But Peter and the other apostles answered and said, “We must obey God rather than men.”
(Acts 5:29, NKJV)
Whether churches exist to please God or men is a settled matter in the Bible, yet some church leaders today view churches as businesses and members as customers, a notion flawed in two very important ways.
First, the Bible never uses the language of commerce when it speaks of the church. Rather, it mentions the more relational terms of a bride, a body, and a family. A member who leaves one church for another is not a lost customer, but is more like the son or daughter who lives with an aunt or grandparent while they attend college. Since our churches are members of one family, we are not in competition for customers like rival businesses. We all have One Customer and we can never lose Him.