Let me clarify, this piece isn’t about politics and I’m not interested in getting political. Instead, the current object lesson playing out in Washington is too valuable for us to pass up. Love him or hate him, President Trump’s administration illustrates a mental-trap many of our churches fall into. Trump was used to doing business with businessmen and he assumed that his style of leadership would automatically/seamlessly translate over into the White House. Has it?
Regardless of what he has or hasn’t accomplished in your view, Trump’s agenda faces challenges. Why? It’s my opinion that Trump thought he could manage politics like he did business. Instead, it looks to me like politicians respond very differently to different methods of motivation. Elected officials might not hold the same values or feel the same pressures from certain types of leverage in the same way someone from the world of business does. And this gross misunderstanding is where we in the church can learn a valuable lesson.
By the way, the subject of President Trump is a lightning-rod issue and our nation is polarized about his position. Neither idolizing him nor demonizing him helps much, but, according to Scripture, since he is a government leader, praying for him is every believer's responsibility.
Back to my point. Unfortunately, many of our churches mistakenly think that an executive/manager who is successful in the marketplace automatically makes for a good church leader. Worse yet, our churches often adapt a worldly business model of leadership because of the influence of the folks we typically select to lead us.
You can’t “run” a church like you do a business. Well you can try, no one here can stop you.
The people with whom you worship with don’t want to be managed, they long to be led -- they deserve to be nurtured and encouraged. The mistake Trump made in thinking one type of leadership translates into all fields, is the same mistake we make when our churches gravitate towards gifted leaders who are successful in their places of work without realizing business acumen isn’t a guaranteed promise for shepherding God’s people well.
I’m not saying people in the business world are disqualified from serving and leading in our churches because of their profession. That’s not my point at all. Besides, I know really great people with business backgrounds (even a few lawyers) who are very spiritual.
I am saying churches need to be led like a church, not like a business. The church is a physical manifestation of a supernatural reality. There isn’t a Dow Jones Industrial Average influencing our quarterly decisions. The WSJ isn’t evil, but it isn’t the publication we turn to for learning about living the Christian life.
We don’t go to auto-mechanics to fix our marriages, no matter how talented they are at being problem solvers, we seek out counselors. You wouldn’t take your child to a carpenter if they needed braces for their teeth. No matter how well a poker-player can read faces, we don’t ask them to teach a classroom full of students to read. If we want people to become more Christ-like we need to find people who imitate Jesus to help us accomplish that, wherever we find them and from whatever their professional background may be. If we want our churches to thrive, we don’t need to look to a conference table half as much as we need to be gathered together around the Table.
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