Bill Easums Observations

 My tribe just conducted a  a survey of 36,000 UMCs only to find what many of us have been teaching for over two decades.  Here is a quote from the report from the UM Portal survey.

“United Methodist congregations that are thriving have a few things in common—whether large or small, urban or rural.
A new survey shows United Methodist churches with the greatest vitality are marked by inspirational preaching, plenty of small groups and programs for children and youth, and a mix of both traditional and contemporary worship services.”

The good news is that now when people like me say these things they are backed up by excellent research. Lets look at those findings again:
Thriving churches of all sizes and locations have the following things in common:

• Inspirational preaching
• lots of small groups
• children and youth ministries
• both traditional and contemporary worship

Now if the truth were known, and the survey had separated thriving established churches from church plants, the study would have shown one more important thing that the vast majority of thriving church plants have in common- contemporary worship without traditional worship.  I also wonder if the survey had taken a deeper look into the stats if it would have shown that in the thriving churches contemporary worship was always growing and traditional was most stagnant or declining. I doubt if we will ever know that from the study. But could it be like the rest of the study- those of us who consult for a living already know the answer and like the four common denominators, we have been saying for decades that traditional worship is on the downswing and contemporary is becoming the new normal for thriving churches.

The problem is, just as many denominational officials and pastors discounted our cry for the four things in common, they seem to want to do the same with our cry for more contemporary worship and less traditional.  Churches are doing the same thing because in most of the dying churches we work with that do have contemporary worship they are still spending more money on traditional worship (even though they are watching it die) than they spend on contemporary worship.  Go figure.

The survey also backed up what we have been saying about denominational life. Here is what the survey said.

“Among the findings? The denomination has lost its theological identity, experiences a general lack of trust and accountability, and struggles with a perceived distance between the general church agencies, annual conferences and local churches.

“The central focus was on a sense of loss of mission definition and relevancy and an accompanying sense of loss of identity,” the report stated. “At the broadest level, the church’s struggle for an identity as a global church was widely discussed.”

Areas for improvement include:

• More clarity and understanding about the denomination’s mission, culture and values;

• Less perceived organizational “distance” between the general church and local churches;

• Better defined leadership roles and accountability, and improving trust “between the pew and leadership”;

• More standardized management processes and reporting systems”

Sound familiar?

Now, since I love my tribe, it is my deepest hope it will heed the warnings in this survey and seek to remedy the issues that are tearing the UMC apart.  There are islands of strength, as the survey shows.   The trick is for us to learn from these vital churches.

There is an old myth that says it is best if lay people make the first call on visitors.  Well, that’s just what it is a myth. Up until a church reaches 500 or 600 in worship it should be the pastor. Many effective pastors like Adam Hamilton and yours truly did it within 24 hours.

Here is a four minute video of mine showing how to make this call to first time visitors.

Responding to first time visitors

This is a heads up about a great event coming September 9 called The Nines. This is its second year. The only change is that every video will be under 6 minutes and they will be from some of the best church leaders in the country – and yes I am one of the speakers. You can view this as an individual or they provide a package for viewing it in a group.   There is a free sign up or you can choose to get extra stuff at a nominal fee. Click here for the info.

To some Donald A. McGavran is one of the greatest missiologist in Christian history. To others his name is almost synonymous with the Devil.  Those who malign McGavran simply have misunderstood him. They say all he is about is numbers. That he is responsible for pastors building large churches around the homogenous model. They say all he was about is church growth.

The title of my first book was The Church Growth Handbook. I had never heard of McGavran at the time. All I knew was that God had called me to change lives in Jesus and when that happened my church or someone else’s church grew and that was what it was all about.

It wasn’t long before I began to receive hate mail from colleagues who said I had sold out to the Devil. I didn’t understand at the time that they were referring to the work of McGavran.  They hated McGavran because in their mind all he and the church growth movement were concerned about was numbers and growing large churches.

Well, that’s only because they hadn’t taken the time to read McGavran. If they had, here is what they would have learned.

1. He challenged people to think in terms of reaching “people groups” with the Gospel instead of individuals.
2. He called for converts to immerse themselves in the culture rather than be extracted from the culture into mission stations as many churches do today.
3. He emphasized calling people groups and individuals to faith in Christ rather than building large churches (most of his work was done on the mission field where large churches didn’t exist).
4. The term “church growth” and the emphasis on numbers were always used in relationship to salvation.
5. The ultimate goal of the Gospel is not building churches but advancing the Kingdom of God.
6. Most of his ministry was done outside any relationship to a congregation.

What many don’t know about McGavran is that much of his work was done in the field totally apart from any form of institutional church. So numbers were never his concern- fulfilling the Great Commission was what drove the man to all that he did.

It’s time we recognized one of the great men of the faith- Donald McGavran- and quit saying all he was interested in was numbers.

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

Today, I’m going to address two more of the top six tactical mistakes churches make. Keep in mind these aren’t criticisms. They are, like the blog says, observations. I’ve worked in almost 1,000 churches in the past twenty years. I know that doesn’t make me an expert but it does give some credibility to my observations.
When I see a dying church they are most likely making these mistakes. So I think they are worth noting.

Mistake Number Two -putting a long section of announcements at the beginning of the worship service.  One of my practices in many on-site consultations is to be present for the Sunday worship service. Ninty-Nine out of a hundred dying churches will begin the service with announcements, following a long boring organ prelude (by the way I seldom hear an organ in a thriving church unless it is a black church). Often these announcements take up to five or ten minutes. In some of the worst cases (I ran into a bunch of these in the early years of consulting), in addition to the pastor making announcements, other member of the congregation are called forward to make additional announcements. I was at one church where after more than ten minutes of announcements the pastor asked if there were any other announcements from the congregation. Needless to say that church was in a free fall.

Why are announcements at the beginning of a worship service so deadly- because they violate every media tenet as well slap as our culture in the face.  Most younger people today do whatever they can to avoid watching a commercial on TV. Imagine what a media savvy twenty-something feels when subjected to five or ten minutes of commercials up front before they have the chance to decide if they like what’s happening in your worship.

And if you say, “That’s tough. We don’t bow to the culture,” you’re missing the point. The way to be counter-cultural is not by intentionally turning people away with your methodology. The way to be counter-cultural is to make the worship so appealing that the Holy Spirit has time to speak into their lives and transform their hearts into followers of Christ. You can’t do that if you run them off at the beginning of the service.

If you want to be able to speak to this culture, begin worship with your best piece of music for the morning, something that says “Something great is going to happen here today.” If you have to do announcements, don’t lead off with them. Please.

You say where do we put them – anywhere but the beginning. Put them at the middle or the end. Put them on the screen as people arrive. Or better yet don’t do announcements. Worship isn’t about selling your wares. Worship is about thanking God for what God has already done in your life. Keep it that way as much as you can.

Mistake Number Three – making the first staff hire a Youth Director instead of a Worship Leader. 

There is an old saying that “the youth are the future of the church.” This saying is both true and false. Youth are the future of some one’s church, but not your church. Most youth move on when they graduate from High School. Depending on how grounded they are in the faith they may wind up at someone else’s church in the future, so discipling them is extremely important. However, it has little to do with the future of your church.

In addition, most churches don’t have enough youth to make their first hire a part time Youth Director much less a full time person. Unless you have 100 or more youth in regular attendance on Sunday, or one day in the week, you don’t need a full time Youth Director. Until you have 50 or more youth in attendance, the pastor or someone trained by the pastor should lead the group.

Most church leaders still haven’t gotten the message – the world we live in has one universal language – Rock n Roll music. People around the world can lip-synch the music even if they don’t speak English.

If you look at the church plants that do well from the beginning the vast majority of them have either paid part time or full time worship leader. Today, music is an essential part of the message people hear. Make your first hire a Worship Leader who loves Jesus and understands today’s culture.

Over twenty years of consulting with more than 40 denominations has allowed me to see some common tactical mistakes made by church leaders. Although I have seen many mistakes, six stand out as the most common tactical mistakes made by church leaders (I have ranked them according to the damage they can do to a church’s ministry).  Usually these mistakes are hallmarks of declining congregations. So if your church is declining, and you are doing any of the following, it will be in your best interest to change your tactics.

Mistake Number One -failure to combine evangelism and social justice into the fabric of the church. The entire debate between traditional and emergent churches stems from this failure. Any form of reductionism truncates the Gospel.

Mistake Number Two -putting a long section of announcements at the beginning of the worship service.  It’s like tuning into the beginning of a sitcom only to find all of the commercials loaded up front before anything else happens. Instead, begin worship with a rousing piece of music that says “Something great is going to happen here today.” If you have to do announcements, don’t lead off with them. Please.

Mistake Number Three – making the first staff hire a Youth Director instead of a Worship Leader.  Most church leaders still have not gotten the message – the world we live in has one universal language – Music, and mostly Rock n Roll.

Mistake Number Four – the lead pastor in a church under five hundred in worship does not personally contact first time guests within 48 hours. I know much of the prevailing wisdom is people are  more likely to return to your church if the laity visits them.  It’s just not so.  Pastor, if your church is under five hundred in worship, visit your first time guests within 48 hours.

Mistake Number Five -hiring Associate Pastors who are generalist rather than specialists. The day of generalists is coming to an end.

Mistake Number Six -asking a paid, retired Associate Pastor to be responsible for visiting the guests.  Our experience is that people under the age of 40 respond better to someone either their age or younger than they are.

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

Earlier I blogged about what it takes to grow a church from 0-500. Now here are my thoughts about why churches fail to break the 200 in worship barrier.

• The church loses its focus on evangelism and turns inward on itself
• The laity starts running the church instead of inviting their networks.
• The pastor does not respond personally to every signed in visitor with 24-48 hours.
• Either the pastor fails to hand-off most ministries or the church expects the pastor to do the ministry and to care for all the people.
• The pastor either doesn’t learn how to hire, grow, and fire staff or a church committee does the hiring and firing of all staff.
• The church doesn’t see the need to hire more staff, especially a solid worship leader.
• The church members expect the pastor to focus on them now that there are enough people to sustain the budget.

I’m constantly asked about the keys to moving through the various barriers churches face. Over the years I compiled my list.  Since this post was lost in the transfer of our site, I’m reposting it.

1. Staff becomes far more essential to the journey.
2. Pastor has to hone his or her hiring skills.
3. All staff has to learn new skills.
4. Parking begins to become a much bigger issue.
5. The back door becomes a growing issue.
6. Systems begin to come into play in order to identify new people and close the back door.
7. Pastor and Staff have to learn how to hand-off ministry.

Bill Easum
www.churchconsultations.com