Marcion's church

[JarekS]

Marcion's church introduced two manuals for its missionaries, enabling them to turn an average person into an effective shepherd. In this way, staff training was standard and the content was consistent regardless of the place and congregation. Due to its experience in maritime transport logistics, Marcion operated effectively in identical, distributed structures connected to each other in a network. This was the biggest problem for its competitors developing their structures locally without the necessary know-how in management, coaching, organizational division of responsibilities and authorities.
Marcion was the first to achieve a positive financial result by introducing disciplinary values. Asceticism, celibacy, and giving up procreation were supposed to help his missionaries focus on their goals and provide them with social authority.
Marcion's church was simple - there were no polemics against competitors, there was no fighting against others. The people were converted and the position of Christianity was built.
The entire range of early Christian literature was used, selecting stories from its rich offer that allowed to increase the effectiveness of conversion and keeping converts in the church structures.
Tertullian, Epiphanius Justin Martyr and others were a herd of baying propagandists unleashed on Marcion by their bosses, seizing on every trick and lie.

[Peter Kirby]

The metaphor of Marcion's church as something like a successful franchise model is a little interesting.

[JarekS]

Amway. Success and power is addicting

[Peter Kirby]

But in this respect, how different was it really from its predecessors?

[JarekS]

Marcion ran a logistically difficult maritime transport business, with a network of distant trading posts and many diversified services. This conflict was a gift from heaven for the Christian movement.
Marcion professionalized the church in every aspect of its operation. His organization attracted students of Irenaeus (Vinzent). Not theology, but professional project management. Previously, the church was formed by people engaged in other professions on a daily basis to provide them with a living. If they were educated, they were not practical because they were supported by family friends or sponsors.
Marcion systematized the process according to business methods. It was thanks to him that the church became attractive to the empire as a partner.
I encourage you to look at these matters with different criteria. The church was already a power under Constantine. In the dispute over Arius, they clearly and boldly showed the emperor the insurmountable limits of his influence on their internal affairs. Arius was a pretext for both sides. An unimportant theological problem that dragged on for decades. So what? The church humiliated the emperor, temporarily lost its influence, but soon regained it.