Many of you know my wife has been in the hospital for over 30 of the last 55 days. Three times she has had to spend a week or more in the hospital and they still haven’t found the reason she bleeds when they put her on plavics.
She is home now and although her struggle is not over , we appreciate all the prayers from our friends around the world. They mean so much and we just wanted to say “Thank you.”
Bill and Jan
Everyone leaves a legacy of some kind either good or bad. But what kind of a good legacy has the most impact on making a difference in the world? A legacy of “who.”
Your legacy is not so much “what” you leave behind as it is “who” you leave behind. Leadership doesn’t depend on how many followers we have. Leadership depends on how many people we equip to lead. Leadership isn’t how much a leader accomplishes in life. Leadership is about what we cause to happen in the lives of others.
That’s why in my book Leadership on the OtherSide I use the metaphor of a “spiritual midwife” to described the primary role of a leader. Like a midwife, the spiritual midwife assists people in the birth of the gift God has given them. The spiritual midwife knows that birthing that gift is a life and death issue. To live life without every birthing our God-given gift is like not living.
So who are you mentoring?
Bill Easum
www.churchconsultations.com
Last night the Chinese couple, Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo, won an Olympic gold medal in the pairs free program figure skating competition. That’s a major accomplishment. But when you realize they had been skating for the gold for 18 years and both were in their 30’s it’s close to miraculous.
As I listened to the announcer, I could not keep from asking several questions:
Then I thought of Moses at year 39. How did he know it was year 39 just before year 40? What if he had given up at year 39?
Then I thought of Nelson Mandela, one of my long distant heroes. How did he know it was year 26 and that he would be out in year 27? How did he know that two years later he would be President of the same country that locked him in prison for 27 years?
The answer to the questions about Moses and Mandela is “They didn’t know God was about to act?” They just knew God would act and that God’s timing is all that matters. Our role is to hang tough, no matter what.
There is a great lesson to be learned from the Chinese couple, Moses, and Mandela – If you believe in something never give up on your dream. Never! What if the Chinese couple hadn’t come back out of retirement for one more shot at the gold? What if Moses had turned back before year 40? What if Mandela had given in year 26? Everything would be different, not just for them, but for the rest of humanity.
So, the next time you’re about to quit and throw in the towel, ask yourself- “Do I really believe what I’m doing is life-altering? If so, hang on, it may be year 17, year 39, or year 26 and God’s good work may be just around the corner.
Every study shows that the most effective outreach/evangelism/advertizing is friends inviting friends and networks. In fact, 85% of people who come to church do so because a friend asked them. Getting your people to invite their networks is the key to everything. The primary reason new church plants grow is because the pastor and key leaders are focused on inviting their networks to worship and the primary reason church plants plateau is because the pastor and key leaders lose focus on inviting people and begin to focus on the members.
So, what can you do to make this happen?
Here are some of the keys
There is a mindshift going on today when it comes to how pastors view their role and their congregation. In the past most pastors looked for volunteers who they could convince to fill some committee or ministry slot in the church. The result is that 80% of the people did 20% of the work. The pastor viewed these people as volunteers who had to be treated with kid gloves because they were donating their time. They also viewed the volunteers as followers instead of potential new leaders. So it was only natural for pastors to wake up in the morning with a long “to do” and asking “What must I do today to be effective?”
Over the past decade or two all of that has changed. Pastors are actually beginning to read the Bible from a New Testament viewpoint and that is changing everything.
Today, pastor’s see themselves more as scouts and coaches more than pastors who care for people. They seek to match people to a ministry in or outside the church. They see everyone as missionaries and potential leaders. Instead of a “to do” list they have a “to be” list of servants they are coaching to be the future leaders. They hold the servants to the same standard of leaders as if they were paid, the only difference is the amount of time they are asked to invest. They wake up wondering who God will send their way they need to equip.
Instead of trying to fill slots within the church they develop some kind of farm system where they systematically raise up new leaders. The result is the 80% of the people are involved in ministry.
The shift looks something like this
The Past Today
Which side of the picture best represents your church and what changes might you need to make in order to be faithful and fruitful?
Over the past decade more and more of our ministry at 21st Century Strategies has shifted toward coaching leaders to make the mindshifts needed to navigate the 21st century.
Bill Easum
www.churchconsultations.com
www.billeasum.com
I’m preparing to speak to the Presbyterian Church of Canada in a couple of months. They choose as the subject “The Emmaus Project.” It consists of selected churches from all over Canada.
As I was preparing, I got stuck on the tiny phrase the two pilgrims who walked with Jesus said once he had left them -”Did not our hearts burn within us?”
I think that says it all. The problem today is with our hearts- they don’t burn for Christ.
John Wesley was once asked why so many people came to hear him preach. His reply-”I set myself on fire and they come to watch me burn.” I thought about this in relationship to denominations today and here is what I came up with.
They come to Methodist to watch us organize.
They come to Presbyterians to watch them study.
They come to Baptist to watch them fight.
They come to Disciples to watch them scratch their heads.
They come to ELCA’s to see if they can pronounce their funny names.
They come to Disciples to see if they know the meaning of the word.
Oh, don’t get mad. Take it to heart and ask yourself -”When was the last time I cried over my city?” If you can remember a time, then discard the above. If you can’t remember a time, perhaps you should not discard the above.
P.S. If I left your tribe out. Sorry. Why not send me your take on your Tribe. When they come to you they come to see………..
Over the years I’ve watched pastors do all kinds of work trying to grow their church. Many of them have brought in a consultant, myself included, and had a thorough examination of their church and a clear directive to the future shared with them only to flounder after the consultant left.
It has become clear to me that the further we go into the 21st century the more important it will be for these pastors to have on-going coaching to achieve their goals. Our times are too complicated and tricky for most pastors to go it alone no matter how good marching orders a consultant may leave behind.
That is why I have shifted more and more of my ministry to both consulting and coaching. It is also why I’ve started what I think will be one of my best ministries.
In March of this year I will begin a new session of what I call the Next Level Coaching Network. It is 
designed to help pastors lead their church through the next growth barrier. I feel this is one of the best ministries I have done in the last 20 years and want to share it with you.
The Network is limited to a small number of lead pastors and includes, phone, Internet, pod and video casts, and in person coaching.
And the beauty of it is you don’t have to leave home to take advantage of it.
If you want to see the benefits and how it works go to www.nextlevelcoachingnetwork.net
Sorry for not posting in a while but my wife has been in the hospital going through two surgeries but is doing wonderful tonight and may go home soon. So I’ve been a bit distracted. But God is good and all is well with my wife. That is the good part of this post.
Now to the ugly part.
Talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time. A good friend of mine was in Haiti on mission work and had just checked into the hotel 5 minutes before the quake hit. It took some time for them to find him and they flew him to Ft. Lauderdale, but the infection was too severe and he died. If the quake had hit 10 minutes sooner he would be most probably alive.
My friend served with me on our staff at the church I restarted and served for 24 years. He was one of the first associates I was blessed to serve along side. Clint Rabb will be remembered for his love and passion for the least, the lost, and the last and the radical ways he showed it. He served with his heart not the polity. Not always doing it by the book but always doing it the way he saw it through God’s eyes.
Clint was younger than me and didnt deserve what he got. But I rest assured in the fact that he is now with his maker.
Clint you will be missed.
I just finished writing a book titled “Preaching for Transformation.” I used Acts as the text, especially Acts 1:8 where the apostles (”Apostles” means “the sent ones” in Greek) were told they would be Jesus’ witness throughout the world when the Holy Spirit came upon them.God had a plan for the Apostles. Let’s call it “Plan A.”
Plan A was for the Apostles to spread out and take the message of Jesus to the world. But instead after the Holy Spirit came, they did what most churches are doing today – they hunkered down inside the comfort of their own four walls and began working on their organization (see Acts 6), never leaving Jerusalem. Plan A failed, but God always seems to have Plan B in the wings.
Plan B is seen in Acts 8:1 where it says a “great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles (”the sent ones”) were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria.” What “the sent ones” were not willing to do did not square with what God wanted. I hope you see the sarcasm here. It’s like Luke hit the Apostles upside the head (remember, “Apostles” means “the sent ones” in Greek) and said ”You dummies. You can’t ignore God!”
You see, God always intended for the Church to be on the move rather than hunkered down. God always intended for the message to be viral rather than tethered to a location. God always meant for the church to be reaching out rather than reaching in.
Maybe it’s time to take notice and once again become the “sent ones” before God activates Plan B again. Or perhaps Plan B is already set in motion? Have you noticed how many churches are dying? Sort of like the Jerusalem church. It was dead and gone within 70 years, and before that Paul was collecting money for the Jerusalem church from the new churches birthed out of the Antioch Church.
You and I are here today because of the Church of Antioch. So why don’t we hear much about that church today? We hear a lot about Acts 2:42 where the life of the Jerusalem church is spelled out, but that text is before Luke tells us how ingrown the Jerusalem church became. I have a hard time figuring out why so many churches want to embrace the four practices of Acts 2:42. Sure they are good practices, but all of them are focused inward. None of them are reflections of Acts 1:8 where Jesus gave them his mandate for mission. It took a desaster for the Apostles to leave Jerusalem and take up the mission Jesus had clearly laid on them. Are we doing the same today?
Look at Acts 11:20 – “Some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus.” That’s what Acts 1:8 is all about- telling people about Jesus.
So which church would you rather your churchbe like- ingrown Jerusalem or externally focused Antioch? About 85% of established churches in the West need to decide before it’s toooooooo late.
Bill Easum
www.churchconsultations.com
easum@aol.com