Though a church is not a business by any means, a closer look at their whole operation and activities helps us realize the resemblance between a business organization and a church. If you are a business leader or entrepreneur, you can benefit a great deal by studying these operations and activities and applying them in your business. According to Radiant Church, mentioned below are a few business lessons that any business can learn from a church.
Mission: As we all know, every business or entrepreneur starts with a mission. In simple words, these missions provide guidance to the overall operations of a business. In the case of a church, we find two types of missions. The purpose of the first one is preaching the Gospel and the second one is the founding pastor’s specific mission. One of the first things taught in a business school is the importance of mission and crafting a mission statement. Extremely important for strategic direction, mission defines a business and its services, products, as well as customers. The mission of your business will define why your business exists and what it does.
Team Building: Building a team is one of the foremost considerations for any organization or business. In the case of a start-up, investors don’t invest in the business. More often than not, they tend to invest in a team that makes them confident. The church has been able to succeed as an organization over the years because of its team-building capability that has helped them carry forward the mission of the pioneer. Jesus Christ’s mission was carried forward by his team of believers and loyalists that were later referred to as ‘Christians’ because of their belief in Christ.
As far as a business is concerned, even the best of products or services will fail if the team is poor. On the other hand, a great team can make an average product work wonders. Over the years, the most successful startups have always understood the value of team building. If you find yourself lacking in team-building ideas, don’t hesitate to take a leaf out of your local church.
Branding: Churches have always been extremely efficient in building brands. Branding can be defined as the process of establishing a unique image and name for a product or organization in the mind of the customers. With the logos and easily recognizable slogans, churches have done this beautifully over the years. A member of a certain church can relate effortlessly to the unique identities build by his or her respective church. This is exactly what businesses can do by differentiating itself from others and remaining consistent with it.
Marketing: Core of every business, marketing is the lifeblood of modern-day business operations. In simple words, this is the communication between an organization and its customers for the purpose of selling whatever it has to offer. The value of marketing is well understood by churches and they perform this function extremely well. The product for a church is the Gospel and it communicates the value of this product through tracks and flyers, church programs, evangelism, short term missions trips, etc. In order to succeed, every business must reach out to its target group with marketing communication tools such as business cards, flyers, catalogs, brochures, etc.
Lead Management: Following-up on leads is another operational aspect that businesses can learn from churches. The new converts are frequently followed up by the churches through phone calls as well as physical visits. This is how many new converts enroll for the church’s membership class and become a full member. As with the new converts, the leads for a business are not customers until a sale is closed. In order to convert them to customers, the business must learn and implement effective strategies for following-up on leads.
