Bill Easums Observations

Last week I was in Eugene Oregon at Wayne Cordeiro’s farm working with Leadership Network.  There were two other mentors like Wayne and myself along with around 20 25-35 year old pastors.  All of them were outside of the mainstream, were leading growing churches, and were multi site or were getting ready to go multi site. The conversation was stimulating and challenging.  It was also refreshing to hear stories of growth and reproduction of leaders for the multiple locations.

The event was just another road sign along the way showing how much things have been changing over the past thirty years.  We have gone from mainline to sideline; from print to digital; from local to glocal; from programs to leadership paths. All in all there isn’t much left of the old world except in the old world churches of mainline protestantism.

That begs a question – why is mainline dying and a new breed of thriving churches emerging? There were more new churches planted last year than were closed. There is such a disconnect between mainline and sideline.  All mainline wants to discuss is how to revitalize their churches whereas all sideline churches want to talk about is how to reach the next neighbor for Christ.

I’m off the end of this week to discuss this issue with a Presbyterian church in Toledo Ohio. I’m asked to talk about where the mainline church is going and what the future will look like.  It’s not a pretty picture for those who decide to live in the old world instead of doing like Paul and take the message into a strange new world. The message will never change but the delivery system will. I think multi-site is a trend not a fad because that is the way the church grew the first two centuries.

Bill Easum

www.effectivechurch.com

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 just finished a book titled “Just Start.” It is a book right up my alley. I’ve long been a proponent of Ready-Fire-Aim so this book fits me like a glove.  I highly recommend it especially if your church is stuck or declining.

The premise of the book is that in an unpredictable world like we live in today you never learn what will or won’t work until you act.  The authors put it this way – You Act, Learn, and then build.  In an unpredictable future traditional learning and thinking will only get us in trouble.  What we need to is what they call “Creaction.”  Today we create by acting, not thinking.

Now apply this to the Church. Many of our churches are built around a committee structure that tries to analyze this life out of an idea or issue before acting on it.  A committee may spend months, even years, trying to decide if they should attempt a new ministry. In most cases that is all they do – think about it. Instead the authors suggest, in Nike fashion, “Just do it; see what you learn; and then build the future.”

Now I know this is counter intuitive to most clergy.  Seminary, if anything, teaches us to think. It makes thinkers out of us, not doers.  This may have made sense in a predictable world, but not in the kind of world we live in today where much of what we depend on didn’t exist 25 years ago.

So if you want to drive your committees crazy, ask them to read this book.  It just might open some eyes to the fact that if you keep thinking the way you are thinking you will keep getting what you’ve been getting.

Two Axioms for Effective Ministry

Distractions dilute desire. Don’t kid yourself. Distractions can re-rail even the most focused person especially in a church setting where so many members are still in spiritual diapers and expect the pastor to do everything spiritual for them.

Focus fuels desire.  The more a person focuses on something the more that person desires to see it fulfilled and the quicker that person pulls the trigger and takes action.  When desire for something consumes a person’s waking moment the odds are that something is going to happen either good or bad.

Desire to see the Kingdom fulfilled on earth is what separates the effective from the mediocre pastor.

With all your heart, do you desire to see the Kingdom come on earth?

Everyone of who follows my stuff knows I am a great fan of the local church. It is fundamental to the growth of the Kingdom, along with other forms of being the Church. I have no trek with those who say the day of the local church is over.

I can’t stand what the vast majority of mainline churches and many sideline churches have become.  They set back a wait for people to show up like a spider that spins its web waits for an unsuspecting victim. I call this the Jerusalem effect and the build it and they will come effect.  Oddly enough, this approach to evangelism worked when I started ministry over 50 years ago.  Today, however very few unchurched people come to worship on their own.

Interestingly enough a friend gave me a url to Mike Breens blog . It was right up my ally. I thought I would share a couple of his quotes with you.

“So let us be clear: missionaries are always better than mission projects. Leaders are more necessary then volunteers. And disciples are surely what we’re going for rather than mere converts.”

I couldn’t agree more.  I’ve always told churches that volunteers, missions committees, and programs are not the way to go.  In our new book , Effective Staffing for the Vital Church, I talk about “backyard missionaries.”  Everyone needs to be trained to be a missionary in their everyday life.  Also disciples are needed not volunteers.

Here is another goodie.

“There is a paradigm shift that needs to happen. We need to move from being a worshipping body that sometimes does mission to a missional body that gathers to celebrate and worship.”

I have started telling leaders that it is not enough to have small groups that make disciples; now small groups need to the missionary arm of the church.  Each small group needs a mission in the community.

That leads to Breen’s last comment I want to highlight.

“Missional communities are the training wheels that teach us how to ride the bike of oikos.”

Now this is brilliant.  He’s talking about 20-30 people acting as an extended family taking the message to their communities.  We need to focus on training Mom and Dad, Aunts and Uncles, etc. to help their extended families be those backyard missionaries we talk about.

What is your church doing to make backyard missionaries?

Thanks to the dozens of you who attempted to answer the brain twister posted on Facebook. Whereas no one got all of the elements correctly many of you got part of it right. So let me share with you what I would want to tell this church. Ill summarize it for our use and I will put the brain twister at the end of this post.

The church has made one of the most basic mistakes a church can make- it built without adding staff and without adequate parking. Usually when a church moves into a new worship center worship attendance jumps 20-30 percent.  But because of not having enough staff to disciple the new people and because they under-built the parking within 18 months the attendance drops back to where it was.

1. Within the next 12 months add the equivalent of two full time program/pastoral staff.

The rule of thumb in a mainline church is the equivalent of one full time staff person per 100-125 people in worship.  If the church has a true small group system in place that ratio can go as high as one to five hundred. But this church did not have a small group system.  So that means the church is short one and a half to two full time program/pastoral staff.

A church this size really doesn’t need an associate. Associates are too expensive and laypeople can be trained to do the visitation with the exception of the new visitors which in this case should either be the pastor or someone paid part time who is under the age of 45.  The Worship Leader should be made full time and the choir director should be reduced to ¼ time.  It is also doubtful if a church this size needs a full time Youth Director- only if the church runs 150 different youth in average attendance during a full week. So ideally what you should do is reduce the Youth Director to part time.

There are also too many people in the office.  A church this size doesn’t need two full time secretaries and someone in finance.  So I would let one secretary go and have the one secretary cover all the staff as well as train volunteers to answer the phone and other odds and ends.

When all is done here is what I would recommend for this church – Lead Pastor, full time worship leader, part time choir director and youth director, full time children’s director.  This equals four full time people.  Then I would add two people to oversee three ministries at the moment which as the church grow would be hived off into three full time staff people- outreach to attract new people, small groups, and servant evangelism (how this would be divided up depends on each one’s gifts.  Now the four core processes are in covered.  By eliminating and reducing some staff the additional two staff people will not be prohibitive.

1. Within six months add 200 parking spaces.  They can do this because they own 20 acres.  The rule of thumb here is one parking space for every two people on the property at the peak hours.
2. Move the 8:00 service to 8:30 and the 10:30 service to 10:00 and move Sunday School to 10:00 with worship for children and youth.  10:00 is now the number one time for worship in the U.S.  and their new worship center will seat 800 people so they don’t need a third service at the moment.  There will be some push back about on this because some families want their children with them in worship.

Now this would be the goal I would shoot for when I arrived at the church. However, nothing is ever perfect so I would have to evaluate how much of the above I can recommend.  I would have one bottom line – add the parking and ad at least one staff person for outreach, small groups, and servant evangelism or continue to decline.

Here is the Brain Twister

“Here’s a brain twister for pastor’s who want to grow their church. I will have to give this church a response next week. What would you tell them to do?

1. They are at 499 in worship including adults, youth, and children.
2. They have 100 parking spaces and people come to church with 2.0 people per car.
3. They have two services, one at 8:00 with 100 (Traditional) and the other at 10:30 with 399 people (contemporary).
4. Sunday School is at 9:15 in the morning.
5. They have four fulltime pastoral/program staff people – Lead Pastor, Associate Pastor responsible for picking up after the pastor and doing visitation to shut-inns, new visitors and hospitals, Director of Children’s ministry and Youth director.  They have two full time Secretaries, a half time choir director, a quarter-time Worship Leader, and a half-time person in finances.

The church just moved into its first permanent location and grew from 400 to 558 in the first three months and a year later is back down to 510 in worship.

What’s wrong with this picture and what you tell them they need to do?”

One of the main bugaboos of many pastors is learning how to staff a church.  When in reality knowing how to staff is simple if you just use your noggin.

The following is based on any size church. If under 500 some of the following staff are volunteer or one paid staff may oversee two or more of the following.  By the time the church is over 500 there should be a paid staff, part or full time, over each of these.

One, staff to increase the number of new visitors on Sunday.  If the number of visitors isn’t increasing each year sooner or later the church stalls and begins to decline.  It’s really that simple. So you need a staff person to insure the number of first time people increases.  Up to 500 in worship the pastor should cover this one.

Two, staff to assimilate new people.  It’s easier to keep new people than it is to attract new people. So you need an assimilation system in place and someone to oversee it.  In most churches this person is a worship leader who understands the importance of hospitality.

Three, staff to disciple people.  Under 500 this is spread throughout all the staff. But around 500 small groups should become a major concern and will need someone to oversee it.  If you don’t do small groups, then what are you doing to disciple people.  Very few people are discipled by simply attending worship.

Four, staff to send people out into the community to become backyard missionaries. The true measure of a church is not its size but what difference is it making in the community. So you need someone to organize weekly events in the community where a growing number of participates in worship are in the community doing three things: blessing the community; blessing the ones serving; and creating visibility.

So there you have it. See how simple it is?

Now finding and keeping the right people isn’t that easy.  That is one of the reasons why my partner, Bill Tenny-Brittian, and I wrote the book, Effective Staffing for the Vital Church: The Essential Guide to Finding and Keeping the Right People.  You can find it at Amazon.com

Our new book, Effective Staffing for Vital Churches is now on sale in print and for the Kindle version and maybe Nook Nov. 1. 67  Many have pre-ordered and we thank you.   We believe it is one of our best books to date.  Rick Warren thought so also. He wrote “This book is a winner.”

We are getting reports from people who are reading it.  Here is a comment from Randy on Facebook

Randy wrote: “I just received my copy. I am already resonating with the idea of an Antioch Church vs the more common models churches use to justify existence…to partner with God to change/transform the world is exciting and life-changing!”

Here is a brief excerpt from the book

“Because people no longer come to church on their own, the church must
spend most of its time, energy, and money filtering people out into the
community. The measurement of effectiveness shifts from “how many in
worship?” to “how much difference is the church making in its efforts to
transform the city?” The question “What is God doing in our community that
we can be part of?” is replacing, “How can we get more people to come to
church?”

We have a website for the book at www.effectivestaffing.us where you can order the book or if you want a closer look before purchasing it you can get two free chapters.

In the book you will discover

• Discover the Four Core Processes every effective church must staff.
• Learn how effective church leaders of growing churches manage their time.
• How to not make the #1 staffing mistake almost every church makes.
• How to ask the right questions so you can hire the right people with confidence.
• Master the skill of coaching your staff … including how to hold them accountable for results.
• When it’s time to hire the next staff member, and what position you need next.
• The skills you need and the personal values that must change as youlead your church through each growth barrier.

Go grab your copy

In our new book, Effective Staffing for Vital Churches, we write that all churches are missional or they aren’t a church.  Michael Slaughter fell in love with the book at that point.  Here is a brief excerpt

“We believe every church is missional or it isn’t a church! But we use the
word a bit differently than most of the books written on the Missional
Church. We believe every true church is focused more on transforming
the world than on building up its own membership. We subscribe more
to the type of ministry seen in the Antioch church than to the ministry of
Jerusalem church. The Antioch church was focused outward on the
world whereas the Jerusalem church was more focused on itself and how
to care for its people.
• We also believe churches that sit around waiting for people to come to
them have stopped being a church and that a purely Attractional church
has no validity on a mission field.
• Finally, we believe a church can be a church with or without a building.
The church isn’t about buildings; it’s about people. So we reject the longstanding
exercise taught children – “Here’s the church; here’s the
steeple; look inside and see all the people.”

How do you feel about the above statement?

And thanks to all of you who have pre-ordered our new book.

Bill
www.effectivechurch.com

Yesterday I wrote about the three changes every pastor needs to go through when a church moves through a growth barrier.  Although there are many interpretations of what these barriers are in our book, Effective Staffing for Vital Churches we  dealt with the broad barriers of 100, 200, 500, 1000+.  Passing through each of these barriers causes enormous strain on the mindset and culture of the church itself as well as its leaders.  As churches grow staff become more essential. Churches approaching the 100 barrier need to be thinking staff.  In fact, most of the church plants we deal with begin with some staff including a Worship Leader and someone to work  with children.  And by the time a church reaches the 1000 barrier staff are as important if not more important collectively than the Lead Pastor because of the number of relationships they have.

Most churches do not understand nor appreciate the importance of staff to their churches health both spiritually and physically. Our book sets out the reasons why growing a church depends on the number and quality of staff not in doing ministry but by multiplying themselves by mentoring and equipping the laity to do the ministry God intended for them to do.

We make the case for the Keystone of all staffing to be equipping and sending people out into the local mission field to be backyard missionaries to their community.   You can read more about staffing in our book Effective Staffing for Vital Churches: Finding and Keeping the Right People.

it will available Nov. 1 in print and for Kindle. You can get it at Amazon.com or Baker Books.