Dealing with Competition in the Church
Church people don’t like to think about competition. They like to think it’s a “live and let live” world.
They are wrong.
Church is very competitive. At its very foundation is the need to overcome evil. Christ took care of that…but we still build prisons.
Within a denomination there is competition for members.
One of Redeemer’s members tells the story of how, when their family was considering joining Redeemer, a pastor visited from a church several neighborhoods away. At the time, that pastor was serving on Synod Council which had designs on Redeemer even then (1998). The pastor asked them why they would want to join a little church that had never had Black members. (He was wrong about that, by the way.) You’ll be happier in a church that has more Black members, he advised. That family didn’t heed his advice. They joined Redeemer and became cornerstone members of a new ministry that began to grow the church—growth that went unrecognized by Synod.
Roman Catholics try to solve the problem of competition for members with a parish system that counts all Catholics within a geographic area as members of a designated parish. Exceptions include ethnic congregations. This makes for less “shopping” when Catholics relocate, but in this system, if people aren’t happy they just stay home. Many do.
There can be competition within the parish. Whose running the day school? Who will sing that solo? Who has the pastor’s ear?
Pastors compete for more than members. They also compete for calls, usually to the richer congregations. Funny—in the Bible, when God called people, it was usually to undesirable service.
Competition extends to denominations. All are looking for members and support.
In America, the competition goes beyond that to competition between faiths.
Competition is part of the human spirit. You will never be able to extinguish it. Best to recognize it and use it in a way that brings out the best in us.