I figured that since so many pastors are competing against each other, someone might as well go ahead and organize the contest. Then those who are participating can win the earthly reward they’re working so hard for!
“My church is bigger than your church.”
“I wear more relevant clothes on stage than he does.”
“Our services are more creative.”
“We do a better job at ________ than them.”
“He’s cool. I just don’t like his wife.”
I know, I know. No one says it, but I know you’re thinking about it and sizing others up when you go to a conference or associational event. A few of you won’t believe me, and can disagree and argue all you want, but it happens. I’ve seen, heard it, and experienced it over and over again. And not just from leaders.
When I was a kid, I remember sitting in church on Sunday mornings and experiencing what was some times the most exciting part of the service: Membership Approval. It was all about the “letter.” ”This family comes to us from _________ church by letter.” I didn’t really understand what that meant, but it was really what we were interested in, because that told us what church they left in order to be a part of ours. Current members could gossip about that in the lobby afterwards, and even into the week when they bumped into each other in town. ”That’s the 3rd family from that place just this month honey! I told you, that church is falling apart.”
Gossip has destroyed it’s fair share of communities. But why would they stop? The leaders of those communities aren’t just allowing it, they’re leading by example and having a competition of their own.
Please, can we just stop with the contest? It’s sickening. You’re all on the same team, so why don’t you work together instead of judging each other in your mind? I just spent a month in Thailand and heard all about their “National Plan.” 4,000 churches, working together for one single goal: To plant a church in every part of the country, and work together throughout the process. They aren’t even all the same denomination. Crazy, huh? When I heard about this, I actually thought, “Man, we should do that in America.” Then I laughed. Out loud.
I know. It’s easy to be deceived into thinking it’s all about you. Happens to me, almost every day. A couple of nights ago I had dinner with some good friends. They’re magicians. Christian ones. And we actually trust each other. It’s rare, because I’m way too guilty of viewing others as competitors when we’re on the same team. But God isn’t holding a contest, so it’s time to get over ourselves.
When’s the last time you called a pastor from your same city and invited them to lunch or dinner? I bet something amazing could come out of the conversation, and maybe even the relationship with each other. And if you guys partnered together on a service project or two? Well, you might just transform a city…and two communities of believers in the process.
Make a call. Schedule a lunch or coffee. Do it! If this applies to you, it’s possible that God has already put a name on your mind. So go ahead and call them while you’re already thinking about it, and before your pride talks you out of it. Of course, before you call, you’ll have to take the time to look up or find their number. Chances are pretty good that it isn’t in your phone.
Tags: bj harris, catalyst, christian entertainer, pastor contest
This is from Guy Walker’s blog. I found it interesting and would like to hear your thoughts.
Competition is healthy for business, but is competition healthy for church? When businesses compete the consumer gets a better product for a cheaper price. No competition in the market place is unhealthy. Is the same principle true for churches?
I grew up in the same church for over 20 years. It was all I knew. It was the best church in the world because there was nothing for comparison. After working with ARC for a little over 6 months I have seen a lot of churches and heard a lot of pastor’s messages and even tried to “score” them. One problem… You start to keep score, then you see churches as rivals and focus on the pastor instead of people in the seats. Should we score the pastors? Is this rivalry healthy?
The Pharisees (people who were not fair-you-see) tried to make Jesus and John rivals in John 4.
The Pharisees took the focus off the people getting baptized (repenting and following) and put it on those doing the work.
More churches = more people reached. Different churches reach different people.
The timed to be worried is when churches are competing on something other than reaching people.
So what do you think… IS COMPETITION HEALTHY?
__________________________________________________
This is from Brant Hansen’s blog:
Non-Compete Clauses for Churches? Makes Sense to Me
I heard about this recently: A church staffer had signed a non-compete agreement with a church, then wanted to leave for another one within the proscribed radius. (He wasn’t supposed to leave for a position at another church within a 30 mile radius, I believe. Apparently, this is pretty standard fare for church non-competes.)
Now, some might say, “A NON-COMPETE AGREEMENT IN A CHURCH STAFF CONTRACT???” and wonder what in the world has happened to us. But I’m way past that. I’m told you’ve got to accept this is the way some churches operate, and they do a lot of good, and plus we shouldn’t criticize, and you know, what if someone on staff leaves and it takes people away? and so forth.
Right on. Now that I think about it, and get past my wild, idealistic, primitivist “Why-are-we-doing-this?” impulses, I can see why. It just makes sense:
1) Non-competes are very common. Businesses simply have to protect themselves.
2) Churches could lose clients to competing churches. Until churches sign clients to binding contracts, a la, a gym membership, clients are free agents, and able to avail themselves of the products and services marketed by churches in competition.
Today’s church consumers are fickle.
3) Loss of clients could result in a decline in revenue streams to the church/business. This would emperil revenue growth, physical plant expansion, marketing, and ultimately, profit.
4) Churches must protect what, legally, are termed “trade secrets”. These are key processes, methods, or devices that have previously given a business a competitive advantage.
A staff member could leave a successful church for a competing church, and divulge secrets that may help the new church lure customers — perhaps even key, revenue-producing clients — away from the original business. This could result in “pirating”.
This is important, because in a given market area, there is a very limited number of people in the target, middle-to-upper-class demographic who might be attracted to churches selling virtually the same worship experience, services and products for youth, support groups, etc. Each customer unit, then, is vital to revenue growth.
5) Customers “imprint” upon certain employees. Not all church clients are able to develop one-on-one relationships with the CEO/face of the organization. Like all other businesses, churches need to recognize the threat of another competing church being founded by departing employees/production units.
Employees/Career Christians/Brothers in Christ will often invoke religious “calling” terminology to justify this, which is all the more reason to spell out, contractually, that “God” will not be “calling you” to a ministry within 30 miles.
God’s signature, or other involvement, is not required.
Emily,
Thank you for such in-depth comments! Regarding the first piece you posted from Guy Walker, I couldn’t agree with him more. Obviously, you can tell from my post that I think competition among pastors and churches is incredibly unhealthy, and though he finishes with a question to encourage conversation, he makes some great points about how competition can be divisive.
Now, regarding the second piece from Brant Hansen…wow!! I’m not even sure where to start! To be perfectly honest, when this comment came into my email inbox I was angry. So much of what he says above is very, very frustrating, and I couldn’t disagree with him more.
Out of curiosity, I visited Brant’s blog. (http://branthansen.typepad.com)
While there is plenty on his blog to debate about, (as most blogs, including mine I’m sure), he seems like a reasonable guy. I can’t understand what happened when writing the post you shared above. There is SO much wrong.
It’s hard to even have a healthy debate about what he discusses, because of how he apparently sees people. Over and over again, he refers to people as “clients”, as if they’re having a business transaction with the church. As if the word “clients” wasn’t bad enough, he went on to label people as “church consumers.” We already have enough of a problem with Christianity becoming a multi-million dollar industry. Too many people are already showing up on Sunday mornings just to punch their time cards and consume, rather than get plugged in and learn how to serve.
He says, “Loss of clients could result in a decline in revenue streams to the church/business.” He also said that could ultimately hurt that church’s “profit.” Am I the only one that gets sick to my stomach thinking about that view? Is the church really a business? And why would we focus on profit? And even if a church is asking questions about how to best steward God’s resources, why would it ever be considered “profit”?
It’s these types of words that cause huge problems, and clearly shows that his thinking is not only wrong by my humble opinion, but unbiblical.
It appears as if Brant works in the christian music business, specifically in radio. By having many friends in the same business, and through the tours and events I’ve been a part of myself, I’ve noticed that it’s somewhat common to see this kind of thinking among those industries that have been diluted by “business first, ministry second” thinking. Thank God for those few out there who are using the same medium to re-claim the purity of the Gospel, and spread a message of truth.
As it turns out, that truth teaches that the church is not a business, that it’s people are neither clients, customers, or consumers, that it’s leaders are all on the same team, and that through unity and teamwork, it can change the world and be the global community God created it to be.
Brant Hansen has a radio show that plays on The Word FM in the morning. Here is the link to his show’s website:
http://www.morningswithbrant.com/
And here is the Word FM’s website:
http://wordfm.wordfm.org/a_pgs/pgs_hme.asp
I read Brant’s blog as purely satirical and tongue-in-cheek. It sounds to me like he’s poking fun at those who would actually consider congregants “clients” or “customers.” Just how I read it. Curious to know whether he was serious, but the tone sounds more like satire.
Very possible, PN, especially considering he is rarely serious about anything on his morning show.
I agree that it seems to be his nature by reading his blog, and that the post could come across that way, but if you go to that specific post on his blog, there are a lot of comments in agreement with what he said. (Which is scary.) And he responds to many of them in agreement. That’s what made it seem to me that the post was written in all seriousness.
I did comment on the post a while back, ( http://tinyurl.com/br7cq9 ), and my comment is still “waiting for approval.” Maybe he’ll end up here somehow and can clarify for all of us.
Regardless of what he meant, there are clearly plenty who agree with what was written, and that’s the part that concerns me.
If Brant’s blog was intended to be satirical, then he should probably stick to radio where he can let others write the jokes for him.
I *did* see this! Just now.
Yes, complete irony, from beginning to end. I think the idea of “non-competes” in a church context is fundamentally bizarre, and based on a wide range of misconceptions of what “church” means.
And don’t be scared, the commenters are being ironic, too.
Brian, irony needn’t be rooted in humor to be effective. I wasn’t attempting to be funny, any more than you are attempting here to actually be kind.
I don’t have anyone “write jokes” for me, anywhere, of course. Humor is in the eye of the beholder. I do make my wife and kids laugh a lot, so I’m good.
Brant – I’m not sure I understand your point. Mainly your use of the word “irony.” Are you meaning “satircal” or “sarcastic”?
Also, regardless of your intentions, (though I greatly appreciate you attempting to make them more clear), clearly not all of your commenters, as you stated, are getting that vibe from you. That’s quite obvious as you read through them.
I’m a fan of Mark Driscoll’s, at Mars Hill Bible Church. He’s a great pastor, with great messages. But a few years ago he ripped apart a popular book, and did so with loads sarcasm. It was funny to many, but really just confused people. Sometimes it can be incredibly confusing and leaves your audience questioning what it is you’re truly trying to say.
Like now.
Harris,
First, you write so well. I enjoy reading your posts and I could not agree with you more on this one.
The only competition the church should be engaged in is that which saves souls. The Pastor driven church model has replaced the Christ driven church model and this is a shame.
Christ is the brand, not Pastor John Doe.
May God continue to bless you and keep you…
Dorian
As someone who listens to Brant’s show on the way to work in the morning, I think it is safe to say that most of his other listeners would understand that he was being sarcastic (or ironic) with his post about non-competes. He always tries to come at an issue from a unique angle to get people to stop and think about it.
Not that I think Brant needs any defending, but it’s important to remember that anyone who speaks (or writes) publicly will probably be misunderstood (and falsely accused) sometime in their career. This cannot always be avoided. But even if he his message was misunderstood by some people, at least it brought the issue out into the open where it could be discussed. That is a good thing.
I don’t know Brant personally, so he can correct this statement if he wants. From what I’ve heard from him, it seems that he’d be willing to be falsely accused or misunderstood if it meant that people would take some time to think through these disturbing things that are happening in the church and compare them to the truth of the scriptures.
Dorian – Thanks man! I’m honored….really!
Randy – Maybe. I’m not an authority of the subject of communication or anything, so if that’s what works for him, and God is using it, then more power to him. Regardless of my own misunderstanding of him, (through less context, I admit), his motives do seem pure, even if I don’t agree with his approach.
If that is the true approach, it comes down to what you value most. For some, it’s entertainment value. Taking the risk of being misunderstood just for the sake of stirring up conversation is a style many have used, but few have done so with much longevity.
For me, it’s like comedy. Many comedians will use sex and profanity for the sake of being funny. A lot of people laugh at them, but mostly, they aren’t the best in their field. It’s the comedians who come along like Bill Cosby, Jerry Seinfeld, and others who prove that you can still be funny, and usually funnier, without the cheap, profane content.
Communication is the same way. It’s easy to be sarcastic and controversial, but the communicators who have lasting impact are those who communicate clearly, but do so in an entertaining way. Being entertaining without sarcasm being the driving force of your style certainly requires talent and creativity.
Just as puns are the lowest form of all humor, I believe sarcasm is the most in-effective form of communication, regardless of your goal. It isn’t bad. I’m most definitely a sarcastic person. But when it comes to holding up my standard for the way I represent truth, I leave as little room as possible for those who interact with my message to walk away confused about where I stand. That just seems like a wise idea.
Thanks again to everyone for their comments. My intention wasn’t for this to become a debate on what someone meant, (which is ironic, supporting evidence of what I’ve just written), but more about the actual issue of competition among pastors, which takes place daily, all across America.
Regardless, I’m thankful for the conversation, and am grateful you’re all willing to come here and share your thoughts. Keep them coming!