“Is the Church a Business?” – 1 Corinthians 12:4-7, 12, 27

In the 1990’s, the trustees of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary decided to fire the seminary’s president, Russell Dilday. The firing came after years of contentious feelings between Pres. Dilday and the trustees. It was a result of the big blow up that had happened in the Southern Baptist Convention during that time.

When word of the firing was reported, there was discussion among Baptists in Texas and the nation. In my particular church, I was saddened by the actions of the trustees, while one of my church members said they were well within their rights to fire the president. He reasoned that the seminary was a business and the trustees’ action was a business decision.

I disagreed with my church member. I told him that the seminary was not a business, but a ministry. As such, the seminary should be run by different standards that the typical corporation. We eventually had to agree to disagree on the matter.

It raised a question that has been in the back of my mind since then. The question is: What is the church and what is its purpose? Are we to be run as a business or something else? After all, the church represents Christ to the community, and how we “do church” goes a long way to defining our relationship with our community.

Background

In order to describe the church’s purpose, we first need to know what the church is.

What is the Church?

Put simply, the Church with a capital “C” is the entire group of people who profess Christ as Savior and who have a personal relationship with Him. The Church can be universal, regional, within a state or a city. A church with a lower case “c” is a local congregation of believers/followers of Christ. In the Bible, we have two general descriptions of the church.

Jesus refers to the church as a flock. In John 10, Jesus identifies Himself as the good shepherd, and He mentions His sheep. “I am the good shepherd. I know My sheepand My sheep know Me—just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father . . . I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen” (John 10:14-15a, 16). Jesus told Peter to feed His sheep (cf. John 21:15-17). Peter wrote instructions to the elders in 1 Peter, referring to them as shepherds of God’s flock under their care (cf. 1 Peter 5:-4). Paul, speaking to elders in Ephesus told them, “Be shepherds of the church of God” (Acts 20:28).

The church is also described as the body of Christ. In Colossians 1:18, Paul wrote, “And He [Jesus] is the head of the body, the church; He is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything He might have the supremacy.” Paul uses the analogy of the church as a body more extensively in the passage we are looking at today.

So, we can say that the Church is the body of believers who are under the Lordship of Christ. And what is the Church’s purpose?

What is the Church’s purpose?

Acts 2:42 describes the church in this way: “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” The church is here to equip the saints and to “prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach full maturity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:12-13).

Put it in other terms, the Church is similar to a teaching hospital. It is a place of learning while also a place where those who are in need of healing can find healing. The healing comes from our growth in Christ as we lean on Him and on one another to encourage and support each other in our daily walk with Christ.

Because this is the Church’s purpose, it cannot be run like a business. A business is concerned only with the bottom line, and the bottom line must be defined by concrete data. There are figures and numbers that are crunched and pored over. If the business has more numbers at the end of the quarter than at the beginning, then that quarter is considered successful. If the numbers are less, the quarter is a failure. If enough bad quarters run together, the leadership of the business may be changed.

When a church becomes a business, then the pastor and staff are seen as the executives of the business. Success and failure of the church is measured by how many new members have joined the church, whether the church has gained more new members than it has lost, whether the money coming in is greater than the past. In such a setting, the church becomes less concerned about the members as people and consider them only as assets to be added to the total. Such a view is inconsistent with the Bible.

Now that we have defined the Church and considered its purpose, we can look at today’s text. In this text, we see the following truth:

Central Truth: The Church, as the body of Christ, is a manifestation of Christ on earth.

The body of Christ:

1. Are born from the Trinity (4-6)

There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men.

The Church in Corinth was filled with divisions. The conflicts within the local body were such that a delegation was sent to Paul with a list of questions that the apostle takes the time to answer in the letter we call 1 Corinthians. In trying to address the divisions, Paul reminds the believers that we have a unity, just as a properly functioning body works together. The main reason the Church functions as a body is because we have the same origins. Paul uses these verses to speak of the differences that exist but that the differences are all united in God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.

Paul mentions the differences: gifts, services, workings. These differences are what make us able to function so well as a body of believers. Just as the human body has many parts that specialize in their workings and services as Paul describes in vs. 14-26, the church needs the different gifts of the Holy Spirit to reach our fullest potential.

The gifts of the Spirit are all derived from the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, that indwells each believer to the fullest portion. We are all called to various services. We can see that in Jesus’ words to Peter in John 21. Christ has many tasks for each of us to perform, and we are given different services, but it is the Son of God who calls us to that service and equips us to do them. The works are what the Father calls us to do, but it is God the Father of us all who gives us these works to do.

So while there may be differences among us, the differences are designed to build us together and we know this because these differences are given to us by the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, with their knowledge of us and our purpose in living.

We are the church, and we are bound together through the Trinity.

2. Seeks the common good (7)

Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.

The 2021 national champion Baylor basketball team had some really good players and a very good coaching staff. One of the things that helped the Bears to stand out, though, was the attitude of joy with which they played. Their head coach, Scott Drew, repeatedly stated that the attitude of joy was a reflection of a team that was willing to sacrifice for the good of the team. It was a team that placed the emphasis on Jesus first, others second, and yourself as last. It was seen in the way that the players played an unselfish brand of basketball, not worrying about individual stats and focusing on the common good of the team.

A successful group of people will want to seek the common good for all instead of what’s in it for me. The Bible tells us that part of the mark of Christ-like love is an unselfishness, keeping no record of wrongs. It is the common good that love seeks.

This verse tells us that the way the Spirit manifests Himself in us is for our common good. God in His wisdom uses the Spirit to empower us and enable us to use the gifts He has given us in order that we can be of service to Christ and do the works the Father calls us to do. This is how a church ministers to its members and to its community. As we demonstrate the gifts and services in our daily lives, others will see Jesus in us, because we are the body of Christ on earth.

3. A unit committed to Christ and each other (12, 27)

The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So is with Christ. . . . Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

One of Texas A&M’s claim to fame is their strong adherence to tradition. The best known tradition of the school is the 12th man. The tradition arose from the early days of Aggie football, when the team had a small number of players, and several of those players were injured in a game. As a result, the coach sent word to one of his former players sitting in the stands that he may be called on to don a uniform and play in the game. The play agreed, and “stood ready” to dress and play if needed. Thus the tradition of the 12th man was born.

A team is only as strong as its players, and sometimes a team needs all of its players. God tells us that the same is true in the church. That’s why we have v. 12 of this chapter. The body has many parts, but each of these parts makes up the unit that is the body of Christ. All the parts are important, and each part has a place in the function of the church. Imagine if the left foot decided it wanted to take the day off, or the right hand decided it wasn’t feeling up to it at that time. Imagine if the eyes decided they didn’t want to focus, or the ears decided that listening was overrated. What if the mouth decided its feelings had been hurt because of something the nose had said, so it didn’t want to be a part of the body anymore?

Each part of the body is important, and each part needs to be actively involved in the ministry of the church. The next verse tells us that we were all baptized into one body by the one Spirit.

The Bible is more explicit in v. 27: “Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.” Paul, writing to the Corinthians, were reminding them that each member of the church had an importance, and that no one member has the right to look down on another member. We are united by the presence of the Spirit within us, joined together into the body of Christ, and we all have a task to fulfill in Him.

Conclusion

In looking at the question of whether the church is a business or not, we can agree that the church is a ministry, not a business. Our ministry is vitally connected to our relationship with God, with each other and with our community. The truly effective church is one that listens intently to the word of God through Bible teaching and preaching and prayer. It is a church that reaches up to God through worship. And it is a church that encourages strong fellowship within the membership while at the same time keeps a lively outreach to the community. It is the duty of the church to be shaped by God and work to shape society into an awareness of God and God’s providence.