Bill Easums Observations

1. Did the planter develop a team first?
2. If so, how long were they together before planting?
3. Who was on the team and what responsibilites did they have?
4. Did the planter have the Mission and core values in place first?
5. How many hours did the planter spend in the field with unchurched and in the office and church meetings?
6. Why does the pastor think it failed?
7. Why do the people think it failed?
8. How much financial support did they have?
9. What are the top spiritual gifts of the pastor?
10. Did they do a DISC profile and if so was the pastor a high D or C?
11. How good a communicator was the pastor
12. How good was the worship?
13. What was in place to disciple the people?
14. Were most of the first group of worshippers from other churches of the same denomination or where they new Christians?

Well, I could list several but one stands out above all the rest – the pastor gets caught up in the church machinery and loses sight of what makes it all go around – building the Kingdom one person at a time.

I’ve watched dozens of church planters get 125 people in worship by focusing on getting butts in the seats only to shift gears around 125 and start worrying about developing leaders or organization. And guess what happens, new people stop showing up.

The same thing happens in established churches.  Now the members expect to be entitled and the lost are forgotten.

So don’t take your eye off the prize.  Bringing people into the Kingdom and the Church is the most important task on earth. Don’t lose it.

Bill
www.effectivechurch.com

I will be at Exponential 2011 this year all three days with four workshops.  If you plan on being there, it would be great to connect. Just email me and let me know.

Exponential is one of the largest gatherings of church planters on the planet.  It delivers quite a punch over three days.  If you’re wanting to help be part of a movement of church planting you should try to attend. The dates are April 26-29

My workshops during the three days are

Turn Around Churches
Nomadic Churches (churches that rent)
Staffing a Missional Church for Leadership Multiplication

I hope to see you there.
Bill
www.churchconsultations.com
easum@aol.com

Over the years I’ve noticed that a good number of church plants grow for two or three years and then plateau and then decline.  It’s not unusual for a church to grow to 150-200 over a three year period and then go nowhere.  My experience has been two reasons are cause of this failure to continue to grow.

1. The pastor changes his or her focus from getting butts in the seats to taking care of the membership, tinkering with organization, and formalizing leadership.  This shift seems to be due to a couple of things: one, the laity begin to whine about not being taken care of; and two, it is easier to work with participants than to continue bringing butts into the seats.  I’ve found that until the church reaches 500 in worship the pastor’s main focus should be on getting butts in the seats.
2. As the church grows the pastor fails to hand-off ministry as soon as possible.  Often the pastor enjoys ministry so much that he or she hoards all the good ministry and robs the laity of the joy of serving. The more the pastor continues to do the more self-centered the laity become and the cycle continues to deepen.

So what’s the solution?  Keep your focus on getting butts in the seats and handing off ministry like crazy. And as you hand it off watch and see how well people function- your future leadership may well come out of some simple hand-off.

Now if you have a need to be needed and just can’t hand-off ministry you shouldn’t have planted a church- shouldn’t be a pastor either of any kind of church.  Remember Eph. 4:11-12? It’s the role of the pastor to equip the saints.

I teach these truths with football images. Pastors, like coaches, don’t play they game; they coach the players (laity).  Pastors, like coaches, are also scouts or have scouts who recruit, that look for future players.  The key is to scout, recruit, and coach people into becoming all God intended them to be. That’s the jest of Eph. 4;11-12

I had a conversation today with a lady in an ontario bookstore where they were doing a book signing for some of my books.  We were talking about a couple of new books that I had recommended- And and Exponential, niehter of which are on Amazon.ca yet. She said I guess they are talking about another Reformation. 

After some reflection I corrected her.  I don’t think what I see happening in the States is another Reformation or renewal. Most of these churches haven’t been around more than 25 years.  I think a better description of what is happening is “liftoff.”  It just could be that these books, along with Viral Churches, are describing the liftoff of a new movement that may change the face of the U.S.

This liftoff may be fueled by the collaboration between Verge and Exponential.  This is the Macro meets the Micro which is long overdue. Next years Exponential Convention will showcase the collaboration of the two.  It’s a new world.

I’m working with a church established in the 1990s that grew up to 200 the year it moved into its permanent building in the late 90’s. Then it began to decline and has been declining every year since and is now down in the low 100’s.

We see this kind of decline often in new church plants when they finally get a permanent home. Prior to having a place of permanence much of the focus of the church is on reaching more people and increasing attendance.  That is the only way a church planter achieves his or her goal of planting a church. It takes people to plant and grow a new church. Then a new set of pastors come along and the focus shifts from reaching more people to taking care of who we’ve got.

On key to reversing the decline then is clear – you have to return your focus to reaching more people for Christ rather than taking the people you have deeper in their faith. There is a fine line between just gathering a crowd for the sake of survival and gathering a crowd for the sake of discipling them.

Every strong church always has two primary thrusts- one outward to reach more people and one inward to disciple those who show up.  Many of the ministries listed in the audit lean more toward the inward thrust.  To reverse the decline you must place more emphasis on outreach to the community for the sole purpose of them participating in worship..

When a person plants a church that person has one all consuming passion – to get more people in the seats so that a viable community of faith is established. Increasing the numbers is everything and when it isn’t the church plant fails.  Over time there is a slight shift of emphasis toward discipling those who have been gathered, but even then the discipling is done in the context of growing the Kingdom more than growing individuals.  In other words individuals grow more like Christ when they are focused not on themselves but on those who have not yet heard. So most of the discipling takes place on the mission field more than in the class room.

A second key to reversing the decline often around 125 in worship is the either the congregation begins to demand the pastor focus on them and/or one or two controllers try to wrestle leadership away from the pastor and control what the pastor does. From here the church become conflicted and triangulated. Conflicted churches simply don’t grow.

Bill Easum
www.churchconsultations.com