I am a servant of Jesus and His movement, not a business guru.

If you look at Jesus’ life and how He lived, what do you see? If you catalogue His life, you’ll see He wasn’t locked up in His study preparing His next killer sermon series. He was living with the leadership team. He was training to change the world. He wasn’t sitting back directing the pawns from an executive office with a board of executive pastors. He was walking and talking with riffraff and wayfarers, and multiplying Himself into a handful of people to change the world. 

It’s not the method we would have chosen. Sadly, it’s not the method we choose. But it’s what Jesus did. We choose large, flashy, in charge, make big happen. 

But what if our methods don’t bring the transformation Jesus is actually looking for? What if Jesus strategically did what He did? What if when He said, “Follow Me,” He meant it? What if we are supposed to follow Jesus and not businessmen and their boardroom leadership? What if when we start with a business, we end with a business?[1]

One author tells about a church that hired a new executive pastor who had “precisely zero experience as a pastor.” He did, however, have a lot of experience in the business world. The pastors on staff who had experience pastoring in flourishing churches were now told what to do, and what not to do, by this new executive pastor. 

This executive pastor served as a kind of go-between, or mediator, between the regular church staff and the lead pastor. And he managed people’s schedules to the effect that he put an end to a mini time of worship at the beginning of the day that some of the pastors were having. One of the pastors asked, “If we’re getting our jobs done, what does it matter to you how we start our days?” The executive pastor answered, “Because this is the office. The office is for business, and it’s my job to maintain that.”[2]

This specific account, it is true, recounts one church’s story; but in my experience as a pastor and in conversation with other pastors, I believe similar stories are repeated often. The business of the church has become business. 

What if we have had it wrong for a long time? What if leadership is about service? And what if that service is not for our organization? What if it is about something that Jesus owns and something He is doing? What if it’s not about our name or the name brand of our church?[3]

I love Jesus and Jesus’ church, but I don’t love human, name-brand, church. When church is about a name—whether the name brand of the church or pastor—and not about the name above every name for whom every being will bow, I don’t love that. Idolatry has no place in Jesus’ church.

I am a servant of Jesus and His movement, not a business guru. What then about my name and reputation? What then about buildings and church brands? Only that in every way, Christ is proclaimed. In that I rejoice.[4] Yes, let me and every Christian leader be considered a fool for Christ’s sake![5]

It’s not about logos, brands, buildings, gifted preachers, leaders, or an amazing experience of worship; it’s about King Jesus, knowing Him and making Him known. We so quickly turn from our Savior and the Shepherd of our souls to lesser shepherds. We forget the Kingdom, and get wrapped up in our little kingdoms.

May my name and names without number fall, and may all our voices rise in praise of Messiah Jesus, the name above every name. May His Church grow, and be big in our affections, and may our myopic vision perish as we see His wonder and glory. 

Notes

[1] Of course, I’m not saying no structure. Jesus had structure, and the New Testament provides structure, though it’s not the Jethro model.

[2] Lance Ford et al., The Starfish and the Spirit: Unleashing the Leadership Potential of Churches and Organizations (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2021).

[3] “Never desire special praise or love, for that belongs to God alone Who has no equal. Never wish that anyone’s affection be centered in you, nor let yourself be taken up with the love of anyone” (Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, 50). 

[4] See Philippians 1:18. 

[5] See 1 Corinthians 4:9ff.