I’ve worked in the software world for most of the past two decades. One of the regular parts of my employment contracts is a section that says that if I leave the current place of employment, I can’t go work for another place which is in the same market, so that I can’t share trade secrets or insider info. It’s a common contact element, and it’s never been an issue for me because I work on a variety of projects.
Brant Hansen writes a satire piece in response to what appears to be a legitimate question about the legality of putting non-compete agreements in the contracts of church staff members.
I heard about this recently: A church staffer had signed a non-compete agreement with a church, then wanted to leave for another one within the proscribed radius. (He wasn’t supposed to leave for a position at another church within a 30-mile radius, I believe. Apparently, this is pretty standard fare for church non-competes.)
Read Brant’s (slightly, but perhaps only slightly) tongue-in-cheek response to the above actual question is at this blog link.
The beauty of satire is that sometimes you can’t tell if it’s satire or reality. The disturbing nature of satire is that you can’t tell if it’s satire or reality.
We’re now in an age in which the business models influencing church leadership have so totally been embedded in church culture that you can imagine, easily, chuches doing things like non-compete agreements.
pat loughery 
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