Soggydan
When most businesses think about their competition, they often identify businesses that offer similar products and services.
For example: HP thinks about Dell. American Airlines thinks about United Airlines. In essence, their competition is defined as those other businesses that compete for the same market share.
In a recent blog post, Shaun King highlighted that while this trend is true in business, it is not true for churches and nonprofits. In his post, “The MAJOR Disadvantage (& ugliness) of Non-Profits & Churches Misunderstanding Who Their Competition Is,” Shaun highlights that other nonprofits and churches are not in competition with each other. He argues, instead, that the real competition is the factors that cause the problems.
For example:
- If you are trying to fight hunger, the competition is poverty and access to food.
- If you are trying to fight slavery, the competition is slave traders
- If you are trying to fight drug crime, the competition is drug dealers
Unlike businesses, churches or nonprofits don’t compete against each other. Instead, they offer each other a partner for mission and work.
I really appreciated Shaun’s post and I would encourage other leaders to give it a read and to share it with their leaders in their organization. After all, operating a church is about changing lives, not fighting with other people who have the same goal.
