Just Say No to C.E.O.
The other day I had an experience that solidified my hatred for the "pastor as CEO" role many large church pastors are playing these days. I was listening to one such pastor speaking about things related to church but liberally and unapologetically using business language and a corporate mindset related to decisions he'd made and was recommending we make in our churches. To be perfectly honest, I was becoming literally sick to my stomach during his talk. Not at him as a human being, because I greatly respect the man, but at this bizarre role-play, "let me put on my CEO hat now" posture he assumed. From where I stand now, as one who is finally learning to let go of my addictions to church culture, it was just plain weird. I felt like saying, "Do you know how goofy you look?"

Although I've been bothered by the impact that corporate models of church have had on things like the experience of authentic Christian community and 'apprenticeship to Jesus', criticism of these models has become less important as we begin to construct communities on a new foundation. We should stop wasting time throwing rocks when we should be building with the precious stones God is giving us. I guess what I'm feeling now is just a little bit of embarrassment for the silliness of church-as-corporation. Do people seriously think church should be run like a Ford assembly plant? Shoot, maybe I should've stuck to industrial engineering and gone to work for a megachurch. I have a B.S. and 5 years of multifaceted experience at a large manufacturing plant. Anyone want to hire an efficiency consultant? I can do an ergonomics review for your secretaries. I can help you start a team-oriented cost-savings program. I have tons of experience in estimating R.O.I's for big capital projects. Want to know when that big building will be pay for itself?

Okay I'm ranting now. Sorry, that doesn't happen very often anymore. Constructively, I think should do ourselves a favor and stop trying to look like CEO's and start being fathers and brothers. The world has too many corporate sponsors already. People hold allegiences to 50 different organizations that are all meaningless. No one wants to join the Kiwanis Club for Christ. No one wants to work for the Coca-Cola Baptizing Company. They want to be loved. They want to belong to a family, to a people, a tribe. Imagine running your family like Microsoft. Your budget starts to get tight so you say to your 5-year old, "Sorry son. We're going to have to let you go. There's just not enough room in the budget for you anymore. Here's a severance check that should buy you some food for a couple weeks and we'll try and set you up with another set of parents soon."

Ranting again. I'll stop now. Bye bye.