Bill Easums Observations

Everyone of who follows my stuff knows I am a great fan of the local church. It is fundamental to the growth of the Kingdom, along with other forms of being the Church. I have no trek with those who say the day of the local church is over.

I can’t stand what the vast majority of mainline churches and many sideline churches have become.  They set back a wait for people to show up like a spider that spins its web waits for an unsuspecting victim. I call this the Jerusalem effect and the build it and they will come effect.  Oddly enough, this approach to evangelism worked when I started ministry over 50 years ago.  Today, however very few unchurched people come to worship on their own.

Interestingly enough a friend gave me a url to Mike Breens blog . It was right up my ally. I thought I would share a couple of his quotes with you.

“So let us be clear: missionaries are always better than mission projects. Leaders are more necessary then volunteers. And disciples are surely what we’re going for rather than mere converts.”

I couldn’t agree more.  I’ve always told churches that volunteers, missions committees, and programs are not the way to go.  In our new book , Effective Staffing for the Vital Church, I talk about “backyard missionaries.”  Everyone needs to be trained to be a missionary in their everyday life.  Also disciples are needed not volunteers.

Here is another goodie.

“There is a paradigm shift that needs to happen. We need to move from being a worshipping body that sometimes does mission to a missional body that gathers to celebrate and worship.”

I have started telling leaders that it is not enough to have small groups that make disciples; now small groups need to the missionary arm of the church.  Each small group needs a mission in the community.

That leads to Breen’s last comment I want to highlight.

“Missional communities are the training wheels that teach us how to ride the bike of oikos.”

Now this is brilliant.  He’s talking about 20-30 people acting as an extended family taking the message to their communities.  We need to focus on training Mom and Dad, Aunts and Uncles, etc. to help their extended families be those backyard missionaries we talk about.

What is your church doing to make backyard missionaries?

Welcome to 2013.

How are you going to measure the success of your church this year, and every other year for that matter- Worship attendance, Finances, Sunday School and or small group attendance, the number of baptisms, the number of new leaders raised up?

What if I told you none of these is the absolute measure of success even though they are all important.  Would you believe me? Well only one of them is even close – baptisms.

So what is the measure of success for a church? I think it is how much difference a church is making in the community and the world. So the key question is, Would your community miss you if you left? Or maybe, Does your community even know you exist?

The church is suppose to be the sign and example of the coming Kingdom of God. It was put here to make the world a difference place.  I doubt if God counts how many noses are in worship or what the take was.  But I know God is thrilled when the community and world is different because of your church.

So how to you measure the sending factor of your church? Let me suggest that you do the following:

1. Make a list of all the programs you have and then use a yellow marked to highlight those that are for your members and a red marker to highlight those that are geared to make a difference in your community and world.  We are how we spend our money.
2. Next, count the number of people working within your church each week for any reason and then count the number of people who went out from your church to make a difference in the community or world by actually doing an overt act of some kind.

Do you like what you see? If  not, start working toward changing the picture. It will make 2013 a much more productive year and will be a better sign of the coming Kingdom of God.

Happy New Year
Bill Easum
www.effectivechurch.com
easum@aol.com

Our new book, Effective Staffing for Vital Churches is now on sale in print and for the Kindle version and maybe Nook Nov. 1. 67  Many have pre-ordered and we thank you.   We believe it is one of our best books to date.  Rick Warren thought so also. He wrote “This book is a winner.”

We are getting reports from people who are reading it.  Here is a comment from Randy on Facebook

Randy wrote: “I just received my copy. I am already resonating with the idea of an Antioch Church vs the more common models churches use to justify existence…to partner with God to change/transform the world is exciting and life-changing!”

Here is a brief excerpt from the book

“Because people no longer come to church on their own, the church must
spend most of its time, energy, and money filtering people out into the
community. The measurement of effectiveness shifts from “how many in
worship?” to “how much difference is the church making in its efforts to
transform the city?” The question “What is God doing in our community that
we can be part of?” is replacing, “How can we get more people to come to
church?”

We have a website for the book at www.effectivestaffing.us where you can order the book or if you want a closer look before purchasing it you can get two free chapters.

In the book you will discover

• Discover the Four Core Processes every effective church must staff.
• Learn how effective church leaders of growing churches manage their time.
• How to not make the #1 staffing mistake almost every church makes.
• How to ask the right questions so you can hire the right people with confidence.
• Master the skill of coaching your staff … including how to hold them accountable for results.
• When it’s time to hire the next staff member, and what position you need next.
• The skills you need and the personal values that must change as youlead your church through each growth barrier.

Go grab your copy

In our new book, Effective Staffing for Vital Churches, we write that all churches are missional or they aren’t a church.  Michael Slaughter fell in love with the book at that point.  Here is a brief excerpt

“We believe every church is missional or it isn’t a church! But we use the
word a bit differently than most of the books written on the Missional
Church. We believe every true church is focused more on transforming
the world than on building up its own membership. We subscribe more
to the type of ministry seen in the Antioch church than to the ministry of
Jerusalem church. The Antioch church was focused outward on the
world whereas the Jerusalem church was more focused on itself and how
to care for its people.
• We also believe churches that sit around waiting for people to come to
them have stopped being a church and that a purely Attractional church
has no validity on a mission field.
• Finally, we believe a church can be a church with or without a building.
The church isn’t about buildings; it’s about people. So we reject the longstanding
exercise taught children – “Here’s the church; here’s the
steeple; look inside and see all the people.”

How do you feel about the above statement?

And thanks to all of you who have pre-ordered our new book.

Bill
www.effectivechurch.com

Yesterday I wrote about the three changes every pastor needs to go through when a church moves through a growth barrier.  Although there are many interpretations of what these barriers are in our book, Effective Staffing for Vital Churches we  dealt with the broad barriers of 100, 200, 500, 1000+.  Passing through each of these barriers causes enormous strain on the mindset and culture of the church itself as well as its leaders.  As churches grow staff become more essential. Churches approaching the 100 barrier need to be thinking staff.  In fact, most of the church plants we deal with begin with some staff including a Worship Leader and someone to work  with children.  And by the time a church reaches the 1000 barrier staff are as important if not more important collectively than the Lead Pastor because of the number of relationships they have.

Most churches do not understand nor appreciate the importance of staff to their churches health both spiritually and physically. Our book sets out the reasons why growing a church depends on the number and quality of staff not in doing ministry but by multiplying themselves by mentoring and equipping the laity to do the ministry God intended for them to do.

We make the case for the Keystone of all staffing to be equipping and sending people out into the local mission field to be backyard missionaries to their community.   You can read more about staffing in our book Effective Staffing for Vital Churches: Finding and Keeping the Right People.

it will available Nov. 1 in print and for Kindle. You can get it at Amazon.com or Baker Books.

Over the weekend I posted the essentials for breaking the 200 for worship barrier.  Today I’m listing the essentials for breaking the 500 worship barrier.  Keep in mind these barrier numbers are just that- numbers.  These barriers aren’t broken the moment you average higher than they are.  For example: you really don’t break the 200 barrier until you pass the 500 barrier and so on. It takes that long for the culture of under 200 in worship to go away. That’s why the faster a church grows the easier it is to blow past the barriers because the culture created by that size church doesn’t have time to take effect. So you see, barriers are sort of messy.

Now keep in mind that the essentials listed below to break 500 in worship are built upon the essentials for breaking the 200 worship barrier. So you add them to the following list.

To Break 500 in worship you need the following:

1. The pastoral/program staff equals one to one hundred people in worship including children.
2. The pastor and staff hand off most ministry and act more as coaches and scouts than players (Baseball analogy).
3. The children’s ministry is sterling and not in a classroom design.
4. The Nursery is one of the nicest and cleanest rooms in the house.
5. The Pastor focuses more attention on the growth of the staff than that of the church.
6. The staff is an extension of the DNA of the pastor and fill in all of his/her weaknesses.
7. Everyone on staff is able to picture and articulate the needs of the church if it were twice its size.
8. The pastor hones his or her hiring and firing skills.
9. The pastor does all the hiring and firing.
10. All staff are learning to hand-off ministry and reproduce leaders.

Next we’ll take a look at breaking the 1,000 barrier.

This came to me today from one of the churches I’m coaching.  I thought you might enjoy it.  This is what I mean by “Backyard Missionaries.”

“The Church Has Left The Building….We’ve Gone Outreaching!

FUMC Servant Evangelism teams have done just that!  Since April, we have made about 1,400 contacts through 11 scheduled events! We’ve had as many as 26 servants and as few as 3 at a given event!  We’ve gone out to serve on almost every day of the week, morning noon and night, in the sun, rain, and humidity!  We’ve given away popsicles, flower seed packets, fruit, light bulbs, carnations on Mother’s Day, bottled water at Relay for Life, hot dogs and drinks, paper fans, cards on Father’s Day, and school supplies.  We’ve loaded groceries into cars, painted faces and a Habitat home, washed cars for free and even cleaned toilets for businesses on Broadway.  There are stories to share from each event. People are shocked that we would actually wash their car without taking a donation, clean their toilet, or simply give them something for free! A lady posted a thank you message on facebook for the paper fan that cooled her during a baseball game, a man sang hymns to us while he waited for his truck to be washed, and the brother of one of our church members was elated when someone purchased his lunch and passed a connect card to him via the drive-thru worker! Curiosity is stirred in people as we offer gifts and services with no strings attached.  They want to know who we are and why we do this.  The answer is easy…”We are God’s children and God Loves You!”  This ministry continues to do small things with great love.  It’s a blessing to be a part of it and to watch God work through us and in us here at FUMC.

We are…Free to Serve! Galatians 5:13″

It’s been almost two weeks since the Exponential Conference, arguably one of the most important gatherings of the year. The more I reflect on it the more excited I get.

I just began reading Alan and Dave’s book “The Verge” in which they say we are on the verge of something big- a movement of gigantic potential for the Church in the West.  What I like about this book is the blending of a systematic dreamer (Alan Hirsch)  and an effective practioner (Dave Ferguson). I’ve known both of these guys for more than a decade and I have to say I’ve never been disappointed by either. In fact it is their coming together that excites me.

I first met Dave in 2000 when one of the stops on our tour was held at his church.  I was impressed with  his passion for transformation and the development of the Big Idea which has become the backbone of their multisite and church planting efforts.

I first met Alan in 2002 when he attended an event I pulled together on our island with twenty or so people who were probing the edges of what has become a push for an apostolic movement.  Among the group were such notables as Len Sweet, Ed Stetzer, Mark DeYmaz, Carl George, George Hunter, Bob Roberts, Dave Travis, and a host of other folks you would recognize.  I remember talking with Alan during the event and it was clear he had little use for all forms of institutional Christianity.

Now, Alan has moved to accepting the both/And of the 21st Century and Dave has become one of the leading voices in the apostolic movement taking shape under our noses. You never know where God is going to lead us.

What disturbs me the most is that the vast majority of my mainline friends don’t seem to have a clue of this movement.  They still cling to the belief that dead churches can be revitalized when anyone honest knows they must be resurrected. I wonder what it will take for mainliners (no pun intended….much) to realize that they are not the center of God’s universe and that we are on the verge of a whole new way of doing church that doens’t include throwing out institutional church.  But it does require a recognition that God can do his thing through many expressions of the church.  In fact, we have entered a day in which no one form of the church will reign supreme.  It will take a both/and approach to the future.

My biggest regret at Exponential was that my wife became so ill I almost had to return home before finishing my workshops. And I also had to miss the Future Travelers meeting which I really wanted to attend. Maybe next year.

Bill Easum
www.effectiveChurch.com
easum@aol.com

My experience has taught me only four things grow a church (other than the Holy Spirit)

1. Bringing people to Christ and/or to the church- forgetting this is the number one reason church plants stop growing and established churches start declining.
2. Retaining them long enough to disciple them – this includes first impressions, worship, and small groups
3. Discipling them- this requires a farm system and a clearly marked path to some level of leadership.
4. Sending them back out into the world to be backyard missionaries – this involves making a difference in the community.

Now it doesn’t matter which comes first – bringing in or sending out.  Like the chicken and the egg, who can tell.

Don’t let the missional conversations confuse you – both must be present in any form of church with or without buildings and/or location.

The other day in a seminar a middle aged woman asked me to define what I meant by the Missional Church. I quickly replied, A missional church is organized around mission.  Mission is their organizing principle.  A missional church doesnt have a Missions Committee; it is a mission. Missions ins’t one program among many; it is the program. Missions isn’t optional or a program; it defines the church.

How would you have answered the woman?

www.churchconsultations.com
easum@aol.com