Bill Easums Observations

I was just interviewed by a young man who was doing research on multi sites for his seminary degree. He was quite thorough and seemed to have read the waterfront on the subject. What got my attention were two insights I was not aware of.

The first insight was that I was the second person to mention multi sites and the first to predict they would become the norm (Lyle Schaller was the first).  On page 92 in my book, Dancing with Dinosaurs  (1993), I wrote that multiple-site churches were becoming common.  In 2003, Dave Travis and I wrote Beyond the Box in which we wrote that one of the five trends of the time was multi-site churches and we were the first to list a typology of multi-sites.

Well the future has come to pass.  There are now thousands of multi-site churches and many are predicting that by 2020 there will be 30,000 such churches.

I was having dinner last night with a good friend, Greg Kappas of Grace Global Network, and he asked what are the trends I’m seeing today.  My response was quick- mutli-sites and mergers.  I went on to say that I prefer multi-site over church plants because the success rate for mutli-sites is 5 to 1 to church plants.  There are a variety of reasons for this:

• The original site has good DNA to reproduce
• The original site has the resources both money and staff
• The original site has good name/brand recognition in the area

The other trend I mentioned was mergers.  There are two kinds of mergers.

• Those coming together due to economics
• Those coming together for missional purposes

In the world of mergers those that come together for missional purposes may become a trend in the future.

When I was growing up if I wanted to play football I had to go out into the neighborhood and put together a team. Playing ball was a neighborhood sport.  Not so any more. Consider the following.

Today most children who want to play football are driven to an organized program that may consist of children from all across the city.  Children will develop friends from many neighborhoods.

Or consider this.  Today children go on line and play games with children all over the world.

So who is our neighbor? It sure isn’t our immediate neighborhood (one exception is the inner city kids who are forced to spend their lives in the immediate area due to economics).

The world is our neighborhood. The internet has changed every rule of the game of communication.

This past week alone I have received over a dozen emails from people living outside the U.S. – Guatemala, South Africa, Ghana, Switzerland, and this doesn’t count the communication via twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

The world being our neighborhood has profound effects on churches wanting to expand God’s Kingdom. Consider churches that have satellites in more than one city, state, and nation. The world is their neighborhood.

Now more and more people are attending church via the internet within the privacy and comfort of their own home.  Some even attend with a friend in the area or with someone across the ocean. It doesn’t matter where you are if you attend worship virtually.

And still most mainline leaders still think of the neighborhood church as one that is confined to a small geographical area. No wonder Mainline churches are declining.

Most established mainline churches were originally located 500 ft. from where they should have been planted.  It didn’t matter if you could see them from a main street- you lived in the neighborhood and either walked or drove past it on your way to home. Then came the freeways and people could go to just about any part of any size town in less time than it used to take them to walk to the grocery store.

I could go on but you get my drift.  We live in a big world and as such need a big vision. How Big is your Vision.

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

Coming up in September we will celebrate (if that is the proper word for it) the 10th anniversary of that fateful day in 9/11.  If there was any doubt that the world has fundamentally changed 9/11 should settle that.

Now the real question is what are you planning in the way of a celebration that is not only patriotic but more importantly effective in both communicating the Gospel and inviting people to faith? To do a really big day you need to start working on it now! If you haven’t yet given it a thought start the wheels turning now.

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

One of the things I’ve noticed over the years of consulting is that most declining churches wait until it’s almost too late to try to stop their decline. They will watch the worship attendance decline some 50-60% over a ten year period and do nothing about it.

But here’s the kicker  – they won’t do anything about it until the money begins to run out.  Then they call someone like me in to consult with them and show them how to save the church.

The problem now is that the income is so low it is hard for them to take a risk and redo everything. But unless they make a radical break from the past they have no future.  But it means throwing out almost everything they value and starting over. What are the odds they will do that?

Had they contacted someone like me while they were in the beginning part of the decline they would have had time to make incremental changes over a five year period.  Now they have to make radical changes within days after the consultation in order to have any type of future.

Keep in mind it takes most churches a decade to acknowledge they are in decline.  As long as they could afford staff to take care of them they seem happy. But when they have to let most of the staff go and reduce services, they finally realize that the end was near unless they do something. 

I’ve always marveled at how churches can just settle in and let the church unravel.  I guess it’s like everything else- instead of acknowleding the program they enter denial. 

Or perhaps it’s like the frog in the kettle – it happens so slowly no one seems to notice. That’s why I tell churches to monitor the vital signs monthly and at the first sign of decline take action. When I was pastoring we monitored monthly worship and small group attendance, the number of first time visitors and their percentage of joining and/or serving, and whether or not they were giving. We also monitored by department the number of children, youth, and adults.  The moment we saw anything take a quarterly decline we took action.

What about your church? Does it need to make a course correction NOW!  Or will you wait till it’s too late.

What are your thoughts and what do you do with your church to insure that the frog in the kettle doesn’t happen to you?

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

We received a note today on our advanced leadership forum that asked where was the place to begin talking with churches about stewardship.  My response was- stewardship of money comes from the heart.  That’s where you begin. 

Then a list of things I have believed for a long time surfaced in my pea brain.  I thought I would share them with you.

Here are some guidelines to developing stewards of money and providing income for your church.

• Our standard of living should not determine our standard of giving; instead our standard of giving should determine our standard of living.
• The New Testament model of stewardship of money is based not on what you give but on what you keep. 
• Life is meant to be given away; horde it and you wither and die; pass it on and you blossom and flourish.
• It’s not have much you give; it’s how much you have left after giving.
• If giving isn’t giving you joy and bringing your fulfillment, don’t give.
• God doesn’t need your money but you need to honor God’s claim on everything you are and have including your money.
• We’re not fully devoted followers of Jesus until we learn to master our money.
• Show me your checkbook and I’ll tell you who you are and who or what you worship.
• You’re not giving to the church; you’re giving to God’s mission in the world.
• Owe no more than you absolutely have to.

You can’t go wrong if your apply any of the above to your life.

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

It’s hard to believe how stupid and unchristian so called Christians can be.  The pastor, Terry jones who burned the Koran today ought to be kicked out of the church. No mercy for an idiot of his kind who presumes to be called by God.  Shades of the Crusades.  This man needs to be defrocked. He is not a representive of anyone other than the Devil. Pray for him and for his outster from his church.

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