Church Models

It seems like every Christian book on leadership advocates some model we are to follow. (I guess there are a few who advocate no model at all but that is another issue.) We all see it to some extent but I'm not sure we realize how pervasive it is.

Do any of these sound familiar: the fortune 500 company model, the mom and pop model, the school model, the retail model, the shopping mall model, the restaurant model, the community center model, the music/comedian concert model, the pyramid marketing model, the franchise model, the PAC model, the military model, the local government model. I'm sure I've forgotten several more.

Our denomination is now pushing what I call the NFL model. The owner(s) hire a coach who puts together a staff to coach the players to play the game. The key is for the the owners to set boundaries for the coach but then stay out of his way so he and his staff can do the work of turning the team into a winner. We all know what happens when the owner starts telling the coach he wants the second string quarterback to start.

I can find a lot of good things to say about most of these models. I can also probably find a few bad things to say about all of them. I think looking at models is useful but sometimes we get carried away with it. I think it is funny how the most ardent proponents of most of these models can find a way to claim that their's is the biblical model. (And yes, there is also the "hang out with about 12 guys for 3 years" model.)

It all makes interesting conversation and we can learn a lot from the different models. But models usually only help people conceptualize what is expected of them. They help people by giving them a picture of what the church might look like.

When I coached soccer we would use a specific formation that was denominated by a number system that soccer players knew. If I told the team we were going to play a 4-4-2 they would know that there would be 4 defenders, 4 midfielders and 2 strikers. If I then told a player they were going to be one of the strikers they had a pretty good idea of what was expected of them. The interesting think is that every players particular personality, style, ability and aptitude affected how the overall formation actually look. The formation was basically a framework that allowed a lot of individualization.

That is how I look at all these models we have for churches. I just wish there wasn't so many people insisting that there is only one biblical way of running a church. It's obnoxious.