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about the author...  Brooks Hanes ...is a Jesus lover, closet church planter and an undercover minister of music. Since 1996 Brooks has been involved in baby churches in Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina, and Iowa and watched them grow from seedlings to strong houses of worship. He is now leading a new church plant in his small hometown of Waterloo, Iowa. His wife Jennifer and he are expecting their fourth child.
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Church Member Networking and Other Get Rich Quick Schemes by Brooks Hanes
Marty leaned over and shook Dave’s hand during the “get-to-know-someone-in-one-minute” portion of our church’s worship service.
“Hi, I’m Marty,” he said unequivocally. “Nice to meet you.” “Hi, Marty, I’m Dave and I’m a real estate agent in town. Here’s my card; let me know if you’re ever in the market for a new home.” Marty’s thinking, “Hi, Dave, bye Dave. Glad to meet you, Dave. I hope we never meet again, Dave. Not only did you turn me off Dave, but you wasted my minute as well, Dave.” Two months later, Marty’s looking for a house. Take a freaking guess whose name first comes to his mind. Yep. It’s Dave. “Dave, I’ve decided to look for a house.” Dave sells Marty a nice home and Dave makes a big commission. And now for the quiz. Does Dave attend this church because: A. the preaching is awesome; B. the music is awesome; C. the people are awesome; or D. belonging to a church results in a huge opportunity for business networking? If you could not identify “D” as the best answer, kindly knock on the metal border of your neighbor’s cubicle, and have her check you for a pulse. Otherwise, don’t hold back; give yourself a slappy high-five if you correctly answered “D.” If one could say that “extremely furious” describes my emotional response to people who use the Church this way, then one could also say that “slightly drunk” describes a guy lying dead on the floor after a weekend binging spree. Words cannot contain my fury for this misuse of Christ’s Body. How far have we come that we see a church meeting as a business opportunity? And where did we learn this? I propose that we learned it from our “God-blessed” American culture. When life in suburban USA demands that married couples each spouse works two jobs to make ends meet (median price of home in southern California approaches $500,000 in January 2005), the struggle for money is not as simple as Ward Cleaver punching in a time clock and coming home to cuisine that took 3 hours for June to prepare. When families choose to buck the social system and sacrifice a buck, it’s tough to make ends meet. That’s me. At one point, I was selling real estate in West Des Moines, Iowa, 3/4-time paid music director at a church, and working for Gary and Barb Rosberg as the technical engineer for their daily national radio show. And I still couldn’t pay my bills. Some may call it a budget error (including my wife), but I still believe that making money is much more difficult today than it used to be. So, when I went to church, I tried to make contacts that led to sales. It seemed to be working. But when God wanted me to leave that church for another, in retrospect I realized that, essentially, I handed over thousands of dollars of income to the other real estate salespersons in the congregation – along with giving up my church income. My clients ditched me. So, I was following God – but to where? It seemed to lead to being broke. It seemingly would have been “easier” for me financially to stick with the church and ignore God’s call. As you can tell, I will be the first to admit my own mistakes in this area. I was the one selling houses to people in my church. I cannot say that I stayed at a church because of the potential client base, but each time I sat in my office, I thought about it. I added my church email list to my client database. I tried to be a good breadwinner. I knew the people. I shopped where they worked. I ate at the restaurants they waitressed. So why couldn’t I sell houses to them? A couple years ago, I was talking to a friend, when I asked him why his dad was still in a certain church. The dad was generally lackadaisical in church matters and I thought it would make sense to hang his banner elsewhere. It turns out the man was a killer salesperson. In fact, in his area of expertise, he was usually tops in the whole state of Iowa. My friend replied that switching churches would mean dumping a client base built from years of hard work. A new church meant possible financial hard times. Is this a good reason to stay with a church? More and more, I realize that people love to be comfortable, and membership in a local church ends up being little more than a breakfast club meeting and an exchange of business cards. We’ve lost the desire for love and replaced it with a net profit financial analysis. Was the early church like this? I can see Peter, freshly released by God from prison, rushing into the house of prayer, in darkness, with the cops out looking for him. “Hey, what’s up guys? Thanks for praying for me. By the way, what better time than now to let you know about a great product my company just released.” Yeah, the early church hawking their wares amidst persecution. I can see Paul planting a church and interpreting God’s calling through the spreadsheet analysis of his tent sales. “You know what, brothers and sisters in Corinth? I think God’s calling me to stay in Corinth because my company’s sales have really spiked this quarter in Greece.” Yeah, right. That’s all for now. I need to get ready for this weekend; pray that I finally hit my goal to meet 15 young couples, hand out 20 business cards, and have 5 solid leads for new homebuyers. Oh, it’ll be a challenge alright. I mean, by then, the pastor will be almost done preaching! So many opportunities… so little time. I just came across your article "Intolerable, Incurable Injustice". Starla and I have been bummed out about a broken down car. Thanks for an article that I needed to read.
I just came across your article "Intolerable, Incurable Injustice". Starla and I have been bummed out about a broken down car. Thanks for an article that I needed to read.
I just came across your article "Intolerable, Incurable Injustice". Starla and I have been bummed out about a broken down car. Thanks for an article that I needed to read.
Jon, you evoke an interesting characteristic about the best salespeople I know: they are the first and strongest believers in their products or services. It could be said that I need a certain service that I don't even know exists, and I am the beneficiary of a salesperson who introduces to me that service. For example, let's suppose that I grew up in a third world country where I drink only dirty water. Until I see someone else drinking clean water and receiving its health benefits, it's possible that I wouldn't understand that I need it. That clean water drinker was a salesperson and introduced me to a wonderful product and I would be thankful. So I agree that it is good to have people in our church that share new or existing products and services with us. In contrast, I think we begin to nose dive when the bottom line in the sales business is our top priority in church. And that is when we tempt Jesus to once again storm the temple and tip the tables.
I dont have any such problem, in that I am a high school teacher and a coach. And... Great article. I'm in business for myself and have struggled with these issues with discerning my intentions when I approach someone I have a personal connection to about the possibility of becoming involved in a business relationship. Wouldn't you say that the benchmark for sharing the opportunity to do business be based upon identifying and fulfilling a sincere need? If the purpose behind the interaction is self-centered and self-serving rather than needs-based, then that certainly the motives should be called into question. However, if the motive is to genuinely service your brother or sister in Christ, then the question should be whether or not your offering is the best possible product or service for them. If it's not, you're really not in the right business.
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