{"id":1276,"date":"2012-02-13T12:00:14","date_gmt":"2012-02-13T12:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/?p=1276"},"modified":"2018-07-20T20:50:05","modified_gmt":"2018-07-20T20:50:05","slug":"if-jesus-were-a-ceo-pastor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/2012\/02\/if-jesus-were-a-ceo-pastor.html","title":{"rendered":"If Jesus were a CEO Pastor&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>If Jesus were a CEO pastor, then&#8230;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&#8230;before the sending out of the disciples, he would have canvassed the neighborhoods around Palestine before devising a marketing strategy (Matthew 10).<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;he would have sent the disciples out, in the spirit of Steve Carrell&#8217;s character, Michael Scott, from &#8220;The Office,&#8221; in suits, with Armani watches, leather brief cases, the church credit card and a &#8220;sales quota&#8221; for church membership expansion.<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;he would have used billboards, newspaper ads and every manner of slick advertising to attract people to his church.<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;he would have read all the motivational, self-help books out there, including Dave Kraft&#8217;s<em>\u00a0Leaders Who Last-\u00a0<\/em>(see fellow saint and sinner Tammy Perlutter&#8217;s review, which inspired this list and which you can read in the post that follows)-\u00a0and he would have preached like it, too.<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;he would have crafted a vision statement and strategic plan with measurable outcomes at least every couple years just to stay current with &#8220;church growth&#8221; trends.<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;he would\u00a0have picked his followers based on looks, business background, pedigree and\/or how well they could give to the annual stewardship campaign.<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;he would have had little time for sick people with all manner of afflictions because they would be a drain on his time (forget about healing, in other words!).<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;he would have approached all relationships with a view to what they can do for his image and his church.<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;he would have cultivated and employed his celebrity status, seizing every photo opp and interview with the ancient &#8220;press corps&#8221; rather than keeping his identity as &#8220;Messiah&#8221; such a big secret.<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;he would have taught his disciples to pray, &#8220;<em>my<\/em> kingdom come, <em>my<\/em> will be done.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;he would have used a good lawyer to help him avoid a very inconvenient, not to mention painful, crucifixion (which would have ruined his reputation after all).<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;he would have never showed his scars, because that would have meant he had been wounded- and he would have taught his disciples to do the same. \u00a0(&#8220;The Golden Rule&#8221; for effective CEO pastors? &#8220;Never show your vulnerabilities.&#8221;)<\/p>\n<p><strong>I&#8217;m so glad Jesus was not a CEO pastor, because it means He has time for people like you and me- and He chooses to use people like you and me, too.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If Jesus were a CEO pastor, then&#8230; &#8230;before the sending out of the disciples, he would have canvassed the neighborhoods around Palestine before devising a marketing strategy (Matthew 10). &#8230;he would have sent the disciples out, in the spirit of Steve Carrell&#8217;s character, Michael Scott, from &#8220;The Office,&#8221; in suits, with Armani watches, leather brief&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":461,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[119,26,43,25],"tags":[449,450,452,2451,451],"class_list":["post-1276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church","category-disciples","category-humor","category-jesus","tag-ceo","tag-dave-kraft","tag-evangelical-celebrity-culture","tag-jesus","tag-mega-churches"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>If Jesus were a CEO Pastor... - Fellowship of Saints and Sinners<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/2012\/02\/if-jesus-were-a-ceo-pastor.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"If Jesus were a CEO Pastor... - Fellowship of Saints and Sinners\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If Jesus were a CEO pastor, then&#8230; &#8230;before the sending out of the disciples, he would have canvassed the neighborhoods around Palestine before devising a marketing strategy (Matthew 10). &#8230;he would have sent the disciples out, in the spirit of Steve Carrell&#8217;s character, Michael Scott, from &#8220;The Office,&#8221; in suits, with Armani watches, leather brief&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/2012\/02\/if-jesus-were-a-ceo-pastor.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Fellowship of Saints and Sinners\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/kristina.robbdover\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-02-13T12:00:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-07-20T20:50:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kristina Robb-Dover\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@saintplussinner\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@saintplussinner\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"If Jesus were a CEO Pastor... - Fellowship of Saints and Sinners","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/2012\/02\/if-jesus-were-a-ceo-pastor.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"If Jesus were a CEO Pastor... - Fellowship of Saints and Sinners","og_description":"If Jesus were a CEO pastor, then&#8230; &#8230;before the sending out of the disciples, he would have canvassed the neighborhoods around Palestine before devising a marketing strategy (Matthew 10). &#8230;he would have sent the disciples out, in the spirit of Steve Carrell&#8217;s character, Michael Scott, from &#8220;The Office,&#8221; in suits, with Armani watches, leather brief&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/2012\/02\/if-jesus-were-a-ceo-pastor.html","og_site_name":"Fellowship of Saints and Sinners","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/kristina.robbdover","article_published_time":"2012-02-13T12:00:14+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-07-20T20:50:05+00:00","author":"Kristina Robb-Dover","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@saintplussinner","twitter_site":"@saintplussinner","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/2012\/02\/if-jesus-were-a-ceo-pastor.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/2012\/02\/if-jesus-were-a-ceo-pastor.html","name":"If Jesus were a CEO Pastor... - Fellowship of Saints and Sinners","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/#website"},"datePublished":"2012-02-13T12:00:14+00:00","dateModified":"2018-07-20T20:50:05+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/#\/schema\/person\/4c3cdf7104b785db2790c0ea54388e75"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/2012\/02\/if-jesus-were-a-ceo-pastor.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/2012\/02\/if-jesus-were-a-ceo-pastor.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/2012\/02\/if-jesus-were-a-ceo-pastor.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"If Jesus were a CEO Pastor&#8230;"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/","name":"Fellowship of Saints and Sinners","description":"Beliefnet Voices...thoughts at the intersection between life and God for anyone converted, unconverted or under conversion","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/#\/schema\/person\/4c3cdf7104b785db2790c0ea54388e75","name":"Kristina Robb-Dover","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/dcf\/dcfc687b5670420584dc52026042422ax96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/dcf\/dcfc687b5670420584dc52026042422ax96.jpg","caption":"Kristina Robb-Dover"},"description":"Thoughts at the intersection of life and God from one saint and sinner for anyone \"converted,\" \"unconverted,\" or \"under conversion.\"","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/author\/krobbdover"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/461"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1276"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1276\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6591,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1276\/revisions\/6591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}