Bill Easums Observations

Recently I have been asked by a couple of people why the pastor should know what everyone gives.  As one person said, “Doesn’t that cause you to play favorites?”

It just so happened that the next day I am asked to read the galleys of Clif Christopher’s new book titled, “Whose Offering Plate is It?” This is a a sequel to his best seller “It’s Not Your Father’s Offering Plate.” As usual this new book is a gold mine of information and guidance on money issues for the church.  And one of the Chapters is strictly on the question of why a pastor should know what everyone gives.  You need to read this book if you have any doubts about this issue.

I’m not going to give away Clif’s insights.  But I am going to answer the question from my own experience.

Yes, every pastor or executive pastor ought to know what everyone gives for at least the following two reasons:

• So that no one is in leadership who isn’t adequately giving to the church.  For me adequate means 10%.
• So that I know how to approach the person about their spiritual maturity.  No one reaches spiritual maturity until they master their money instead of it mastering them.

Two stories should help here.

The first story is about a Dr. in my church years ago who came to me for counseling.  He wasn’t getting out of his spiritual life what he hoped he would.  I knew that he was no where close to a tithe. So I told him he never will get out of his spiritual life what he wants as long as he holds back his wallet from God. If I hadn’t known what he was giving, I couldn’t have counseled him biblically. Whatever I would have said would have let him down the wrong road and left him with unreasonable expectations about his faith.

The second story is about a young blue collar couple just getting but were tithing.  The wife came down with some form of cancer and the treatments were eating them alive financially to the point that she stopped going to the doctor. When I heard that I went to them and said, “Stop tithing for now. God will understand. You need your treatments more than God needs your money.” If I had not known what they were giving I could not have intervened. And my intervention helped save her life.

The fact that so many church people are so passionately opposed to their pastor knowing what they give says that there is something positive about the pastor knowing what people give.

Pastor it’s time you know.  There is no defense for you not knowing

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

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.

by Bill Easum ©2010

I’ve lived through a number of seismic shifts the last twenty years.  These shifts have changed the way I think and consult and I’m watching how they have affected effective pastors. Those who haven’t assimilated these shifts lead declining churches and those who have assimilated them are leading growing churches. So I want to share them with you if the hope that you will incorporate them into your ministry. I’m only going to list them here.  If you want the full story, check out our website www.churchsoncultations.com and register to get our newsletter – On Track.

I’ve noted the shift from-

• more to less ministry
• the church being the hub of the community to being an outcast from the community
• congregational form of governance to apostolic leadership
• growing the church to growing the Kingdom
• place determining the scope of ministry to God determining the scope of ministry
• homogenous congregations to multi ethnic congregations
• churches that plant a church to churches that have church planting as their DNA
• seeing more churches close every year than are being opened to more churches being planted each year than being closed
• mainline dominance to the rise of the non-denominational church

The interesting about these shifts is that they are just the tip of the iceberg when you think about the next couple of decades. Who knows what these shifts will cause to happen in the future? Stay tuned for what will be a wild ride.

Want to know the whole story? Go to www.churchconsultations.com

I ran across a method of following up on first time visistors that I am now recommending in my Double Day campaign. I thought I would share it with you.

On Monday morning send a FedEx package to every first time visitor who signs in and include all or some of the following:

• a veggie tale CD for children, or an appropriate CD for a youth, a CD introducing the adult ministries and leaders of the church
• a 25% discount to your bookstore
• an invitation to the next Pastor’s Gathering
• and an assortment of any other items that might be appropriate to your church.

You can be sure any Fed Ex package is going to be opened.

I just did an interview with Frank Viola on his and Sweet’s new book, The Jesus Manifesto. You can view it free at http://bit.ly/fviola .

In case you haven’t noticed lately there have been a host of books focusing on the pastors character and spiritual development. Not only that but many conferences are now featuring the importance of spiritual development of the pastor. One of the most notable books on the subject of the devotional life of the pastor is Sweet and Viola’s book, The Jesus Manifesto (you can see my very positive review of this book in an earlier blog).

Now don’t get me wrong.  I’m all for the spiritual development of the pastor. Lord knows with all of the recent moral failures we could all do with getting closer to God. In fact I’ve said many times that a pastor should spend a lot of time on his own spiritual development.  BUT not at the expense of our Lord’s last command which was to “go make disciples…”

My fear is that with all of this emphasis on the spiritual life of the pastor many pastors will take that as their number on priority as a pastor. And if that happens the church will decline even faster than it is.

We need a healthy balance between the spiritual and the practical. I must emphasize Jesus used the word “go” when giving us his last command. He didn’t say “stay with me.”  He said, “now that you have been with me, GO” (a loose translation).

I guess it all depends on how you define “spiritual.” In my book, Unfreezing Moves, I define it as the point at which most of what a person does is directed toward those who have never given their life to Christ. If that is what is being meant by all of the emphasis on spirituality, then I’m all for it. If we are becoming more like Christ then we are becoming more willing to die for those who have not yet accepted the Good News.

 I just don’t want anyone to think that spending most of our time  becoming like Jesus means that we should hold up in our office, reading the Word and praying for ourselves and others, when outside the world is going to Hell. We must keep a balance. That’s all I’m saying.