Wanted - General Manager

That day is not far away when churches will be advertising for the above post, rather than a minister of the Word and Gospel.  Churches today have become primarily business enterprises organised and run along the lines of a supermarket, where clients (members) can get everything they need 'under one roof.'  There is something for women and something else for men.  There are numerous activities for children of both genders and all ages, both uniformed and non-uniformed, each having to be appropriately manned.  There is timetabling and scheduling to be done to ensure not only that each organisation has use of church facilities, but that the facilities are fully and properly used.

That is the mark of a true and good church, so it goes.  Plenty of activity and plenty going on, especially for the younger members of the congregation.  That none of it has nothing much to do with the primary work of the church does not seem to occur to ministers and elders.  They want an organisation that is full of activity, regardless of it usefulness to the promotion of the Gospel.

Then there is the whole matter of public relations and keeping the public informed about what the congregation is doing.  This is also the role of the 'manager.'  Attending endless meetings that have no consequence for Gospel work is a time-consuming and wearying exercise, and all it succeeds in doing is pumping up the notions of self-importance that many ministers have. 

Indeed, young Christian parents decide which church to go to depending on what is on offer for the children.  Not whether or not the Gospel is preached clearly and passionately. 

Now the question is, what need is there for a minister of the Gospel when what is needed in fact is a general manager!  I was once considered and interviewed for a large and growing church in one of our provincial towns, and coming away it struck me that that congregation was not looking for a minister but for a manager, and didn't know it.  A friend of mine was called there. 

But while congregations want to have their own minister, what they expect him to be is a general manager who runs the organisation, while the elders are the directors who have power to sack the manager if his performance is not what they expect it to be.  He needs to show profit at the end of the year, demonstrate increased giving and attendances at church services, prove that he is preaching what the people want to hear and who does for them whatever it is the people want him to do (the sacraments come to mind here).  And if he cannot thus prove his worth to the congregation, sorry, organisation, at the end of the year, then he has to go.  Some ministers have become so expert at pleasing the people that they can get off with murder in their congregations.  They run a good enterprise and promote a good public image that the primary task of the church goes by the by.

This is a short-term expedient.  The day will come when the church's true books will be opened and an account will have to be given by all concerned, especially the minister.  That day will tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.  Then, rewards will be given and many faces will be buried in profound shame.

Minister or manager?  What have you become?  What are you?  What were you called by God to be?  Then be it, and forget the worldliness that has invaded many churches today, and not least those that call themselves evangelical.