This should be a challenge that everything that is done in ministry is to be done with the utmost of excellence.  Like the post says:  you don’t have to be a mega-church to have standards.  But I think it is vitally important that the church set its mission, pursue it, and develop an identity.  Some churches are smaller in number but can still be effective if they are sold out for the mission.  Don’t look at it as an invasion.  It’s a challenge for you to take it up a notch and do better!

People are looking for a meaningful vision to follow--something bigger than themselves.  Tough luck for the churches that aren’t offering that.

Not to rant here but should “competition” and “church” really be in the same sentence? I know the point of the article is about change and being open to change but it’s far more concerning that this even has to be an issue to be highlighted. Perhaps this exact mindset is in part why tithing per capita is down, or why attendance trends are in question. Operating the church like a business from a standards, functionality, and accountability perspective is certainly good but when the church begins to operate like a capitalistic engine then I personally get concerned. I can’t speak for all but I know in my own community I have tried to organized multi-congregational events, etc., only to be met with resistance from the churches to work together. They have no problem sharing internal resources with each other by way of putting on paid conferences for church leaders, etc. but when it comes to reaching out to the lost in our community as a whole… as one unified body of Christ… well that is where this competitive nature seems to take hold and blind. This is just my opinion looking from the outside in but I think churches today really need to be less worried about other churches stepping into their turf and more worried about being effective and relevant in their communities to bring people to Jesus and teach them, engage them even, to grow rather than just show up on Sunday. If an Ed Young type plant pops up and people are moving to that then great, it should show you where God is moving and you should adapt. You should also support the movement in some way versus letting the EGO create division and competition. I just see a visual in my head of two pastors playing golf… one saying “well, my church is bigger than your church.”

I am on the other end of this debate. My church is sending me out to plant a church in a neighboring community because we have so many families from there attending our church. We felt there is a reason they are attending our church so we need to give them their own home church. It has upset several churches in that area and there is even a church from our fellowship in that town.
The funny thing is that churches start every year in that town and get no attention but because our church is doing it we are getting all kinds of comments.

Our church was planted a decade ago in a small town where pretty much nobody is doing “contemporary worship” and “relevant messages” except us. So… we became the biggest church in town pretty quickly. I ACHE to have another church “competing” with us so that more people will come to know Christ… We’d be happy to help them get started any way we can!

Kingdom mindset!

Excellent, Don… couldn’t have said it better myself.  Thanks for the stimulus to help us think and talk through these things.  I think it’s vitally important.  And I agree… it is coming to your town; it’s just a matter of who does it and when.

Todd

Like DanielD, I have a real hard time with the idea of churches competing with each other.  Sometimes it’s the smaller ("mom-and-pop") church that may cry foul when another church moves into the area and starts making an impact, and that’s not much of a kingdom mindset.  But sometimes it’s the new church that moves in with an arrogance that just screams, ”we’re coming here because the city needs Jesus and you (the ‘mom-and-pop’ church) aren’t giving him to them.” That is no more a kingdom mindset than the other.  Arguments over carpet colors don’t do much for the kingdom but frankly, neither do turf battles centered around methodologies, music styles, or seating capacities. 

I’ve been around long enough to know that a lot of people have a lot of the same feelings about another church going in on the corner as they do when a big-box retailer moves in; they ask, “Why do we need another church?  We already have plenty to choose from.” I think as church leaders, that’s a question we need to be well-prepared to answer, because how we answer may make an eternal difference in someone’s life.  And if our answer is focused on methodologies and styles, I don’t think that’s good enough. 

Whenever I see a new church spring up near an existing one (especially if the new one is “big box"), I wonder if the leaders talked with the existing church leaders before they made plans to move.  Did they consider the impact their arrival might have on the ministry of that existing church?  And don’t be too quick to give me any Darwinian “survival of the fittest church” crud, because often that’s just a smokescreen for someone’s arrogance that they know best how to reach the community.  Did the leaders stop and ponder what the people in the community might think about the WalMart church moving in?  There’s a reason that stores like WalMart and Home Depot often face strong opposition when they want to move into a new area: they have a reputation for not being concerned about the impact on the community.  I’m not at all opposed to megachurches, but I wonder if the church isn’t earning itself a similar repuation when the Big Boxes move in next door to Brother Ben’s church.

Remember, the world is supposed to see our good works - not our fancy buildings and well-lit parking lots - and glorify God.  (Matt. 5:16)

Are you saying someone should call and ask for permission?  Both times I started a church, when I called I was poorly recieved, told we don’t need any more churches around here and such.

When a church has been in a community for 20, 30, 40, 50+ years and has not grown in 25, is that church effective?  Is that church a witness to the community of good works and would that community even know if the church disappeared.  I am not asking because I want to argue I really want to know what you all think. 

I have found that the churches who welcomed the new churches I planted are the ones who are confident of the mission God has given them. A church could move in across the street from us and we will welcome them and ask how can we help.  Why?  Because we already know what God has asked us to do and we are doing it.  One Sunday morning our parking lot (we rent a high school) was spammed by the church across the street.  By that I mean they put flyers for their church on the car windows of our people.  We were well signed so they knew what they were doing.  What did we do?  Nothing except tell anyone who wanted to go there if that is what God had for them.  We also laughed about it later.

I know that there are a lot of pastors struggling out there to make changes in their local church.  But should new churches in our communities be looked at as toxic dumps and (in my community) factory chicken farms?  By that I mean NIMC (not in my community).  Whether it’s a big box or not, should people really have to call and ask permission?

I really like what Leonard said… if you’re secure in what God has called your church to do; and you’re doing it the best as you can, then you have no worries.  That sounds really healthy to me.

I sat at a conference at a large church not too long ago; and another local pastor stood during a Q&A session and asked the large church senior pastor something to the effect of:  “I pastor a church 8 miles from here.  You tell us that we need to develop our talent; but how do we do that when you attract all the talent?” You could tell this was the senior pastor’s pet peeve… and he went into a rather eloquent response about how they started with nothing; and it was up to them to make things happen.  And that his church wasn’t keeping them from flourishing; rather they were.

I think it’s always easy for small merchants to complain about walmart; or small chicken farmers to complain about the factory farms; just like it’s easy for (even hardworking) small church pastors to complain about larger churches in their community.  The other comment that was great in this post was the one about making your church have unique benefits that large churches cannot fill.  That’s a great strategy as well.

Overall; I’ve been delighted with most of the responses in this thread.  Much more Kingdom minded than I anticipated on this post! 

Todd

I think it’s clear from my posts on this forum that I have little patience with small thinking, inward focused churches and people who summarily dismiss or criticize the mega-church (Walmart).  I’m thinking here about the guy whose church might have lacked growth for reasons other than these and who might benefit from Walmart as a partner but simply doesn’t have the resources to raise the bar as a healthy competitor.  Here is an example from my community.

There is this pastor named Tom.  His church (building) is tiny and dilapidated, located in a part of town which has become impoverished and gang infested.  Tom came to this (So. Baptist) church about 20 years ago, just as the neighborhood was beginning to change.  He came when this church was much larger, and as they planted a new church in the suburbs.  Over the years most of the really competent folks moved to the daughter church, which has become a growing suburban mega-church (PTL).  Numerous churches have moved from Tom’s neighborhood to the suburbs and have growing and thriving ministries, reaching many for Jesus (again – Tom praises the Lord for this – I know . . . we’ve talked about it).  Tom’s congregation is now small (about 50 per Sunday) very poor, and their lives are often very complicated.  They are also very transient.  The church works in government sponsored low-income housing projects that are adjacent to the church property and have great outreach with kids, and some with parents . . . but it is tough going.  Many parents are drug addicts, gang members, prostitutes.  The conversion rate is great by any standard (about 25% annually), but because of the transient nature of the people they work with it has not resulted in numerical growth in the church.  The only resource they have to reach their neighborhood is sweat equity (a handful of people) and a run down building.  No money for curriculum, sound systems, or the latest Outreach Marketing tools.  But Tom and his little flock love Jesus and have a collective broken heart for the neighborhood they serve. 

Tom himself is anything but dynamic.  He is rumpled and slow of speech.  He’s not going to draw any mover and shaker type of people to his congregation.  And a dynamic and strategic pastor wouldn’t hire him.  In fact, I know that he’s had some people like this over the years and they moved on.  If a Walmart church moved in across the street from Tom’s church, I know the resources and dynamic people they’d bring could make a huge kingdom impact on this part of our community . . . and that would be a great thing.  Tom would not complain, nor would he put flyers for his church on cars in the Walmart church’s parking lot.  But the Walmart church would probably ring the death toll for Tom’s church.  Maybe that is just how it works, because the Walmart church would indeed be reaching more people and would have the resources to offer more that could help this particular population (family counseling, recovery programs, etc.).

I’m just thinking out loud through my keys here . . . would there be a way for Walmart to collaborate with someone like Tom, help him and his church become more effective? I just think there are some like Tom who aren’t resentful or inward focused, but just can’t survive competition from Walmart.

Wendi

1. Provide customer service (ever try to find someone to help you at Sam’s Club? Forget it!)

2. Offer a depth of products (Sam’s Club only stocks the top, best selling Christian books and Bibles, but a Christian bookstore might have 100 times the product selection.)

In Don Chapman’s post on 10/26/2006, he cited the above suggestions on how to compete.  I am a layperson, academic and businesman, who has a somewhat different paradigm.

I believe that my work is Holy and that I am to fulfull the “Original Commission” of ‘...multiply, fill, subdue and rule...” from Genesis 1.  I think that the Great Commission complements the Original Commission but there is not evidence that it supercedes it. 

I have never been able to get a church or its leadership to help me disciple my organization or my nation not just individuals and yet Genesis one is referred by some as the cultural mandate.  If you want to compete with WalMart type churches, then offer not just services but distinctive services that are of value to a constituency in your community.  There are professionals and businesspeople who have never been approached about how we can pray or be involved in making your business or professional organizations more successful.

see http://www.spiritual-benchmarks.com/pdf/Spirituality & the Professionals.pdf for a short but more complete arguement for this perspective.

It not just about depth either.  It is about seeing that the mission of the church is to be fulfilled by the ordinary not the ordained.  And that our work is as holy as the pastors in God’s eyes.

I’m a little late to this post.  Wendi, God Bless you.  You bought the “human” element to this entire post. Wal-Martesque, small, mom and pop, marketing...this all brings great concern to me.  We are such like the children of Israel, are hearts can be so divided, we are but a slip away from idolatry,consumerism, bigger is better, relevance, wanting our personal appetites to be satisfied.
I just take God at his word, Jesus says, if I be lifted up, I’ll draw all men unto Me! Be careful not to dress Jesus up in our latest “trends” so that people miss the human element of salvation and worship.

God’s blessing to all of you as we all continue to lift the Lord Jesus Christ, before a lost and dying world.

Val