said, “The methods of models or types can have great value in helping people get beyond the limitation of their
own particular outlook and enter into fruitful conversation with others.” In the book, Dulles identified six models
or ways one can understand the church’s character: Church as Institution, Mystical Communion, Sacrament,
Herald, Servant, and Community of Disciples. There are three reasons for re-visiting the Dulles models. First, a
lot has happened in the church in the last quarter century since Dulles wrote the book. Second, Dulles’s
theological lens most likely colored his view. And third, the crisis in today’s church calls out for better
explanations of what the church is about.
Consider a seventh model: the Church as a business in a market-driven economy. Although this model is similar
to the Church as Institution, the emphasis in the seventh model is on the market. In the market, businesses
compete for customers. If a business doesn’t have the products or services that customers demand, they go
elsewhere. That’s what’s been happening in our church—at least among the educated in North America and
Europe. The signs of the times are clear: Mass attendance is declining, churches are closing, and people are
leaving. For example, we see many products of Catholic education of the past two decades, i.e., the sons and
daughters of educated middle-aged and older Catholics, leaving the church in droves. They've decided that
either they can live without organized religion or they've joined a church that meets their needs.
A sage marketer once said that nothing happens until somebody sells something to somebody. I sense that many
customers are not buying what the Institution, i.e., the Pope, the bishops, and the local pastors, is selling.
Customers are leaving. And without customers, you don’t have a business.
October 18, 2004