I can’t begin to tell you how often I hear someone in the church refuse to consider a specific approach to a problem or change because it might appear as if we’re adopting a practice from the business world. And “the church isn’t a business.”

Indeed, it is not. Sure, there is a separation that anything having to do with following Jesus involves, but we sometimes get it backwards. We need to take a closer look at what we’re facing, compare an approach to the Bible and, specifically, what Jesus taught and modeled, then make a decision.

In many cases, business practices find their roots in examples from Scripture or the church. They might have tweaked them a bit. In many cases, a business soared because of its sound practices and approach, even when they might not verbalize or recognize the deep ties to biblical practices. But too often just because we see something in the secular world, we distance ourselves from it and refuse to learn from it or apply it…even when it was first borrowed from a church practice.

We end up losing out on ways we can grow and reach unless we are humble and honest enough to ask ourselves what is the best approach instead of setting aside all practices we see in the secular world and calling them bad. The line is more smudged and gray than we’re willing to admit at times.