Hirschman’s book addresses the topic of organizational realignment in the light of market share loss.  He writes that there are three basic responses and some conflagrations of the three that could result in organizational success.  The basic options are for the customer to “exit” which means the customer goes somewhere else for the goods or services.  Or, the customer could “voice” complaints about deteriorating quality or service.  Finally, the customer could continue to stay with the product or service even when the quality goes down.

The book is primarily focused on the for profit sector but is easily adaptable to the non-profict arena as well.  I immediately began to think about how the three dynamics apply to believers in a local church setting and with a special eye on the ministry of discipleship.  It is also important to consider the cultural setting as options would change based on the context.  For instance, in America, there are many church options almost regardless where one lives.  The biggest mall in America is The Mall of America in Minneapolis.  The whole country could be called a mall when it comes to choices of churches!  This has huge implications for “exit.”  It is easy to bail out of one church and into another.  There is, however, an interesting and mediating factor in American culture, that of independent thinking that demands to be heard!  Though it may be easy to bail, the church provides a perfect setting to have one’s “voice.”

Then there is the issue of loyalty.  Denominational loyalty is an interesting study at the present time.  Denominations are generally in decline.  However, the declining demographic indicates that the younger population is less loyal than the older generation when it comes to denominational loyalty.  One possibility is that the older generation, by leveraging their loyalty, are inhibiting positive change!  They don’t exit and their voice is static as opposed to dynamic to meet the present needs.

In other places in the world, there may be few or no other church options.  This reduces or eliminates the “exit” option.  The ramifications are that the “voice” option is then used more since exiting is not an option.  This could be a very positive option because it may force an errant individual to deal with his/her issues or it could, conversely, result in “voice” to church leadership that is sorely needed and would not otherwise be heard if exit were an option.  Loyalty is also impacted by context.  Where there are fewer brands there is less chance of breaking loyalty.

So much more could be said about Hirschman’s three responses as applied to the local church but I now want to turn to the issue of discipleship.  I wonder how many people exit a church specifically because they are unhappy with the quality of discipleship (regardless how the discipleship ministry is accomplished)?  Likewise, I wonder how many people use their “voice” to utter their discontent with the quality of discipleship being accomplished?  I do not have empirical evidence to substantiate my response to those questions.  I do postulate that the percentage is very low.  If I am correct that the ministry of discipleship (however it is accomplished) is not very effective (in this case, Barna does offer empirical evidence for North America that demonstrates that discipleship is in awful shape) why do church attendees not either exercise “exit” nor “voice” due to the low quality of discipleship?

Statistics do show that people are moving from church to church, but not necessarily due to the quality of discipleship.  My guess is that the worship experience and youth ministry may garner most of those who are moving.  Why shouldn’t discipleship, if is as important as Jesus Christ makes it out to be, prompt response from “customers” when the quality needs improvement?  Is loyalty keeping people?  The author indicates that if the organization requires a high bar to enter and/or negative ramifications to exit, that loyalty is high, albeit for negative reasons.  Could it be that the culture of some churches is such that if someone leaves there is enough social backlash as to inhibit a lapse of loyalty?  This could be the case where there are few “exit” options as in a small community.

Concerning the issues of “exit,” “voice,” and “loyalty what do you think is the reason for so little movement or input concerning the issue of discipleship?  Do people regard that ministry as a central issue in their church affiliation?  Do you see examples where loyalty is inhibiting change?

Exit, Voice, and Loyalty by Albert O Hirschmnan