Christianity Today has an editorial about the dangers of running a church like a business:
Biblical transformation of the church focuses not on social dynamics of corporate life—on mission statements, adaptive change, or mobilizing members. Such organizational principles can help any social organism, Christian or not. But to focus on them is to major in minors.
In our managerial age, we instinctively look to “leadership principles” and “keys to effectiveness” to “master” dysfunctional congregations. Some of this arises from a sincere desire to help the church be the church. Yet some of it is pure hubris and vain imagination, thinking that with organization-speak we can transform the church. Worse still, organization-speak has a way of deafening our ears to the unique language of Scripture. Only that language can open our eyes to see “the glory of the Lord,” the one reality that transforms us into Christ’s image “from one degree of glory to another.”
As long as our movement remains fascinated with social psychology, our churches will remain little more than clanging cymbals. The world is not longing to see more people conformed to the image of organizational man, but to see people transformed into the image of “the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 2:5).
This reminds me of a quote by a Japanese businessman in Os Guinness’ book, Dining With the Devil: “Whenever I meet a Buddhist leader, I meet a holy man. Whenever I meet a Christian leader, I meet a manager.”