During the past half century, the American economy has become increasingly competitive. A persuasive argument can be made that the No. 1 contemporary example is the difficulty the United States military system has in recruiting new candidates for the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps. Up through 1972, young American males had three choices: volunteer, seek a deferment, or wait to be drafted. The end of the military draft in 1973 changed the rules for that game.

A new attractive enlistment bonus plus generous benefits after leaving military service has been one response to this competition. Scores of colleges and universities have responded to the increased competition for the most promising students by constructing more attractive housing on campus as well as by generous scholarships and other forms of financial aid. Hospitals have responded to the competition for nurses by improved working conditions and more generous compensation for nurses.

Tens of thousands of profit-driven businesses have responded to this rise in competition by closing up shop. That long list includes grocery stores, hospitals, newspapers, farmers, drugstores, commercial airlines, new car dealers, five-and-dime variety stores, travel agents, magazines, bus companies, restaurants, and motion picture theaters. Religious congregations could be added to that list. In the typical week, an estimated seven to 10 Protestant congregations in America disappear from the religious scene either by dissolution or by merging into another worshiping community.

In addition to allocating more resources to attract future constituents and going out of business, a third consequence has been the arrival of new competitors. WalMart, Southwest Airlines, charter schools, supermarkets, 15-screen motion picture theaters, the personal cell phone, personal computers, cable television stations, and foreign automobile companies are among the examples of new competitors for the time, attention, loyalty, and dollars of Americans. The new non-denominational megachurch could be added to that list.

A fourth consequence is institutions are larger than they were in the 1950s…if they still exist. The retail businesses that are the successors to the five-and-dime variety stores, the mom-and-pop grocery stores, the family-owned and operated drugstore, the locally owned state chartered bank, and the small private church-related colleges are examples.

A fifth consequence of this more intense competition for both paid staff and customers can be seen in the evolution of the practice of law, the practice of medicine, the practice of education, the practice of war, the production of food and fiber, the communication of the spoken word and the printed word, and, perhaps the most highly visible, the generalists are being replaced by the specialists.

Among the larger congregations in American Protestantism, the demand for greater specialization is illustrated by (1) the worship leader replaces the choir director, (2) the specialist in ministries with families that include teenagers replaces the youth pastor, (3) the executive pastor replaces the associate minister who was a generalist, (4) the creator of new learning communities replaces the director of Christian education, (5) the specialist in contemporary philanthropy replaces the financial secretary, and (6) the team leader is called to replace the recently departed senior minister.

A sixth consequence has been felt all across the American economic and social scene. As recently as the 1950s, the producers of goods and services decided what they wanted to produce. A related concern was how to persuade new generations of consumers this was the product or service they needed. The patient went to the doctor for relief from pain. The doctor was expected to prescribe the appropriate relief. Today, the patient expects an accurate diagnosis, a description of alternative therapies, and a discussion of the pros and cons of each potential course of action. If in doubt, seek a second opinion from another health care provider.

Today's consumers of goods and services project far higher expectations of the producers of those goods and services than did their parents or grandparents. One consequence is the size of a congregation in metropolitan America able to mobilize the resources required to fulfill those higher expectations on relevance, quality, and choices is at least three times the size required to be competitive in the 1950s. The competition among the churches for future constituents is at an all-time high.

The Impact on the Parish Pastor
These six consequences of that rise in the level of competition all across the American landscape have had a tremendous impact on the life and ministry of the typical parish pastor in American Christianity.

The first can be blamed on the pastor's parents. If God was calling their child to be a happy and effective parish pastor, the parents should have made sure that child was born before 1890! That would have opened the door to retirement before 1960. The easiest time to serve as a parish pastor in America probably was the 1940-1960 era. Each generation of American churchgoers born after 1935 has brought an increasingly larger and more demanding set of expectations to church. That generalization applies even more clearly to the churchgoers born in the United States after the current "Fourth Great Religious Revival" that began in the mid-1960s

If the goal is a challenging and satisfying career in the parish ministry, the most attractive option may be to become a specialist on the ministerial staff of a Protestant congregation founded after 1960 that now averages at least 1,800 at worship. The downside of that option is most of those positions are now being filled by second-career laypersons, especially women after completing a recent career as a mother and homemaker.
Perhaps the most highly visible impact of competition on the parish ministry can be illustrated by the search for a successor to "our pastor" who has resigned, retired, switched to another vocation, or died. Instead of being confined to one regional judicatory or one region of this nation and to "a minister in our denomination," the search today is more likely to be national, or even international, and to cross traditional lines of denominational affiliation.

Less visible, but even more common is the national emphasis on excellence and the quest for competence. One consequence is an unprecedented number of highly competent parish pastors are being tempted to leave the parish ministry and accept a new challenge in a different expression of ministry with another religious organization or to become an individual entrepreneur in a specialized ministry.

Defining "Our Parish"
How do you identify the future constituents of your congregation? Perhaps the easiest process was the group of Lutheran immigrants from Sweden who came to the United States, settled in the Midwest, and decided to organize a new Augustana Lutheran Parish. You were an ordained Lutheran pastor in Sweden, and your older bother and your wife's father had come to America and were on the call committee. They extended a call to you. You accepted and were welcomed by fellow Swedes. The call committee was determined to prove they had made a wise choice and worked hard to help make your ministry a success. You knew the Swedish culture and the Augustana version of the Lutheran religion. You were a venturesome and risk-taking personality, and your wife also was deeply committed to this venture. You defined "my parish" as "my people" and each one affirmed you as "my pastor."

The distinctive identity of that Augustana congregation that worshiped in Swedish was reinforced by comparing it with other Christian congregations in that community. One was a German Methodist Episcopal Church, one was a Danish Lutheran congregation, one an Irish Roman Catholic parish, a fourth was a Swedish Baptist congregation, a fifth was Norwegian Lutheran, and the oldest was a Congregational Church worshiping God in English. It was easy for the newcomer to the community to pick the "right church for me."

Place of birth, skin color, ancestry, nationality, kinfolk ties, language, geographical proximity, and inherited religious loyalties continued to minimize competition among existing congregations for future constituents for the next hundred years. The vast majority of Protestant congregations averaged between 15 and 100 at worship. Frequently, two or three small congregations shared the services of one pastor.

The major point of competition for future constituents was confined to the planting of new missions designed primarily to reach nonbelievers. The growth of comity agreements among the "cooperative" denominations in the 1890 to 1965 era was motivated to reduce competition in the planting of new missions and was especially influential in the 1946-65 era.

The post-World War II era brought an unprecedented number of interdenominational and interfaith marriages. Whether the newlyweds would join "his church" or "her denomination" became a significant question. One answer was, "His, naturally. The wife follows her husband." An increasingly common one was, "The wife's church, since she was more active in her church than he was in his." A third was, "Neither! They start a new life together in a church that is new to both of them."

In summary, the privately owned automobile, marriage, the erosion of inherited institutional loyalties, and the growing competition among the churches for future constituents undermined the popular concept that every congregation should serve the people who lived within walking distance of the meeting place.

The number of immigrants to the United States from other countries was 8.8 million in the first decade of the 20th century, compared to a population of 76 million in 1900. The number of new immigrants dropped to 5.7 million in the second decade and to 4.1 million in the 1920s. For the 1930s, it plummeted to slightly over a half million, rose to slightly over a million in the 1940s, climbed to 4.5 million in the 1970s, to 7.4 million in the 1980s, and to well over 9 million in the 1990s. The first decade of the 21st century will set a new record for the total number, both documented and undocumented, of immigrants to the United States for one decade.

One consequence is millions of Americans in this decade are choosing a new church home, not on the basis of denominational affiliation or geographical proximity or kinship ties, but frequently in responses to questions asked by that first-time church visitor. One is, "How many people here look like me?" A second is, "Can this church meet both my personal and my religious needs?" A third is, "Will this congregation help me rear my children?"

Finally, the age of affluence in America, which began after World War II, has created at least a 2,000 percent increase in the number of dollars given to charitable causes. That increase, however, has been accompanied by at least a forty-fold increase in the number and competence of the competitors for those charitable contributions!

Lyle Schaller's book, The New Context For Ministry (Abingdon Press, 2002), describes a variety of strategies for competing for those charitable dollars.

Copyright 2008 by Lyle E. Schaller