by Dave Brown

Created on: February 15, 2007   Last Updated: May 11, 2007

As a former associate youth pastor, I know from painful experience the result of a church operating like a business.

In fact, I daresay that churches, Evangelical universities, and "Christian" organizations/parachurch ministries are homes for some of the least moral behavior I've seen. Along with this is the horrible trend toward not valuing those who work under your supervision. The attitude frequently is: "We're not doing this for money, so you'll understand we can't pay you very much."

The church that employed me paid me less than the average fast food salary for a year, and it became very old. The trend I see is failing to recognize that what God desires for an organization bearing His name to show to those whom it services, He also expects of that organization internally. This is especially true of the church, which Christ Himself founded. Those who choose to vocationally pursue the spiritual guidance of others perform a valuable role in our society, and should be paid accordingly.

Frequently, churches are significantly more interested in quantity than quality. This is found in many denominations, and it is not the way Scripture mandates its operation. This repels spiritual seekers from church instead of attracting them, exactly the opposite of what the church is supposed to do.

Selling items ranging from workout tapes to backpacks "in Jesus' name" (and with His name emblazoned all over them) cheapens Christ to a marketing strategy. How can anyone perceiving this take Him seriously? He can't be happy with this, and anything that prohibits anyone from taking Him seriously is dead wrong.

These practices have given church a bad name in American society. A shame, because the positive contributions of a gathering of faith is tremendous, and God supplies a desperately needed component of our lives.

I should place a disclaimer here, for those who may be discouraged by reading this or may find themselves in ready agreement: there are good churches out there, who don't live and die by numbers and that aren't trying to shove things down your throat. They spend more time on people than theology. Keep searching, and you will find one. My advice: an evangelical church not affiliated with a mainline denomination. Stay on your spiritual quest. He promised that if we seek Him, we will find Him.

He just didn't say anything about selling lunchboxes.

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