Bill Easums Observations

I day dream a lot. Some might even say I fantasize.  It’s my own little world. I dream about winning the biggest billfish tournament in the world. I dream about seeing my wife again in this world. I dream about making a difference in the world. I dream about what I could do with ten million dollars.  And I have a ball doing it.  Sometimes I actually get lost in thought and don’t notice anything around me.

I shared this one day with a pastor friend of mine. His response explained to me why his church was dying.  He said, “I don’t have time to day dream. I have too much stuff to do each day.” Now keep in mind his church was over50 years old and had less than 100 members. And he had too much “stuff” to do-impossible unless he was smothering them to death. What a waste of a life.

Every successful person I’ve ever known day dreams about what could be.  Some even actually put it on their calendar. I haven’t been able to do that. I just let it happen when it wants to.

When was the last time you dreamed about something you feel is impossible? If you never have you might find that some things you thought were impossible just seemed that way.

Let me ask you a question. Why do you think Ben Franklyn hoisted that first kite? Ten dollars said he had sat around for some time day dreaming about what might happen if he could capture lightning.

What could you achieve if you let go of a lot of “pastor stuff” and day dreamed about changing the world?

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.

One of the things I’ve noticed over the years is that pastors, for one reason or another, are the most disorganized group on the planet. I know because I’m one of them. I know once, years ago, I was suppose to have dinner with a member of the church. And I forgot. Did I have egg on my face. Don’t let that happen to you.

Too many have problems keeping appointments, getting work done ahead of time, or finishing the sermon by Wednesday instead of Saturday.

I think one of the reasons for this disorganization is because they do not have an 8 to 5 schedule. This flexible schedule changes from day to day.  So they are free most of the time to set their own agenda.  Secondly, they have so much on their plate that they move from one situation to another based more on the demand than on strategy.

So, if you are one of the majority of pastors who is disorganized, I have some helpful hints.

• Consult your personal calendar first thing every morning (that’s assuming you keep one).
• Have your secretary keep your calendar and remind you each morning of what you have scheduled.
• I’ve found that using Outlook on my computer and cell phone is the way I keep on tract.  I sync them every day.
• On really important items I set the alarm on my clock to remind me that there is something I’m suppose to do at that time.

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?

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

I had a conversation today that caused me to think.  The pastor had a lot of balls in the air.  In fact too many.  So the the thought came to me about another rule of management (see previous post).

Rule Number Six:  Never be too Buy to Lead. Sounds like a no brainer but I challenge you to evaluate how many hours you are working and if you have a staff how much time do you spend leading them?  If you are working over 50 hours a week and little to none of it is on managing staff then you are too busy to lead.

Think about it.  Growing a church requires doing triage with your time.  You can’t be all things to all people and have the time to strategically hire the right staff and hold them accountable to the clearly defined goals. When you’re small (under 500) you have to take the time to learn how to hire and fire and set clear expectations.  When you grow you have to spend time evaluating staff and replacing those who don’t meet your expectations.  If you have never hired any or much staff you don’t know the countless hours are spent searching, interviewing, and vetting a new person.  It takes a lot of time.  And if you’re tired from being busy the odds are you will make the wrong choice.  Then the real fun begins- cleaning up a bad hire. It can get ugly.

Rule Number Seven:  Learn to Listen.Someone in the group suggested this practice and I agree. And it takes time to listen carefully enough to the hopes and dreams of staff to know how to help them succeed.  Remember, the basic rule of thumb in a church over 400 in worship is learning to measure your success by what others achieve under your leadership.

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

What is the one thing a leader needs the most to succeed? If we have the answer to that questions, everything else falls into place. So here goes.

The thing most needed for someone to succeed as a leader is a deep conviction that what they are attempting is God’s plan for them at this given moment.

Sounds simple?

Well, too many pastors I know try to lead a church where ever it wants to go rather than where God wants it to go.   And many pastors get upset with me when I say “If you aren’t sure what God has called you to do in this particular place you might as well quit.

Too many pastors arrive at a new church with their only goal being to get the lay of the land and to find out what the people want them to do. In fact, many pastors don’t have a plan or a conviction as to what must be done for the church to thrive.  So they ask the people what they think they should do.  If they knew, the church wouldn’t be declining.

I asked a pastor the other day, what he intended to happen during his tenure at a new church.  He honestly said he had no clue. Do you know why God put you there? No, he said.

Every successful pastor I’ve known had a plan for the new church from day one. Every successful pastor I’ve know went about doing what God called him or her to be and to do from day one, even if it wasn’t what the church leaders wanted.

Leadership is the conviction that God has put you there for a purpose and having the conviction to follow through from the beginning.

Every time a leader goes through a church barrier three changes have to take place in the leaders life

• has to develop a new skill set
• has to change the value system
• has to change the way he or she spends their time.

My partner and I wrote extensively about these three changes in our new book “Effective Staffing for the Vital Church: The Essential Guide for Finding and Keeping the Right People.”

You can find our new book at Amazon.com or at Baker Books.

I was speaking Thursday in Baltimore when i mentioned that there are only four things that grow a church and that I had never seen a church doing these four things that wasn’t growing.  In fact, I challenged them to put those four things in place and if they didnt grow I would give them $10,000.

About that time someone raised their hand and asked, What are the four things.” So I proceeded to share the four things that grow a church.

• You must constantly invite people to Christ and/or your church.
• You must have a system in place to connect with them and cause them to return again and again.
• You must disciple them into followers of Jesus.
• You must send them back out into the community to back yard missionaries.

Sounds simple doesn’t?  But each of these four core processes takes time, energy, and money.  Someone has to make sure they happen every day. Depending on the size of the church it is either the pastor and volunteers or a paid staff person for each process.

But nothing else a church does matters as much as they four things.

Then someone asked “How can we learn more about what these four staff positions look like.”

“Well,” I said.  Our new book on staffing just hit the shelves.  It’s called Effective Staffing for Vital Churches: The Essential Guide to finding and keeping the right people.

You can find the book at Amazon.com or through Baker Books. I think it is one of the best books our group has ever published.

But don’t word for it – read what others are saying about it.

Rick Warren:”This book is a winner.”

Dave Ferguson: “A tremendous help for church leaders”

Darrin Patrick: “I wish I had had this book when I started”

You can also go our website www.effectivestaffing.us to read three chapters from the book and a video on Time Management when you and sign up ‘

We’re here to help you grow your church.