Articles
A Family - Not a Business
I want to start by throwing a few statistics at you. According to an organization which tracks such things called ChurchTrak, in 2021, churches in the U.S. raised $135.78 billion in donations. You read that correctly; that is Billion with a B. According to that same study, the average churchgoer gives about $2,260 per year. 49% of church donations come from credit cards or other electronic means, while 40% are given in cash. Churches that accept online donations see a 32% increase in donations. The average donation size to a church is $205. 43.89% of gifts are under $100, while 2.85% are over $1,000. Even though the New Testament only describes the gathering of funds by Christians as needed from their own sacrifices (Acts 2:44-45), and when they gathered together on the first day of the week (1 Cor. 16:1-2), today, income for religious organizations comes from tithes and offerings, fundraising events, and rental income. In short, religion is big business.
It's no wonder that the ones in control of large denominations and megachurches around the world seemed to have chosen a model focused more on attendance numbers (at any cost), marketing, entertainment, and above all, profit rather than service and worship “in spirit and in truth”.
This is nothing new, of course. The early move from individual autonomous churches like the ones we see in the New Testament to institutions and sprawling organizations dates back probably to before Ignatius, bishop of Antioch early in the second century, who first spoke of a “catholic” church. When he spoke those words, his meaning was more literal; the phrase “catholic church” simply meaning church universal, but there were already bishops overseeing more than simply “the flock of God which is among” them (1 Peter 5:1-4). Whether or not this was a mistake made of sincere desire to please God in a more “efficient” way, one must question how quickly profit became part of the motivation. Even if this was a sin born of good intentions, there is no question that power, control, and especially greed eventually became a focus in religious affairs that the Lord never intended.
Many of our denominational friends may find our stubborn attachment to very old ideas like simple organization (“saints, bishops, and deacons” – Phil 1:1), and church autonomy (1 Cor. 16:1-3; 2 Cor 11:8; 1 Cor 5; 1 Peter 5:1-4) to be strange, antiquated, and inefficient. I will concede that if the goal is to be financially profitable, they are correct. If the goal is to gauge success by attendance numbers alone, we are doing it wrong. If the goal is to entertain and to impress with the short-term happiness and distraction of the attendees in mind, the New Testament is indeed antiquated. However, if the true work of the Lord’s church is spiritual in nature, and if the focus of the christian life is service to God and others as Jesus stated in Matthew 22:37-40, and if the goal is to grow the christian and save the soul rather than to grow a profitable, powerful, global organization, then maybe the Lord knew what He was doing after all.
There is a church universal – an extended family of Christians all over the world who care for one another and pray for one another, but the nuclear family of local Christians attached to a local church body is perfectly designed to serve His glorious and eternal purpose, not to turn a profit. I am so thankful that the Lord saw fit to provide us with the local body of Christians – a family of believers.
