THE CHURCH IS A BUSINESS?

I heard this pastor on social media saying or equating the Church as a business, using Luke 2:49 to support such divisive ideology. This ideology has fractured the Body in many ways for many centuries. Either these leaders have been beguiled, or they are the beguilers. Let's be real, a business's sole goal is to make money; it can have other factors like purpose and likes, but its existence is to make money. And there is nothing wrong with that, but that's not what Jesus was suggesting. The early church was not operated like a business; it functioned as a commune, with gatherings, fellowship, and scriptural instruction. It was a place where the essential needs of those inside and outside the commune were prioritized. The very phrase "they had all things in common" is not one used to describe a business; rather, it reflects a radical, voluntary, and Spirit-led communal lifestyle, in which believers viewed their property as shared resources to meet the needs of others. This was not a forced system but a voluntary expression of deep love, trust, and unity.  not to function as a top-down corporation, nor as an entrepreneurial endeavor. One percent of the Church becoming wealthy and living in excess from church funds is not the blueprint for a successful church, but rather a rapacious stain on the Church and its shepherds. Does this mean that money shouldn't exist in the Church? Absolutely not, just the way it's been used, for whom it's been used, and how it's prioritized. I have a lot more to say on this issue, but I leave you with this: if home and foreign missions aren't the top-funded thing in the Church, something is wrong with how money has been used. The Church should not want to look a certain way; it should want to be a certain way. Not all churches are like this, but to deny that in this society, it is and has been a widely accepted, pervasive, and destructive ideology. When Jesus said, "I must be about my Father's business," he was not talking about running a corporation, but about raising a community of believers who shared in the resources of Heaven, and in the resources of each other.

Be well and stay blessed,

Ray Mingo