Church as organization
A view held among orthodox Christians
A pattern in which a church understands and runs itself mainly as an organization that provides services to attenders, led by an executive team, rather than as a body of members under elders.
Also called: organization / institution, church as a business
What it means
Some churches, often with good intentions, come to see themselves chiefly as an organization: a nonprofit with a mission, a brand, a staff, and an audience. Attenders are treated as customers or volunteers to be engaged. Success is measured by attendance and giving, and decisions are made by an executive team much as in a business. Membership, if it exists, asks little.
Good organization is not wrong; Paul calls for all things to be done in order, and churches need budgets and plans. The problem is when the organization replaces the body. Jesus told His disciples that rulers lord it over others, "but it shall not be so among you". Shepherds are to know and care for the sheep, not manage them. When the church is run as a business, members may go unshepherded, gifts go unused, sin goes unaddressed, and leaders answer to results rather than to Christ.
The site displays this as a pattern of practice, not a doctrine, and judges each church's teaching separately. But it scores it below the covenant body that Scripture describes.
In Scripture
The rulers of the Gentiles lord it over others, but it shall not be so among Christ's people.
Elders shepherd the flock willingly, not for gain, and not domineering.
The good shepherd knows His own, and His own know Him.
No member can say to another 'I do not need you'; the weaker members are indispensable.
Leaders are given to equip the saints for the work of ministry.
Where it comes up
On this site: Ecclesial self-understanding
Related terms
Covenant bodyHistoric orthodoxy
The church understood as a people bound to Christ and to one another by covenant, whose members know, care for, and answer to one another under their elders.
Staff-led churchA view held among orthodox Christians
A church whose decisions are made chiefly by its paid staff or a corporate-style board, rather than by qualified elders shepherding the congregation.
Church membershipHistoric orthodoxy
The formal, mutual commitment by which a Christian joins a particular local church, submits to its elders, and takes responsibility for its other members.