Posted on 04/17/2008 5:59:52 AM PDT by Terriergal
Churches often borrow from business world
Taking care of business
(ABP) -- Churches can learn from the business -- for better or for worse.
Some best practices in the corporate world translate well to the nonprofit sector, including churches, experts insist. And at the same time, churches can benefit by looking at some lessons failed businesses learned the hard way.
Baptists with expertise in both business and congregational life note several areas where churches can discover lessons worth learning:
-- Core values and mission: “Start with a core set of values -- an irreducible minimum of non-negotiable basics,” said Chris Stull, executive pastor at First Baptist Church in McKinney, Texas. “For churches, those core values are always biblical, and they are always straight from the heart of God.”
Stull, who earned a master of business administration degree from the University of Oklahoma, believes the business world has “helped churches get their arms around” the importance of using core values to determine mission and strategy.
Mitchell Neubert, who holds the Chavanne Chair of Christian ethics in business at Baylor University’s Hankamer School of Business, agreed; for-profit businesses have learned the importance of understanding their mission clearly, and churches should embrace that principle.
“That’s a critical idea that goes to the matter of core identity,” he said. “From its mission, the business or church makes decisions about where it invests its resources.”
A growing number of churches -- particularly congregations that have adopted the purpose-driven model espoused by author Rick Warren -- recognize the importance of being able to state their mission clearly, he noted.
(Excerpt) Read more at abpnews.com ...
(well really that's not possible, but they keep trying!)
In church, I do not want to hear about "key result areas" or a vision statement.
I kind of go both ways on this issue. I’ve read both of Warren’s books and honestly liked the Purpose Driven Church book for a few of it’s ideas.
That said, I go to a real small church that can measure it’s real assets in mid 4 figures. We meet in a school and have some land but have no plans to build right now.
I like the idea of having measurable and attainable goals. The goals my church leadership has are not measurable so they have no idea quantifiably if they are being met. In essence, I think at times we’re just busy playing church.
Many, especially large churches follow the business model far more than the church model. This article seemed to dwell on having a proper confluence between the two models.
I think I copied most of the following from Roger Oakland:
Most churches were once small flocks with shepherds. As the pastors taught the Word and fed the sheep, some small flocks grew to become mega-churches. These mega-churches often grew to the point and by methods such that there was no longer a flock, but a herd. There were so many sheep and more than a few goats in the herd that the shepherd had no choice but to manage it by turning the church into a corporation.
As everyone knows, churches, when they become corporations have to operate like a corporation not a church. In the world, people in corporations are always looking for position and leaders exert control. The only way one can be successful in climbing the corporate ladder is to be loyal to the corporation and the corporate president. As was rightly taught in early 2007, the church is not a corporation and should not be operated as such. ‘Tis sad for me, that a church does not appear to follow the Biblical teachings it oft presents.
In the world, people in corporations are always looking for position and leaders exert control.
"It shall not be so among you."
The only thing that the churches appear to be taking from the business world is deceit and corruption, if one reads the recent news events involving many of these so-called “seeker sensitive” churches.
I hear ya!
You bet they’re comfortable with it. The delphi method is a way of life! They see nothing wrong with using it to determine what a church should do.
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