Bill Easums Observations

I had a conversation today that caused me to think.  The pastor had a lot of balls in the air.  In fact too many.  So the the thought came to me about another rule of management (see previous post).

Rule Number Six:  Never be too Buy to Lead. Sounds like a no brainer but I challenge you to evaluate how many hours you are working and if you have a staff how much time do you spend leading them?  If you are working over 50 hours a week and little to none of it is on managing staff then you are too busy to lead.

Think about it.  Growing a church requires doing triage with your time.  You can’t be all things to all people and have the time to strategically hire the right staff and hold them accountable to the clearly defined goals. When you’re small (under 500) you have to take the time to learn how to hire and fire and set clear expectations.  When you grow you have to spend time evaluating staff and replacing those who don’t meet your expectations.  If you have never hired any or much staff you don’t know the countless hours are spent searching, interviewing, and vetting a new person.  It takes a lot of time.  And if you’re tired from being busy the odds are you will make the wrong choice.  Then the real fun begins- cleaning up a bad hire. It can get ugly.

Rule Number Seven:  Learn to Listen.Someone in the group suggested this practice and I agree. And it takes time to listen carefully enough to the hopes and dreams of staff to know how to help them succeed.  Remember, the basic rule of thumb in a church over 400 in worship is learning to measure your success by what others achieve under your leadership.

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

Well, I finally found time to finish “On the Verge” by Alan Hirsch and Dave Ferguson.  So I thought I would update my earlier post

It’s a jewel.  Obviously by the title one can assume they sense Western Christianity is on the verge of something big- an apostolic 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 who has a brilliant mind) and an effective practioner (Dave Ferguson who has an impeccable track record). I’ve known both of these guys for more than a decade and I’ve never been disappointed by either. In fact it’s their coming together that excites me. The collaboration has produced a book you must read at least once and then implement.

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, Reggie McNeal 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 any forms of institutional Christianity.

Since then Alan has moved more to the middle and now accepts the role the institutional church could play in this apostolic movement. At the same time Dave has become one of the leading voices in this movement which appears to be taking shape at this moment. Notice I said “appears.” It’s still too soon to say anything with certainty.

The book is divided into four parts- Imagine, Shift, Innovate, and Move.  Imagine a new form of church that is truly Apostolic. Make the Shift to this new form of church by embodying “movement practices.” Let your imagination run wild dreaming about this innovating paradigm. And then move to make the movement happen.  The first two sections are written by Alan with a response from Dave; the second two sections are written by Dave with a response by Alan.

The heart of the book is what the authors call the “Apostolic Genius” which every church has within its DNA.  The Apostolic Genius is more than just a way of thinking; it is also the intelligence that is found throughout the system the New Testament calls the “ecclesia.” The Apostolic Genius consists of six parts:

• Jesus is Lord is the capstone of the movement and is the only element of this intelligence that isn’t found in every other religious movement.
• Disciple making is essential because movements grow only in proportion to the number of new disciples. Apprenticing people into the way of Jesus is what defines the Christian movement and what is lacking in so many institutional churches.
• The missional-incarnational impulse means that mission is the catalyzing principle of the church and permeates everything the church does and is not just one department among many.
• An Apostolic environment is essential for any missional church and movement which means the primary ministry of a church is mission not maintenance.
• Organic systems point up our need to return to a people-centered understanding of ecclesia which has been lost in most institutional forms of Christianity.
• Communitas doesn’t refer to mere community as we are prone to think of it but more to a profound bond that moves participants from acquaintances to partners and from associates to comrades who are will to risk exploring the edges together.

The last chapter of the book is a thriller that you simply don’t want to miss. Dave shares the nitty-gritty of moving from the status quo to an apostolic movement.  Just to give you a taste here are four questions he asks:

• “Is your church more interested in quality programs or quality people?”
• “Is your church as passionate about sending people out as they are about bringing people in?”
• “Is your church content with addition, or does it long to see exponential reproduction?”
• “Is your church holding on to control, or are they leading with a harmonious blend of order and chaos?”

While Alan thinks the institutional local church can reach only 35-40% of a population, I’m convinced that missional communities will never reach more than 5 to 10% of the population unless, because of persecution, the Church has to go underground. However, when you couple outward focused churches with small groups that function like missional communities, you have the seeds of an Apostolic, missional movement that has the possibility of reaching more than 60% of the population.  This is my hope for the truly New Testament missional movement that may be underway today.

Bill Easum
www.churchconsultations.com
www.Billeasum.com

What ever happened to the guidance of the Holy Spirit when it comes to making decisions in the church? Do we really believe that voting on something is the way to go?  Shouldn’t we be trying to discern God’s will rather than the will of the congregation? Are academic credentials really more important than charismatic, Holy Spirit filled leadership?

These are just some of the questions I continually raise when I see the way most church structures have been high-jacked by Modernity, Democracy and Roberts Rules of Order. Our way of organizing and running the church is so far removed from what we see in the Acts of the Apostles that one wonders how we could have strayed so far from the path.  We seem more enamored by secular business practices than we are by God’s way of doing things.

In the Acts of the Apostles, which should be called the Acts of the Holy Spirit, we see a very different form of church administration than we do today.  If we were to rely more on the Holy Spirit than on modern, democratic models we would:

1. Throw Robers Rules of Order out the door and never allow it back in.
2. We would place more emphasis on deciding God’s will rather than the will of the congregation.
3. We would be more like a charismatic organism where spontaneous response to what God is already up to if more important than voting on what the majority wants to do.
4. Our structures would be flexible and our job descriptions would be fluid enough to allow the Holy Spirit to redirect our actions like it did with Stephen when it shifted his job from waiting tables to preaching the Gospel.
5. Denominational structures would be replaced by church-to-church structures based on what is needed to transform each churches community.
6. Those in leadership would only be those who were demonstrating serious serventhood who lead by example rather than telling others what they can and can’t do.
7. Rather than being a democracy, administration would be invested in a few Godly people who were trusted by the congregation because of how they lived.
8. The most important tasks of the official leaders would be to explore how to interpret and deliver the message Jesus Christ is risen.
9. Decisions would be made communally rather than top down- discernment rather than voting.
10. Prayer, in the form of collective listening, and discernment based on Scripture would take the place of voting.
11. Ripened and disciplined leaders who have a loving relationship with the congregation would replace academically trained leaders.

Now if you think this is pie in the sky thinking, just read the Acts of the Apostles and you will see that not only is it possible, but it has happened.  It if happened once it can happen again.

If you want to read more about this type of administration, read the book, Foundations of Church Leadership, edited by Petersen, Thomas, and Whitesel

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