Measuring Success

"The church is a business" people say.  This is often said with some hesitancy.  Why is this?  Perhaps because they know this is not the way it is meant to be.

What does a business do?  They are built upon economic models: Money comes in - services are offered.  This is built on supply and demand.  The more the people demand services, the more the price of supply increases, forming economic equilibrium.

Putting the church into this model:  The people demand a faith community that can give them what they want.  In return they pay money for these "services." These services must be good quality so people can get what they think they paid for.  In order to increase income, a business-model church must grow its base.  Thus the number of members becomes important.  For better quality service to be provided, more members must be brought in to increase income, and thus, production.  Pastors are placed in the epicenter of this model.  They are paid by the congregation to provide services (preaching, worship leadership, pastoral care, etc.).  If these services are inadequate, the pastor can be fired.

It's disturbing and probably not completely accurate to describe the church in this way, but when you get down to the core of it, it's not that far from the truth.  American churches are an American economic business model.

Is this faithful?  Is this right?  Can it ever be different?

Our American culture is defined by numbers.  When I was youth director at Second Presbyterian Church in Richmond, I couldn't tell you how many times someone would say "how many youth do you have?" This question frustrates me to no end.  Firstly, how do you "have" youth?  It's not like we capture them and put them in a box so we can show off to people.  Secondly, what does it matter?  So what if I have 5 or 50 youth in my program.  Since when did bringing in a lot of youth for your program prove that you are effectively influencing the lives of young people and empowering them to do God's work?

Eugene Peterson in Under the Unpredictable Plant speaks of how we often measure success in churches by growth.  Growth, he says, "is biological, not an arithmetical metaphor.  Growth in biology has something to do with timing, passivity, waiting, proportion, maturity.  There is a proper size to each thing." Peterson reminds us that there must be an understanding that more is not always better.  Success, growth, in churches can never be judged by size.

I have been learning a lot from a church context that has no "members." Sure there are problems.  It's hard to keep up with people, hard to track giving, hard to appoint leadership.  However, the payoff is a system that is no longer focused on being successful.  They can look instead, to be more faithful to the gospel.  It's not a perfect system at Broad Street, there are some definite benefits to having "members," particularly for reasons of leadership and pastoral care.  However, it's refreshing to realize that, as my boss and pastor here, Bill, said, "We don't get to keep people.  We just get to hold them for a while." The church is not meant to be a country club.  The church is community.

Bill has also picked up on this notion of numbers-success in an article he wrote for Insights from the Underside." Not to be confused with The Bible from the Underside, a popular Frances Taylor Gench class.  Bill refers to this notion of success as the "Cultural Success Index." He reminds us that we must always be cautious of falling into this worldly model as a way of running churches.  If this can happen, Bill visions a church where, "Preoccupation with membership roles may be replaced with a passionate pursuit of understanding about why certain demographics are mission from the communion's gathering...imagination would trump implementation.  Depth would trounce growth.  Disciplined discernment would be valued over efficiency and 'effectiveness'." (46)

A church needs to operate as a business in some sense.  Money.  We can't ignore that HUGE elephant in the room.  A church needs to be able to have some lights to turn on and some heat to run in the winter.  This issue is what makes things difficult.  Money always makes things difficult.  Yet, since when did we let money guide our decisions?  Didn't Christ tell us to give it all to the poor anyway?

It's a messy situation that no one has figured out yet.  However, it's a situation that calls us to be faithful to the gospel.  We MUST constantly be aware of how we view ourselves as the community of God and avoid defining ourselves according to our American economic consumerist model.

How can we break down this horrible myth that a church is a business?  How can we look at success differently?

Is our church only about supply and demand?

I leave you with a song from Amos Lee, a Philly native: