Most of us recognise that church governance or structure has developed into essentially three basic models or variations of those models. The episcopalian model or governance by bishops under the control of an archbishop or pope. We see this in the Catholic and Anglican churches. Secondly, the presbyterian model or governance by elders and supervised by the local or regional presbytery. Lastly, the congregational model which is essentially the free church model, where all decisions are made by the whole congregation including the hire and fire of the pastor and his remuneration. The congregational church may be a member of a denomination or independent but is entirely self-governing.
The following is a quote from an essay I wrote and submitted a couple of years ago. I have been wanting to share this thought ever since.
“A fourth environment in which churches operate is the corporate setting.”1Over the past 30- 40 years many churches within the AOG/ACC and other Pentecostal movements have morphed from variations of the three traditional models to a corporate structure where individual churches become either unincorporated or incorporated associations2. The senior pastor C.E.Os., hold absolute majority shareholder power and other office bearers such as secretary/treasurer and elders who oversee responsibility for women’s, men’s, youth & music ministries, charity shops and missions, may be minority shareholders3. In my experience with this structure, the congregation has no input; there is no accountability or regular disclosure of finances to the congregation. No congregational meetings, no election of officers by the congregation. It is entirely run by the leadership/shareholders who report to themselves where statutory reporting requirements exist. From time to time announcements are made of major decisions but these are essentially faits accomplis. This system of governance is the worst possible and has spread like wildfire through the church to utilize American style corporate management techniques and maximise taxation provisions for non-profit organisations. The arrangement is especially suited to the mega church structure where the brand becomes a major church asset and offsite or satellite congregations are more like franchises of the parent than independent congregations with their own character and identity unique to their locality. The corporate structure as described has no place in local churches and Mike Breen states “Perhaps we don’t have the perspective necessary to see how funny or strange this really is, but I promise you, if you run your church like a business, it’ll never be a family and families are what have changed the world. Bill Hybels was right about the local church (as the Body of Jesus) being the hope of the world – just not as we are currently seeing it.”4 Congregations should not be disenfranchised by a corporate church structure. Leaders should be accountable to their congregations first and foremost rather than ASIC, the ATO or Department of Fair Trading.
1 Gary Fenton, “How Your Church Feels About Money” In Mastering Church Finances, Mastering Ministry (Portland, OR: Multnomah Press; Christianity Today, 1992), 24-25. Logos Bible Software
2 http://www.youraccountant.net.au/tguide/guide/TRhbook/TR02010.asp site accessed 31/05/2013
3 http://christianchurchdevelopment.wordpress.com/2008/10/20/church-organizational-structure/ site accessed 31/05/2013
4 http://www.vergenetwork.org/2012/01/02/why-corporate-church-wont-work-mike-breen/ site accessed 31/05/2013