Business Methods to Manage Churches

There is helpful, creative tension in the discussions about how much of the accepted practices and methods for managing corporations should be adopted by church leaders.

Here's what one pastor said to his elder board:

"The next time a sentence begins, “In the business world, we…” please know that I’m not interested in the rest of that sentence. The church is not the business world. As I’ve observed the effects of the business world on people’s lives, it doesn’t produce the traits that the church is about: joy, contentment, grace, and love. I don’t see the business world as a model for encouraging the kinds of lives we’re called to live."

From the other perspective you have business leaders scratching their heads and trying to figure out how to capture the tremendous passion and volunteer spirit they see in non-profits and churches, and get that same energy expressed in their businesses.

I don't believe there is a simplistic answer. The church is a special kind of human organization, so to at least some extent, practices successful in business organizations will be effective in the church. But a business is, in the end, performance-driven, and measuring by monetary and scale attributes. Churches [should] have a completely different ethic and metric system.

What do you think?