Seeing the Church primarily as an “Enterprise” assumes that gatherings, sermons, and creatively designed programs that advance the ideas of the Bible and faith are the exclusive ways to engage people and encourage participation. This assumption prioritizes organizational efficiencies such as time management, crowd control, and rhetorical and musical skills. It also assumes that sound or conservative doctrinal teaching will draw individuals to Christ and sustain one’s devotion and commitment to personal growth and spiritual formation. 

Seeing the Church as an “Entity” (or, better, an “organism”) elevates the priority of symbiotic relationships. Through time, Symbiotic relationships, aided by Christ’s presiding influence, catalyze the transformation of all the people involved into the salt, light, and leaven that help inspire the broader community within which they exist towards health and wholeness.  While it is possible to master content, theological or otherwise, on your own in a didactic linear manner, a symbiotic relational connection is the essential component to transforming lives towards health and wholeness.   

When we operate from the paradigm of the Church as an enterprise, relationships become transactional or a mechanical means to the end of self-actualization,  institutional allegiance, and brand awareness for the church organization.   The opposite is true when we operate from the paradigm of the Church as an entity/organism. The Church then becomes the ideal context for interdependence.  Individuality is neither centered nor is your individuality obscured. You become your whole self, an embodied member of the faith community.

Relational connection is both the means and the end – It is the means by which our devotion to God is fostered (connected relationally) and is the most radical and clear evidence of our devotion to God.  The Church that functions as an entity/organism is the kind of community that emerges as the credible agency to provide hospitality and spiritual nurture for the various expressions of the least, lost, and last.