The Business of Church

I have been debating in which direction to take this series. For a while I was going to broadly discuss non-profits, but my mind kept turning to specifically the church. Maybe it is because I worked in a church for 7 months, my dad and brother are pastors and I am very familiar with this field that it just makes sense to write about it.

Now laying that out, I am NOT going to talk about theology, spirituality or anything like that specifically.  It may come up, but that is only because of the importance it has in specific areas. I will be writing from the perspective of the United Methodist Church, but I have attended a Nondenominational church and have experience with the Christian Missionary Alliance church (worked at a camp and attend a Bible Study).

But before I go too deep into any of this I think it may be wise to find the link between the church and business. I could write many paragraphs on this, but instead I’m just going to show it in graph form.

Side Note: This is excluding Mega churches. Many of these run in a different way and are not like the typical church that is out there. In all sense, Mega Churches can be considered Outliers.

A larger church in attendance (At least 200 and above)

Business	Church
CEO	Senior Pastor
CFO	Finance Committee
CMO	*
Board Members	Administrative Council
Human Resource	Staff Perish Relations
Office Administrator	Office Administrator
IT	Volunteers

* Has Facebook page, website, maybe a Twitter, but may not be used correctly or have correct information. Run by volunteer base

A smaller church in attendance (At least 150 and under)

Business	Church
CEO	Senior Pastor
CFO	Finance Committee
CMO	#
Board Members	Administrative Council
Human Resource	Staff Perish Relations
Office Administrator	Part-Time Secretary
IT	None

# Only market when it is convenient

If it is not as apparent, there are a lot of volunteers and a lot of committees for any Chief Officer. I’m not saying this is a bad thing nor am I saying this is good; it’s more so just facts. There are heads of each committee, but are more organizers and facilitators then Chief Officers.

Now there are other positions that a church has that do not have a direct correlation with business like a Worship Leader, Minister of Children, Minister of Youth, Small Group Coordinator and others. All of these types of positions are relevant to recognize, because they all impact the church.

Now knowing the different parts of the church and some of the positions and different committees or personnel, I am going to give an outline of what the next number of weeks will be like.  I understand that there is a lot that I will be writing about that seem basic in the business sense, but can take on a whole new meaning when it is comes into the realm of the church.

Like I have mentioned before, many areas that seem basic in the business sense are still basic when it comes to the church, but need to be addressed in different ways. Listed below are the topics on which I will be covering for the next number of weeks.

What to Expect:

Week 2: Vision and Mission Statement

Week 3: Church Finance

Week 4: Church Marketing

Week 5: Church Strategic Planning

Week 6: Church Force- Volunteers

Week 7: Personal Experience/ Wrap Up

If you have any questions about any of these topics or want more background information on the church, please don’t hesitate to comment and I will do my best to answer any question you may have.