Bigger than business

If you've been in ministry any length of time you've encountered the ministry-as-business paradigm. Recently mega-church leader Bill Hybels explained the leadership differences between business and church:

. . . the church demands a higher and more complex form of leadership than business does. In fact, I believe the church is the most leadership-intensive enterprise in society.

I've been on both sides. Running a business is challenging, but the leader of a company has a clearly defined playing field and enormous leverage with his or her employees. The business leader delivers a product or service through paid staff who either get it done or get replaced.

Church leadership is far more complex than that. The redeeming and rebuilding of human lives is exceedingly more difficult than building widgets or delivering predictable services.

If you're interested in the "here's why," portion of Mr. Hybels's thoughts, I recommend you follow the link. And thanks to Redeeming the Time for that link.