Hang out in church leadership circles long enough, and you might hear something like this:
The fastest way to grow the body of Christ is to get more butts in seats.
Which means the more people we can get into a church service, the greater the odds of reaching the ones who’ll be receptive to the message being preached, whatever that may be. They usually emphasize appealing to a diverse swath of the community—casting a wide net, in church speak—in order to snag those folks “whose shadows would otherwise never darken the door of a church,” as I’ve heard pastors say.
The more broadly appealing the church, the more people will give it a shot. The larger the crowd filing through the door, the more conversions will inevitably follow. This is the More Butts In Seats philosophy. Fill enough seats in your sanctuary (or get enough website hits, or sermon streams, or online followers) and watch the church grow, because More Butts In Seats = Expansion.
Once the church outgrows it’s venue, it can then expand farther, maybe open up another campus, or plant a church in another town.
If, like me, you’ve spent a significant portion of your life in the business world, this progression might sound familiar. It’s marketing. It’s the Customer Acquisition Funnel.1 It’s free samples. These are predicated on a numbers game, a basic formula: Pitch your free sample to 100 people, and a percentage of them will buy your product.
In business terms, you’d describe the More Butts In Seats principle like this:
The fastest way to increase your profits is by increasing your customer base.
I know the idea of equating new believers with profits is off-putting, and not at all what most church leaders mean when they talk about growing the body of Christ. Their motivations are, by and large, about salvation and discipleship, not expanding temples unto themselves. But it’s the concept of More Butts In Seats that I’m getting at.
Wittingly or not, the American Church has adopted a corporate model for operation and growth. This is one of the great criticisms I hear, and I tend to share it generally, but when you drill down on the specifics—which “corporate” things we’re talking about—I think there’s some wiggle room. You might even say we’re getting overly critical about certain corporate things the church employs that are, in fact, essential.
They can be both good and bad, and often they’re just the practical realities of dealing with a crowd.
When Jesus Shows Up
If you were able to time travel to the first century and follow Jesus around as He ministered, you’d probably have to struggle to get close enough to hear Him.
Jesus generates crowds. Always has, always will.
“Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the lake, and a large crowd from Galilee followed. When they heard about all he was doing, many people came to him from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, and the regions across the Jordan and around Tyre and Sidon.“
— Mark 3:7-8
So there’s nothing inherently wrong with large churches. They may not be preferable for some of us for a variety of reasons, but you can’t say that just because a congregation is in the thousands, Jesus isn’t moving powerfully there.
We all know there are plenty of examples of massive churches derailing themselves from following Jesus. That’s a reality, but it’s not baked into the cake. They aren’t inherently problematic just for being big; small, stagnant churches have plenty of problems of their own, perhaps even worse ones.
So, large and small congregations —be they in a strip mall, warehouse, million-dollar building, or someone’s living room—share the same dilemma, and it looks something like this:
Preach Jesus2 —>people turn to Jesus—>add them to the church—>preach Jesus—>more people turn to Jesus—>more people are added to the ever growing church—preach Jesus…
“Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.“
— Acts 2:41
It’s a challenge the church has been wrestling with since the beginning. Paul had to deal with the influx of new converts and gently teach them to not eat blood anymore. Peter probably had kids and families surrounding him as he preached while also trying not to get stoned to death. Barnabas probably had to juggle travel plans and find a way not to get saddled with jerk companions for a year. And all of them, women and men of the early church, just like today, had to organize and assign roles of responsibility.
This by necessity means structure. And structure can seem rigid, like a corporation’s flow chart, or an organizational hierarchy.
But there is no hierarchy in the kingdom of believers. There is a king, Jesus, and one rank underneath Him: Follower of Jesus.
So the modern church therefore faces an age-old problem:
How do we embrace the Holy Spirit’s prompting without hesitation, while honoring and loving one another in the process of large scale gatherings?
It’s not easy. And this is where some of the critics who decry the church becoming too corporate are perhaps out of touch with reality and history. It’s easy to say the church has become too structured. It’s much harder to find a coherent balance between the natural and supernatural needs of a congregation, no matter what the size. And growing the Church is kinda the point.
Market Expansion
Whether you’re running a business or planting a church, you’ll want it to grow. In business speak this is called Market Expansion. To do it, you’ll need to find an audience…cast a wide net. Expanding a church in the current Western environment often requires a few key elements:
- A modern website
- Appealing decor
- Good music
- Quality coffee
- A greeter for first time attendees
- Security
- Engaging sermons
Did you notice something about that list?
They’re all things most of us want in a basic church. These are not corporate goodies for churches with grand designs for massive expansion. They’re simple, modern functions that don’t require a lot of money. In fact, all of the things on that list are good. Who wants crap coffee on Sunday morning?
“Come along! Here’s coffee that is coffee. Can nothing be done about the Hall coffee, Steve?”
“Yes, if you’ll start a coffee-fund,” replied the Bursar. “I don’t know if you’ve ever worked out the finance of really first-class coffee for two hundred people.”
— Dorothy Sayers, Gaudy Night
So why all of the criticism that these and other amenities are anathema to following Jesus, just because they’re modern?
You’ll find all of these things in my church and probably yours as well. They’re just part of the venue for gathering in fellowship, a framework that can and often does lead to personal transformation, connections, and worship. The “stuff” is just structure for facilitating healing and loving others—the real meat and potatoes of Christ-centered ministry.
But here’s the flip side argument, which I also think is legitimate: That bullet list might draw a lot of people into a church, and generate a lot of cash flow, but it may not move the needle at all in fostering relationship with Jesus.
A church can do all of those things without ever mentioning Jesus, much less inviting Him to set the agenda. No doubt you’ve got some examples of this in your own experience. How well Jesus permeates any body of believers is directly dependent on how often He’s invited to join them.
And that is dependent on how well the Holy Spirit (famously unpredictable) fits that church’s brand.
Which leads us to a not-so-good way the American church has adopted the corporate model.
Branding
Branding is tested, it works, it grows the church.
Branding generates exclusivity, the idea that they’ve got something special over there and you’re gonna want in on it. T-shirts, stickers, hoodies, and mugs grow the brand, and those who love the brand become loyal to it.
“We came up with this term called Institution Creep, where more and more, the institution matters more than the people who are in that church. And when the institution matters more than the people, you have problems.
When the pressure comes on, they think: How can we preserve this church and my position, rather than that person who’s been wounded?…We discovered that toxic churches, toxic institutions, value loyalty. I can’t tell you the number of people who’ve used the word loyalty as though it’s the most important value in that church. Loyalty to the pastor, to the leader.”
— Scot McKnight, Expedition 44 podcast Aug. 24, 2022
Conferences and special events with rock star evangelists follow, and so too our need to build a larger venue. Next, the church needs a million-dollar building, maybe a Christian school, with 501c3 designations and all the strings that come with it.
Bigger, better, vibrant, growing! This is the successful business model. This is also the corporate church model.
But if the Holy Spirit is too wild, it may be off-brand. So Holy Spirit isn’t welcome. No flag waving or dancing in the aisles. No worship sets extending past the 33-minute slot.
If the Holy Spirit is given reign, that’s just gonna cause exhaustion for the childcare workers and the volunteers, right?! And you can’t have the Holy Spirit blowing up Second Service because we’ve got a tight turnaround for Third Service.
The crowds necessitate structure, but the Spirit demands obedience. What are we supposed to do with that?
This is why a fast-growing contingent of believers is rethinking the entire American church model in favor of home churches and more organic gatherings, but what to do when even those outgrow their venue?
Old Problems
Any sizable group of people on a mission—whether it’s preaching Jesus or growing a business—need to organize and adapt to a variety of challenges. Personality and expectations are two major ones:
“Some time later Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us go back and visit the believers in all the towns where we preached the word of the Lord and see how they are doing.” Barnabas wanted to take John, also called Mark, with them, but Paul did not think it wise to take him, because he had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not continued with them in the work. They had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company. Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus, but Paul chose Silas and left, commended by the believers to the grace of the Lord. He went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.“
— Acts 15:36–41
From the beginning, then, the church had to deal with the messiness of administration. Spreading the gospel of Jesus requires people, and people are difficult.
In fact, people can suck. Even people who love Jesus.
Policies and procedures may smack of corporate speak, but the fact is they have a crucial role in the church. Failure to deal with the messiness of relationships can, and often does, cause division when inevitable squabbles arise.
Or worse. Failure to contend with personalities can lead to aggression (overt or passive), or deceit, or even crimes. There’s a solution for this.
Management With Accountability
I mentioned earlier that there is only one rank under Jesus. We’re all on equal footing—from the oldest elder on down to the smallest child, women and men—with the same level of access to His power and presence. A healthy church embraces this, and encourages those with giftings to preach, teach, minister, prophesy, evangelize, and lead.
And yet…
It would be unwise to hand a microphone to just anybody, not the least reason being because there are a lot of weirdos out there but also because not everyone is learned enough or coherent enough to speak in line with the heart of Jesus.
It’s incumbent on church leaders to know whether or not someone claiming to have a Word of knowledge, or someone wanting to pray for the congregation, or someone wanting to lead everyone in a declaration, actually has an abiding relationship with Jesus, and is competent and responsible enough to do so.
That means vetting them, and vetting people is another one of those corporate processes that people don’t like.
We don’t hand chainsaws or drivers licenses to anyone who wants one. No, we examine them to make sure they’re competent, and instruct them in understanding that responsibility. We train them, test them, and then (when we’re reasonably confident they’re not a whackjob and that they know what they’re doing) we let them try it out under supervision.
This is called management, which is also corporate but necessary.
Here’s an example:
I was once leading prayer ministry at a previous church. During a worship and prayer time, a person came up who was just diagnosed with cancer. They asked for healing and I was happy to join them in that. However, the person next to me—who was placed on the prayer team by the previous leader—went into one of the most unBiblical, faith-shattering declarations I’d ever heard. I had to counter everything he said to wash the stink of Satanic lies off of the person we were praying for.
[Side note: No, God does not want you to suffer and maybe die of cancer, for any reason, ever. If you ever hear someone say that, tell them to get the heck away from you.]
I’ve seen this kind of thing play out to various degrees for years. People have weird opinions, disjointed views and shoddy grounding on all sorts of topics. Often, people are thrust in to roles they’re ill equipped for just to fill a ministry need, with no examination about their personal walk with Jesus and beliefs. Leaders, especially church leaders, need to understand that and establish policies to deal with it.
The proficiency and skill necessary to accurately teach on scripture is astonishingly lacking in many congregations to where many pastors haven’t even read (much less understood and studied) the entire Bible. Having read the Bible and being cognizant of its context should be a foundational prerequisite for teachers, and a group of elders (which should include women, by the way) ought to be responsible for ensuring it.
And yet, there are also a lot of credentialed pastors—some with megachurches and millions of followers—who are spouting nonsense. Some of them even promote spousal abuse and marital rape.
When a pastor goes on-stage and tells the women in your congregation that a new bride needs to “stand where[her husband] tells her to stand, wear what he tells her to wear, and do what he tells her to do,” what will your church do about it? Will the elders fire him, or will they allow him to continue?
Is there a method for holding abusive church members accountable?
Is there a system in place for mandatory reporting of harm when a congregant becomes aware of it?
Is there a system in place to make sure sexual predators don’t have free reign?
If an active shooter or an abusive father with a gun comes into the childcare wing of your church, do you have a plan to deal with it? And do you have a written Standard Operating Procedure so the rest of your staff knows how to respond?
If you discover two teenagers sneaking off during youth group to be alone in the dark, what is the process for making sure it never happens again?
Management with accountability is a foundational pillar that the corporate world understands, an essential element that all successful organizations use. And yet, proper management with adequate accountability is something the American church has been woefully unable or unwilling to embrace.
The downstream result of that is a history of church scandal and cover-up that has left decades of trauma in the wake of its absence.
The Best of Both Worlds
I hope that you’re not hearing this as an argument that the Church needs to be more corporate in its operation. That’s not what I’m saying. But a church that doesn’t set up the structure necessary to deal with the day-to-day management of people — in support of the larger mission of preaching Jesus — is ripe for failure, scandal, and abuse.
The greatest tragedy of the modern American church is that so many young people raised in the church want nothing to do with it as adults. That’s largely because of how often they’ve witnessed first-hand how messed up the church can be when leaders don’t have a system in place to deal with the messiness of life. These kids saw scandals get brushed under the rug, abusive messages taught from the pulpit, hypocritical lifestyles among leadership, and tenured incompetence common at all levels.
By contrast, these same young people are working at jobs with highly competent small businesses, and at large successful corporations that tolerate none of that nonsense.
They see how the secular world deals with interpersonal conflict and wonder why the church so continuously fumbles it up: Nobody wants to piss off Betty at church, so just go ahead and put up with Betty’s abrasive attitude. No counseling notices, no coaching logs, no performance reviews. Just admonishment to cope, because that’s how the church deals with it…or doesn’t.
They heard the pastor tell them that the boys’ lust problems were dependent on the girls’ attire and other purity culture double standards, and wonder why the church can’t just have a simple standard for everyone like their employer does, and leave it at that?
And perhaps worst of all, they hear messages about how Jesus loves everyone, yet endure snarky tribalism from leaders dehumanizing entire people groups, something that doesn’t fly in professional circles and also doesn’t square with Jesus, or any of the Apostles, either.
In short, the corporate world focused on the mission, on the business at hand. It manages everything else professionally in a way that doesn’t tear people down. It designs systems to protect individuals as it grows, because that’s a net positive for everyone invested in it.
So at this point, perhaps we should ask: Why the church can’t do it like that?
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If you enjoyed this article, you might check out these as well:
David & Bathsheba: A Bible Story Elephant In The Room
In The Eyes of the Lord
The Gospel: Third Heaven Warfare, Simplified
Footnotes
- The Customer Acquisition Funnel is a common business concept that begins with a large audience 1) gaining Awareness of your product, 2) a smaller portion of them gaining Interest, 3) a few of those give it Consideration, 4) a much smaller number shows Intention to buy it, 5) the serious ones Purchase it, and in some cases 6) the true believers show lifelong Loyalty to your product and you Retain them. ↩︎
- Preaching Jesus (aka, The Gospel) means focusing on Him, not ourselves. It means sharing with everyone how awesome Jesus is, not navel gazing about our sin and pressuring people into saying a few magic words some Sunday night. For a larger discussion on this here’s a recent article I wrote about it ↩︎