“But we’ve always done it this way.”
Institutional models in the Church serve a purpose. They keep things going despite internal and external changes. They also make people feel safe – sometimes too safe.
Imprudence cuts both ways… both rash or hasty judgments about what ought to be changed against prevailing custom, and also the refusal to consider that the old methods just don’t work anymore and that there might be a better way available that deserves real exploration. The famous warning in the Book of Proverbs (22:28, 23:10-11) about not moving ancient boundary stones does not apply to mass times on Wednesdays, or to whether Ethel should still be choir director, or to the precise arrangement of tables at the annual parish picnic.
It also shouldn’t apply to the way we think about the relationship between the Church and business. Just like the renaissance popes were patrons of the arts, the fruits of which we still reap today, I think that right now we need good investments from dioceses and wealthy believers in businesses that can both promote the Gospel and create income for the Church and Her sons and daughters.
Don’t you? I have opportunities if you want to be part of that. Food, drink, cosmetics, tech… Just let me know what interests you!
Christian Renaissance Movement 
There’s an anecdote from Max Barry’s book, “Company” which is hilarious and additive. It’s intended as a satire on corporate culture but it applies here too:
There’s a research experiment with 10 chimps in a small room. They lower a banana into the room, and one of the chimps reaches for it.
The researchers electrify the floor, and now when the chimps reach for the banana, they electrify the floor and shock the chimps. The chimps attack whoever reaches for the banana because they know they are about to be shocked. Eventually the chimps learn not to reach for the banana.
Then they switch out the chimps one by one. When they lower the banana, the new chimp reaches for it and the others attack him.
Eventually, all the chimps have been replaced, and none of them have ever been shocked by the floor, but whenever they lower a banana they attack whoever reaches for it. They do this because “That’s the way things have always been done around here.”
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