themselves to be transformed into the image of Jesus it would work. The model is not the issue - the people are.
I have clientele that range in size from less than 5 people and less than 1 million a year to companies with employees numbering in the thousands and revenues in the billions. I have been in small ones that were miserable places to be and big ones that were wonderful, and vice-versa. I have watched them reorganize again and again to no better effect. But when management changes, then things happen.
There is only one question I ask when evaluating a church - it has to do with the character of the leadership. No - scratch that - make it the discipleship of the leadership. If that is right they can choose any model they want.
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