The Business of the Church

I was involved in an interesting discussion yesterday that I wanted to share with readers of The Shiloh Insider. As usual, I believe that the issues are appropriate for and important within to the wider Church as well.

The conversation arose within the context of budget discussions at Shiloh. A person involved in the conversation mentioned the point that congregations cannot sustain themselves financially unless they think of themselves as businesses. "Look at Shiloh," he suggested. "The congregation has not met its expenditures with its contributions for the past ten or more years." he said.

Actually, since I have served as Senior Pastor at Shiloh, more than thirteen years now, Shiloh has balanced its expenditures to income exactly one time. According to records that I see, Shiloh has rarely accomplished a balanced budget at any time in its history. In the past, the pastors were accustomed to visiting with key members of the congregation to ask them to write checks, sometimes in excess of $20,000 - $50,000, to help make expenses.

Despite what might be understood as lean times, however, Shiloh has built an endowment of more than $1,100,000. Of course, the congregation has used other reserves that were available to it, thanks mainly to the kindness and generosity of members and friends. Its expenses have been met with the generosity and forethought of people who contributed major gifts to the life of the church.

The intent of the conversation was clear, however. According to those with whom I spoke, Shiloh needs to reduce its budget, mainly personnel, by some $100,000 in 2014. That means that staff will have to be let go. That means that ministry will have to be trimmed. It means that the services to which congregation has grown accustomed will disappear. It means that Shiloh will do less.

The conversation ended with this point. "The church is a business, after all."

I could not have disagreed more. The Church is not a business. It is a ministry. While the task of a business is to ensure its own survival and profitability, the task of a ministry is to serve. I would further claim that the financial concerns of the Church have, especially over the past few decades, limited the ministry of congregations and faith communities. They have, because of a lack of funds, ceased to be communities of ministry.

Those places are dying. When ministry ceases, when churches stop doing the ministry to which they are called, they lose all meaning and purpose. They wither and die, from the inside out. Churches that see themselves as businesses pull back from financial risk and humanitarian investment. When we concern ourselves overly with the financial bottom line, we diminish that which we might accomplish together in our communities and throughout the world. We begin to say that "we can't" instead of "we can, and may, and will."

The argument of those who define the church as business is understandable. They want their church to survive well into the future. The problem is that the only way to ensure that this is the case is to invest wholeheartedly in the church's ministry and mission, in its service to the community and world.

So, no, the Church is not a business. It is a ministry. The business of the Church is serving Jesus Christ in, to and for our communities. The business of the Church invites us to risk, to be vulnerable, to care less about ourselves than we do about the service that we render. This, as I understand it, is the business of the Church.