Ministry Dichotomy Essay

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Ministry is messy, filled with many dichotomies that that can sabotage a minister’s effectiveness. Can a minister be entrepreneurial while being a good steward? Can a ministry grow and still be healthy? How does the business of ministry and culture of the church coexist? How do ministries remain ethical while maintain the business of ministry? These are the questions that pastors face and must answer correctly in order to be effective.
Ministry Dichotomy #1
The first dichotomy is between an entrepreneurial spirit and stewardship. Entrepreneurial leadership influences others by setting the example to be creative, passionate, and experiential seeking to go beyond the normal (Renko, El Tarabishy, Carsrud, and Braennback, 2015). Entrepreneurial …show more content…

Not all-church growth is beneficial. Churches tend to take on the persona of their pastor. If the pastor is an evangelist then they church will produce evangelists, if they are a deeper teacher then the it will produce deep thinkers. Because of this, churches need a team to lead them so they do not become one dimensional, placing the fate of the church on one persons shoulders (Reimer, 2016). A church can experience rapid growth in a specific area but if it can’t compliment that area to make the discipleship process well rounded then cripples the people. A church can’t be so focused on evangelism that it doesn’t spend time making sure that proper discipleship is taking place with the people that they are …show more content…

In business the focus is on profit and growth not always sustainability. Growth can be good for the church as discussed earlier but it cannot overpower the culture of the church. Stonebraker (1993) in his research about the optimal church size acknowledges that larger churches take less money to operate on per congregate, however he also acknowledges that more congregates are engaged in serving per congregate. Business and ministry can get focused on programing and systems that they loose site of the individuals, which are the church. Businesses tend to operate from a leadership down standpoint, with the leadership answering to the shareholders. Church leaders answer to the stakeholders, so they must find a way to work together in ways that business leaders do not. Businesses have paid employees; volunteers mostly do the business of the

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