Bill Easums Observations

The U.S. Church is in a mess (see The American Church in Crises) It continues to decline as the population increases.  We are facing the perfect storm if something doesn’t change.  And as is the case in all enterprises, that change must be initiated from the top, by the pastor.  If pastors don’t change the way they go about life and ministry, the Church will continue to decline in the U.S.

That’s why when a book comes along like the Hughes’ Liberating Your Ministry from Success Syndrome I want to puke. The last thing we need is to allow ourselves anyway off the hook for the mess we’re allowed to happen on our watch.  I don’t know the Hughes. I’m sure they are wonderful people, but reading their material, I have to wonder if they ever pastured a growing church.

I’m as skeptical about a person who says numbers aren’t important to faithfulness as I am about someone who says numbers are everything to faithfulness.  But I will not allow faithfulness to be relegated to some sweet life of loving, believing, prayer, and holiness.  Listen to the way the book is described at Christianbook.com  

 “Offering biblical perspectives and personal reflections, longtime pastor Hughes and his wife show you that true accomplishment in ministry lies not in numbers but in faithfulness, serving, loving, believing, prayer, holiness, and a Christlike attitude. You’ll learn to confront your feelings of failure differently—and discover a godly understanding of success. “The last the average pastor today needs is to find a way to comfort their feelings of failure. Man what a travesty. 

Pastors, please don’t rush out and buy this book just to rationalize your feelings. Instead get on your knees and break your heart over the plight of your city and resolve to make it a better place. Decide now to spend 80% of your time working either with non-believers or with leaders in your church who will spend time with their non-believing friends.

Bill Easum
www.easumbandy.com

Most churches make a fatale mistake when they hire staff- they hire them to maintain what they’ve got instead of multiplpying it. Take most Youth Directors for example.  Most churches think they need a youth director and they hire someone full time to take care of 25 youth.  They dont hire them to multiply the group, but to take care of them so the pastor doesnt have to do it.  Churches dont need full time Youth Directors unless they have 50 or more youth in regular attendance and the goal is to grow to 100 in two years.  A full time youth director should have at least 100 youth in regular attendance or you dont need the person.

The same is true with a Children’s Director.  You dont need a full time person here unless you have 200+ children or you have 100+ children and the goal is to double that number in four years. Otherwise use a Lay Mobilizer who is responsible for adults, children, youth, and small groups - not to do them but to recruit and equip the lay people to do it.

In other words dont hire unless the goal is to grow the group.

From Tom Bandy

I do a lot of coaching, and one of the emerging themes is that clergy afraid to hold people accountable to mission. Often this fear is rooted in their own personal family history, where childhood experiences have made “accountability” a matter of retribution rather than redemption. Seminary training often ignored or failed to change that perception. Clergy cannot differentiate “accountability” and “confrontation” … and fear people will stop liking them. I’ve been brooding about this pattern.

So how to eliminate the “fear of holding people accountable”? I find that clergy need to take a much deeper look at how their personal family backgrounds influence their leadership habits. Next, they need to redevelop boundaries with their staff and volunteer leaders so that all can differentiate between “therapeutic” interaction and “missional direction”. Family church leaders are very “therapeutic” in their relationships, but as the church grows they must become more “missional” in their leadership development. Finally, clergy need to learn how to begin with mentoring mission alignment and spiritual discipline, and then talk about skills development. Otherwise, staff and volunteer leaders simply think clergy are accusing them of incompetence, or breaking off a friendship, and become defensive. Set in the right context, and with the right boundaries, accountability becomes “redemptive.”

TGB
Currently in Toronto