I’m waiting for the day when people think businesses ought to be run like churches. You know, more interested in helping people than turning a huge profit.
It’s only fair, because for so long church members have demanded that their churches be run like businesses — which hasn’t worked out so great for the gospel witness.
Mark Wingfield
Anyone who’s been in church leadership has heard this song before. It has been such a staple from the late 20th century to the present that it is taken as an article of faith. But should it be?
Yes, churches ought to use good accounting practices and good personnel practices. But no, churches should not be “run like businesses” because churches are not supposed to maximize shareholder profits. Although some church leaders do seem to think of themselves as privileged shareholders.
This fallacious argument has led far too many churches to value policies over people, money over ministry and jingles over Jesus.
Now, we’re living in a time in America where powerful people think government ought to be run like a business too. Yet the same problem applies: Government is not a business. Government is not intended to turn a profit. Government is not supposed to enrich a small group of wealthy shareholders. Government has no product to sell.
“Government has more in common with church than with business.”
Government is of the people, by the people, for the people. It is about helping and serving people. Thus government has more in common with church than with business. Yet in our capitalistic culture, “business” has been made the measuring stick for all other enterprises to aspire to.
And not even good “business,” mind you. What business would approach staff management the way Elon Musk and DOGE are doing right now? For that matter, what successful business would do what Musk has done with X, formerly Twitter, which has lost 80% of its value since he ransacked it? Yet he’s the expert?
What business would attempt to duplicate the track record of Donald Trump and family, with a trail of bankruptcies and failed businesses and unpaid bills and more court cases than any other board of directors could stomach? Yet he’s the expert?
One of the lies conservative Republicans — and evangelicals — have bought hook, line and sinker is that compassion is a bad thing, that empathy is a sin, that helping people is weak. Maybe they all need to be forced to watch It’s a Wonderful Life on repeat until they understand.
All these people who are wanting to get more church in government are exporting the wrong product. They’re exporting the toxic part of faith, not the generative parts of faith.
I could be all for government having greater influence from the church if that influence causes us to care for the poor, lift up the broken and create equal playing fields for all. But because the church has been corrupted by being run like a business, we have little hope of the church modeling a better way for government.
Mark Wingfield serves as executive director and publisher of Baptist News Global. He is the author of Honestly: Telling the Truth About the Bible and Ourselves and Why Churches Need to Talk About Sexuality.
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