There are many good lessons that churches can learn from well-functioning businesses. I am a big fan of “best practices, and many organizational strategies will transfer directly from business applications into the church world with minimal adaptation.
That being said, I have seen churches go significantly off the rails in one very specific way:
They became obsessed with FAST and CHEAP and lost sight of EFFECTIVE.
In fact, they started treating fast and cheap as if they were goals in and of themselves. They’re not. Fast and cheap are ways of doing things. They are not the things that you are doing. In profit-making endeavors, fast and cheap can mean the difference between making and losing money. The church is about something very different. We certainly have the responsibility to use our resources well and to work hard. But the Great Commandment and The Great Commission are our end goals.
“…isn’t it good stewardship to spend as little money as possible? Actually, no. Quite the opposite, really.
The Parable of the Talents doesn’t scold the two servants who invested what they’d been given wisely. No, it scolds the one who hid the money and didn’t even try to use it.” – Paul Clifford, ChurchProduction Magazine
Hmmm - well, let's see...
I'm a Christian, a husband, a dad, a son, a pastor, a consultant, a musician, a writer, and bits and pieces of a bunch of other things. My work life has followed three main phases - business to teaching to church. I was the Weekend Services Pastor for nine years at Northview Church, an awesome church in the Indianapolis suburbs. I used to work for Willow Creek, another awesome church in the Chicago area. Plus I've written for various magazines and websites, and other freelancy sorts of things... My life mission is to help the church be as excellent as it can be.
Oh yeah - the name's Greg. Greg Wallace. But not the race car driver or the major league pitcher or the British celebrity chef. Just the creative worship guy. Hi.
It's my hope that these ideas, musings, rants, raves, etc... will inspire you. They're just my opinions - but again, I hope that they'll help to inspire you. Because the church really, really needs inspired creative types. If you're a creative type (and most people are, deep-down), ask God for help. Then take any ideas that are useful to you - borrow them, nab them, use them, adapt them - and make them into something greater...
You can head over to my Instagram site for an abundance of shorter posts: creativeworshipideas. If you're looking for consulting - especially on weekend services, team leadership or multi-site strategies - I'd love to help. Just message me here, and I'll be in touch - Greg
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