Bill Easums Observations

From time to time, I write about movements that I see emerging. The last three movements I wrote about were local churches establishing and staffing church planting centers within their churches, congregations with more than one location, and churches and organizations whose goal is to reach their city for Christ.  All three of these movements continue to gain momentum. Now, I want to focus on another movement that is having a profound effect on American Protestantism and I want to couple it with the three movements already mentioned. 

Three forms of church governance dominate the church landscape today: congregational, representative democracy, and apostolic or pastor led. Feelings usually run high as to which one of these is the best form of governance.  However, most of the churches using forms of congregational or representative democracy are leftovers from Modernity, and are either dying or on a plateau.  On the other hand, the vast majority of thriving churches are apostolic or pastor led.  We’ve also noted that the thriving churches using congregational and representative forms of governance have figured out how to circumvent as much of their governance systems as possible.   Over the past 15 years, I have had the opportunity to observe some of

  The rule of thumb of this new movement – the less democracy in the church the more authentic and effective the church is in advancing the Kingdom of