FIRST AME CHURCH
LOS ANGELES
REV. DR. JOHN J. HUNTER
Senior Minister
Sunday Worship Services
are now broadcast across the country on
TVOne
Direct TV - tune into
Channel 241 for TVOne
Comcast- tune into
Channel 82 for TVOne
8am - Pacific Time
9am - Mountain Time
10 am - Central Time
11 am - Eastern Time
An Excerpt From Pastor Floyd Flake's latest Book,
"African American Church Management Handbook"
The Church as
a Business
The local church should never lose sight of its identity as
a ministry. As suggested earlier, this entails a strong,
uncompromising commitment to integrity in its preaching and
teaching, as well as an understanding of its role as a
change agent for the larger community.
On the other hand, the church must recognize that it is also
a business. Indeed, there is a sense in which the church
ought to operate as a business, given the need to
generate revenue to meet operational and ministry needs. Of
course, the church should not be all about money. If that is
the case, it ceases to be a ministry. But neither can it
ignore financial realities. A church needs to bring in
resources not just to function, but to be successful in
maximizing its capability as a ministry.
Ultimately, the ministry and business aspects of the
church’s identity cannot be separated. After all, the
business of the church is ministry. The church is in
the business of saving souls, helping people move from a
life of sin to salvation and from where they are to where
they ought to be in terms of their relationship with God. To
put it another way, the business objective of the church
(which is also the ministry objective) is to help people
grow in spirit, ethics, values, virtues, purpose, and
pursuit of the more excellent way.
Although money is not the primary objective, meeting the
business objective (saving souls) has financial implications
that church leaders ought not to deny or suppress. The
business of the church is to bring souls into the kingdom,
and the souls that are blessed by the church generate tithes
and offerings that support additional ministry.
Some may feel uncomfortable talking about the church’s
ministry in this way. But this is the reality, for which
there is considerable biblical support. Church leaders ought
never to think of people strictly in terms of their
income-generating potential, but neither should they
consider it taboo to discuss the relationship between adding
people to the church and generating revenue for the church’s
ministries. Churches that are hesitant to discuss financial
realities are more likely to operate on a “hand-to-mouth”
basis, struggling each month to pay bills. This approach
casts a dim light on the church.
(More)
Archived Pages:
