Bill Easums Observations

Less is best when answering the question -What are the keys to growing a church from 900 to 2,000 in worship.

1. The key question is, what would I have to start or stop doing if our church were twice its size?  All staff must be constantly asking this question?
2. Hiring and Management of staff- setting goals and holding them to them.  Do I have the four or five basic roles in place –worship, administration, evangelistic and social outreach, and lay mobilization (Discipleship on steroids for adults, youth, and children)? What are your goals for each of the staff? Who are your Peter, James, and John? Are you the one who does the hiring and firing? Who actually leads the staff? How often do you have performance reviews? How do YOU know if each staff person is hitting on all cylinders?
3. Improving the quality of everything esp. worship. It is rare for all staff to grow from 700 to 2,000.
4. More than ample parking. Space will always be a problem if you grow forward.
5. Delegation and empower have to be required of all staff. Are your staff doers or equippers? Do they have “to be” lists that are more important than “to do” lists?
6. How well do the basic systems of our church work? Do you understand the basics of each of the following words? Systematic, Multiplication, Equipping, Redundancy , Intentionality, Accountability, Excellence, Ongoing learning?
7. What are the three or four signature ministries of our church?
8. Are your best people trained to invite their networks to church and even bring them with them?
9. Closing the back door. How many people are coming in the front door never to be seen again?
10. Small groups. Every person needs a place where everyone knows their name.

By Joshua Cooper Ramo

If you’re ready to stretch your brain and learn from a wide variety of disciplines then this is the one book you need to read this week. If you want to have insight into why few organizations or governments or churches or denominations don’t work anymore, this is a must read. And it is a fascinating read. So fascinating that you might be tempted to read it just for the pure pleasure of what it contains and miss the implications for your ministry.

Of course, to see the implications for your ministry, you must be willing to read between the lines. But that’s not hard if you’re looking.

The theme of the book is simple – in revolutionary times like today we need to learn to think and act like a revolutionary. The author’s goal is to explore a new way to think about problems as they arise and to develop new instincts.

The first half of the book explains what is happening today in regard to world power and why the world has been turned upside down.

The second half of the book offers what the author calls “Deep Security.” Deep Security involves

• Learning to view life differently
• Empathy toward our enemies
• Becoming resilient rather than defensive
• A will to innovate and improvise and anticipate
• Willing to share power, something he calls “swarming and “peer production”

This was one of the most fascinating books I’ve read this year. It’s not about ministry and yet it could have a profound impact on your ministry if you could incorporate some of his ideas.

Well, Citibank just showed that it doesn’t get it.  Because they aren’t allowed to give large bonuses because of the 365 billion in TARP money given them, they have just issued raises to all employees up to 50%. If you have a Citibank card it’s time to cut it up and get another credit card. It’s time to pull out any assests from Citibank.

Its also time for Obama to require them to pay back all our tax payers dollars. No one is bailing you or me out. I certainly haven’t gotten a bonus or a raise and I doubt if you have. Most of us are just thankful to have a job.  Citibank workers should feel the same.

It’s time to tell our government to get its brains in the game and quit giving our money away without huge strings attached.

Citibank, 50% raises in lieu of bonuses. Citibank is not doing well, and they got bailout money. What is going on?

Well,  you won’t believe this one.  Did you know that airlines can not ask about a pilots check ride results because of privacy laws.? The good old ACLU at work again. Did you know that every fatal crash has involved a pilot with a poor check ride record?

I used to have as private pilots liscense.  I know what is involved in a check ride- all the things you need to know in an emergency. And yet airlines can’t ask about this. We live in a gone mad world.

Yesterday Social Security recipients learned that for the first time in history Social Security recipients will not be getting a cost of living wage increase (COLA).  Well, that sucks. And if that was not enough in the same notice they learned that their charges for Medicare part B would be going up.

At the same time, we continue to hear about one bailout after another at a price tag of some 8.5 trillion and counting and we haven’t even addressed health and education. The adjusted cost for World War II was only 3.5 billion.

Now, let’s figure this out.

• Most people who pay into Social Security for 40 years will have to live to 83 to get their money back.
• There are 56 million senior citizens on Social Security in the U.S. Most of them lost anywhere from 1/3 to ½ of their retirement plan due to no fault of the people that are being bailed out.
• There are 14.5 unemployed people in the U.S. as of May 2009.
• The people who caused the mess are the recipients of some 8.5 trillion dollars.
• The people who had nothing to do with this mess get ZERO.
• Congressman and Senators receive a pension after only 5 years of service and their cost of living raise this year of $7,400 is still in effect.

I smell a rat. Don’t you? 

In case you have trouble figuring out how much 8.5 Trillion is, take a look at these comparisons. Crunching the inflation adjusted numbers, we find the bailout has cost more than all of these big budget government expenditures – combined:

• Marshall Plan: Inflation Adjusted Cost: $115.3 billion

• Louisiana Purchase: Inflation Adjusted Cost: $217 billion

• Race to the Moon: Inflation Adjusted Cost: $237 billion

• S&L Crisis: Cost: Inflation Adjusted Cost: $256 billion

• Korean War: Cost: Inflation Adjusted Cost: $454 billion

• The New Deal: Cost: Inflation Adjusted Cost: $500 billion (Est)

• Invasion of Iraq: Cost: $Inflation Adjusted Cost: $597 billion

• Vietnam War: Cost: Inflation Adjusted Cost: $698 billion

• NASA: Cost: Inflation Adjusted Cost: $851.2 billion

TOTAL: $3.92 trillion

It’s time to pray.

In my latest book, Doing Ministry in Hard Times, I included a chapter on Living in a Wildcard world.  I grew up in a wild card world where the probabilities far outweighed the wildcards.  You could, with a certain degree of accuracy, predict what would happen next. Today, it’s impossible because the wildcards outweigh the probabilities.

Here’s an excerpt from the book:

“Today’s world is filled with more wildcards than probabilities. If I were to list all the wildcards, this article would be too long. Let me mention a few of them in the order of their potential negative impact.

Terrorism
Global warming
Extreme global climate change
Nuclear proliferation
U.S. decline as a world power
Rising of China and Iran
Pakistan
Volatile world stock market
Oil prices

end of quote”

That’s quite a list.  Problem is it keeps getting longer and more dangerous. To lead in such a world we have to think the unthinkable and then ask, what now?

Now  I’m reading a book, The Age of the Unthinkable, and I’m finding confirmation for what Im thinking.

This morning was Pentecost Sunday. As I was setting in worship at a church Im consulting with  the pastor read from Acts 2:1-21. Man, that’s some text. I found myself saying “Are these people ready to hear this text? Are they able to believe the things the text says happened and will happen – people of different tonges hearing in their own language, sun turned to darkness, and the moon to blood?

My answer strong NO! What will it say to the first timer who has no faith? Will it cause them to conclude that Christianity is weird? 

Then I begin to think why I didn’t think these people could swallow the text no matter how they  interpreted it?

The answer is simple – the people in this church haven’t spent the last ten days cloistered away in constant prayer seeking God’s guidance about how to face the future.

Is your church any different? What might this say about what Scripture we use in public?

Give this some thought. Any conclusions?

Dan Kimball just finished his coaching session for 21st Century Strategies. His message- We shouldnt ask people to join the church; we should ask them to join a mission. His membership class teaches what does it mean to be serving on mission. He then lays hands on every new participant who has gone through the membership class. They each will say what mission they are on and they lay hands on them and commission them to be a missionary in their backyard and workplace and networks.

The church should be a sending church and a training center for local missionaries. It’s a shame that we understand sending missionaries to a foriegn field but we fail to understand that all Christians are “sent” into the world. That is the primary reason for salvation. We are saved to serve. We are redeem to share the good news. Like Abraham, we are blessed to be a blessing.

When was the last time you blessed someone by your presence or story?

I was born a few months before the German invasion of Poland. That makes me 70. I was too young to realize what was happening at that time. I just knew that there werent many men around those days. 16 million of them had gone to fight the war. Now we have a hard time putting 150,000 solideirs in Iraq. but I digress.

I ran across a wonderful post on Facebook. You can find it here. http://www.facebook.com/l/;www.williamvanderbloemen.com

All of us should stop today at 3:00 and have a moment of silence in honor of those who made it possible for us to live in freedom.  I know. Some of you are pacisfists and that’s okay. you can still give thanks.

So many have given so much for so many.

It’s hard to comprehend what the world would be today if Hitler and his allies had won the war. Give that some thought.

Fly your flag today. thats the least we can do.

Bill