There are many more bad things than there are good things that come about when a church starts running like a business. I understand that as a church gets bigger, they have to take steps to make things run smoothly and not let their building collapse but the more it does this the less I think it does the job that it is there for.

I could talk much more on the role I believe the church should play and problems I have with mega-churches, but that’s not what this post is about. I’m always willing to have a conversation on this though, so feel free to reach out if interested in a discussion.

Even though running like a business can be very harmful to a church, there are some aspects that I think could be greatly improved if members of a church thought about some aspects as a business.

Specifically, I am talking about ideas and suggestions.

Ask any church leader ever if they have had someone come up to them and tell them about a great idea they have to improve the church or some great outreach opportunity for the church to do. My guess? 99 percent of them will say they have had someone do this.

The problem with this is the same problem you run into in a business. If you go up to your CEO and tell them about a great opportunity to improve the company they’ll be excited but they have their own tasks and projects they have to work on. They usually can’t put everything on hold to go after every new project.

Should they be excited about it? Of course. Should they encourage the idea? If it actually sounds beneficial, absolutely.

But at the end of the day, if this is where you stop, the idea is probably not going to come into realization. Why? Is it because the CEO actually hated the idea? Well, that’s always a possibility but the more likely scenario is that they simply don’t have time to devote to extra projects not directly relating to keeping their business running.

I’ll add a caveat that I think many pastors take this to the extreme. They don’t even listen to the opportunities presented. They are SO caught up in running their “business” that they forget the reason why it even exists. They are there to help shepherd a flock. If their work is so filled that they can’t listen to their congregation, something needs to change.

Back to the member with the idea though.

So, while we know that pastors could often be more receptive of these ideas and listening, just like in business, it’s so much better to come to the pastor with not just an idea, but an idea and an outline of how you are going to make your idea happen if he thinks it’s a good idea.

Does it take some extra work on the part of the member? Sure does. And the pastor might not even think it’s a great idea.

The idea though is that you’re not doing it for your pastor, you’re doing it in the hopes of spreading the message of the gospel with others. That’s not just your pastor’s job, that’s your job too. You need to take ownership of that.

There are many members of a body. Each serves a different purpose. Work with your fellow members to create something that you could never do on your own.

Ideas are cool but action is better.