We attend school, but we do not attend a hospital. I don’t believe we attend work either. We do not attend a pub or a bar but we attend a music concert. We also attend a movie premier. We attend a hockey game, but if I play hockey, I can not say I’m attending the hockey game – nor do I attend the arena.

Why don’t we attend a hospital? Because we bring something and we get something. Illness and healing.

At our places of employment we most definitely bring something to the table – our time, our skills, our experience(s), and our expertise – and we definitely get something – our paycheques – and hopefully some sense of accomplishment and value.

When we frequent a bar or a pub we become part of that crowd that evening. The bartender does not set the “atmosphere”, the crowd does. We’re getting closer to abandoning the one-man-show issue.

When I attend a music concert or a movie premier I am only an observer – a spectator. Apart from paying admission, I am only taking something away with me. I am bringing nothing. I am sharing nothing.

So why is it that we are supposed to attend church? The answer is; I think we are not supposed to attend church. The fact is we do attend church. We attend church like we attend a movie premier or a music concert. We attend as an observer and a spectator. We walk away with something (hopefully!) but bring nothing – maybe only the price of admission.

I don’t think this is what Paul meant when he describes the “church” as one body (1 Corinthians 12:12-27). I don’t think Paul wanted us to buy an admission ticket and attend a hockey game. I think Paul wanted us to buy hockey gear and play hockey! When will we stop attending church and start “playing” it? We don’t attend church. We are church.

So where do we buy the hockey gear? How do we play the game? What does that look like?

There exists a very real, very practical aspect of church today that necessitates a Business Model. It’s a simply fact of economics. Bills need to be paid. Money needs to be made. Take away the money and the bills don’t get paid. Take away parishioners and you take away the numbers. Take away the numbers and the money goes away.

Until “church”, or the Institutional Church, stops functioning on an Economic Business Model, this 80-20 will never go away.

I find this disturbing. I hear talk about trying to emulate church leadership after the New Testament times with its pastors and elders, and presbyters, etc., but what I repeatedly see is the Economic Business Model. I don’t believe Jesus and His 12 Disciples’ ministry was based upon this model.

Before we can even begin to entertain how church is “done” and before we can begin even asking the question, we must first look at changing how the most basic, practical, and mundane issues of how it is managed is done. How do we pay the rent? Or, maybe, even that’s asking the wrong question. Should we even be paying rent? The Church does not need a roof over her head. The Church is a Corporate Entity, but it is not a person like you and me.

But Church, as this Corporate Entity, has a roof over her head while individual people are left out in the cold of a spiritual wilderness. And I don’t believe this is what the Lord had ever intended.

Jesus said that He had sheep of other folds (John 10:16). He also repeatedly told Peter to “Feed my lambs”. “Take care of my sheep”. “Feed my sheep”. (John 21:15-17). So the question begs to be asked: Why does the church have a roof over her head while there are people left out in the cold of a spiritual wilderness?

The above comment was left at http://www.theooze.com/articles/article.cfm?id=1619 . I first saw it from David A at www.edgenet.org.nz