Fellowshopping

There are a wide variety of churches and fellowships available to UVA students and Charlottesville residents. Just like citizen-voters in Tiebout's model "shop" for favorable revenue-expenditure packages, UVA students "fellowshop" for favorable church packages which involve pastor, denomination, size, etc. The term "fellowshopping" defines how UVA students interested in Christian fellowship "shop" the different fellowships and churches on grounds. There are 28 fellowships to choose from; they range from Catholic student ministries to Chi Alpha with the Assemblies of God. Students can freely attend small groups and large groups of different fellowships with free mobility. Each fellowship also has an optimum size, as some prefer smaller congregations or can only reserve small classrooms for meetings, while others prefer a more mega-church feel and have the space to accommodate that. When students fellowshop, they first look at worship style - is it traditional or contemporary, can I raise my hands, or is it more formal? They also look at the pastor - is he young or old, does he yell and sweat or is he reserved, can women preach? They also look at elements like size of congregation, denomination, weekly meeting times, etc until they find a bundle of these "goods" that maximizes their utility.

Because of the free mobility of college students, their lack of a job within any specific fellowship, their free access to information about each fellowship online, and the fellowships desire for an optimum size, we get a real-life glimpse into Tiebout's model when many of his key assumptions hold. This not only holds for fellowships, but also for churches in general. When a church changes pastor, doctrine, worship style, or even the time of a service, we often see mass migrations in and out of that church community. Similarly, Tiebout's model claims that in a world of free mobility, we would see mass migrations in and out of communities as peoples preferences change or as a localities revenue-expenditure packages change. When those changes occur in a church, members like this couple, have free mobility to"shop" for a new church with a more favorable bundle of goods.