First saw the word here: http://digg.com/u1SQy

I was listening to a geek podcast where they were talking about the revolution from traditional print media to “new media” (blogs, podcasts, etc.) and what it means for those who got into journalism assuming they’d have an assumed salary in a differentiated corporate setting. (http://twit.tv/189 at minute 55:45) “We’ve entered the age where everybody needs to think of themselves as an entrepreneur even if they work for a company. You need to think of yourself as a personal services corporation with a staff of exactly one.” Another chimes in “Self-sufficiency, there’s nothing more important than that.”

Would you give a cash prize to the person who brought the most visitors to your Easter service? Would you pay a non-Christian family $1000 if they attended your service every week for a year? Are these any different from offering free breakfast or free family portraits to visitors or a free car wash?

Rick Warren in is Purpose Driven Church book said that step one was “draw a crowd” and cites Jesus as his source. Was Jesus a pastorpreneur?

We’ve had pastorpreneurship for a long time where there aren’t institutions mediating the transaction. Storefront churches, tent revivals, Christian radio and cable TV.

There are lots of angles for reflection on this. Theological, ecclesiastical, sociological. Institutions tend to thrive in times of social stability but in times of rapid social change (which can be triggered by technological upheaval as well as political or economic change) they tend to struggle. Churches as institutions tend to be collective expressions of more organic communities that are created by the combinations of leaders and consensus. Times of change tear down institutions that cannot adapt and usually create new ones that better suit the new context. These times of change also prompt questioning of many past assumptions.

One thing beneath all of this in our context again is the oracular function of the market. In our culture the market is almost assumed to be a sort of oracle that points to the hand of God amidst the clutter. The pastor who enjoys market success is “approved by God” and awarded the label or title “apostolic” . There is of course the reactionary market that wants to play the game in reverse by saying that anything popular is of course approved by the devil, unless they are approved by our own filters as faithful and then the market validates them.

In places of downside institutional transition there is of course increasing pressure on pastors to be pastorpreneurs. If a pastor has moved the numbers in the yearbook up during a tenure at a church this adds to his/her value. Paul Borden in his book “Hit the Bullseye” directly advocates this for those who wish to see their regions grow. Get rid of pastors who are not meeting attendance numbers and only allow new pastors into your classis or region if they have a proven track record of increasing attendance in their congregation. Pastorpreneurship on a classical level.

Is this a bad thing? Is this a good thing? I wonder what this reality does inside my head in terms of how I relate to people. I find it tends to tempt me to use them rather than to love them. I tend to increasingly see others as potential assets to my own popularity and career aspirations. I find it subtly tempts me to please and to pander and to shade and to spin. But aren’t those also functions of community that are healthy? Doesn’t avoiding disapproval of others also bolster making moral choices and keeping well within community doctrinal lines?

One thing that I can certainly say about pastorpreneurship is that it makes me feel like an individual who is the captain of his own destiny. I am, in the final analysis what really counts and what really counts about me is my performance within a pretty narrow range. This can be an economic range (financial “net worth”, what a lovely phrase) or ecclesiastical: members, converts, disciples, etc. The institutional church too becomes a vehicle for personal renown and ambition. It’s not too hard to imagine how Christ might feel about me using his bride for personal advancement.

The pastor-bureaucrat is not a very flattering image either. The company man who faithfully does his duty within the corporation (isn’t that word related to “body”) in hopes of respectability, medical benefits (for US folks), a respectable retirement and a gold watch. Pastors in this view are people who have learned to moderate their expectations and find that success is mostly a function of coloring within the lines. Don’t do things that will get you fired!

Sorry, no glorious conclusion for you. I’m just mulling it over. pvk