Bill Easums Observations

One of the new realities of new, thriving churches is the less they do the more they grow. Sounds strange, doesn’t it. Here’s what I mean.  I’m seeing more and more new, thriving churches doing only a hand full of ministries, usually limited to worship, small groups, and children and youth worship, and missions- and nothing more. Thus, less is more.

And the converse is true.  I see more and more declining churches with a full calendar of events. The goal of many pastors seems to be “if I can get new people involved in something, I’ve got them.”  So, they heap one program on top of another in hopes of involving more people.  Whereas this method worked when the church was more at the center of society, nothing now could be farther from the truth. All over-programming does today is split up families one more time as if society doesn’t do that enough.

So why not start cancelling all of the programs you have to annually prop up by begging people to attend? Then look over all of your programs and ask “Which ones really contribute to the spiritual or numerical growth of our church? And then discontinue all of those that do not contribute.

You see one of the mistakes most churches make is they tie their new people up in some many church activities that within a couple of years they don’t have any unchurched friends anymore.  Instead of bringing people to church two or three times a week, train them to spend time with their unchurched friends and let them see what it means to be a Christian. You’ll see a marked improvement in the number of new people showing up.   

Bill Easum

Ever since my third book, Dancing with Dinosaurs, in 1993 I have been shouting everywhere that the basic rules for effectiveness in leadership and ministry are undergoing exponential change. If that message were true in 1990’s it’s even truer today. In fact, one could say that we are living in a time of discontinuity from the past. What use to work, no longer works. Even what we consider to be truth is under radical siege. A good example is happening right now.

Since TV became a household friend in the 60’s people many people receive their TV reception through rabbit ears or an antenna on their roof which receive an analog signal. Over the past four decades their reception has incrementally provided them with reception.  Now the announcement has been made that in February of 2009 TV sets that receive analog signal only will no longer function. That means about a third of the country will have to either purchase a converter or buy a new TV set and a digital provider. The cheapest way to go is to purchase a converter but we all know you get what you pay for.

Now enter leadership and ministry. In times of great change most churches opt for the cheapest route so they try to convert something rather than adopt new techniques or technology or new leadership styles.  A good example is how most traditional churches attempt to convert to a contemporary service.  Rather than change the entire culture of the church so that is it contemporary with the times they merely tag a contemporary service onto what they have. And it sticks out like a sore thumb because the bulk of the church continues its inhibit traditional ways. Some even go so far as to try contemporary worship on a Friday or Saturday night in the hope they won’t have to deal with it and maybe it will fail.

But that’s not all.  How many people  do you think will not do either and when Feb. 18 rolls around and theri TV goes blank they will stare at the TV and wonder what happened when the rest of the world got the message? Some will wait till the last minute and rush out to purchase a converter only to find everyone else has bought all of them. Any comparisons here you can make with how most established churches have handled change over the past five decades?

Well buckle up folks.  That’s not all the example from the changes in TV. With the new digital age, in the very near future (like 2010) you will be able to get your favorite TV program on demand instead of having to wait till it airs at the regularly scheduled time. Not only that you will be able to go into the archives of the broadcast company and watch your favorite old programs from years ago.What does that mean for ministry? It means that on demand ministry and leadership will replace everything we know about either. People won’t have to wait till Sunday to worship, or office hours for support.  It means that leadership skills will have to be in flux every day of the year. It also means that seminary training as we know it will cease and our degree will take a life time to complete.Are you up for the changes? Are you one who likes a routine? If  so you are in for a very bumpy ride. I’ve got to go. Change is calling.

This week, Jan 3, I drove by two churches that had signs out front that advertised their Christmas Eve services.  What do you think that says to non-churched people about the people who run those churches? Not any positive I would think.  And what about the members who came to church on December the 30th and saw that sign. If I had been a member I would have called for someone’s head.

Both of these churches are around 200 in worship and should know better. Both have a full time pastor and some staff. The sad thing is one of the churches is a church plant that I had a hand in ten years ago but then the wisdom of the bishop decided to yank the founding pastor out - I guess because he was growing a church to big for a tiny island-at the time it was over 500 in worship. Three years later its on its way out.

Im really fed up with churches who put foreward such a bad image. There’s no excuse for it unless someone died in the pastor’s family. It’s just plain lazy - some would say stupid.

The first part of this blog was posted on September 19 of this year. I’m a bit late in adding Part Two, but better late than never.

The story of my first book, The Church Growth Handbook, is amusing. It took five years to get it published in 1990 because as the publisher said “We don’t think there is room for anymore books on church growth.” Can you believe that? In 1985-1999 there wasn’t room for any more church growth books! I would guess today there are more books written about how to grow a church in one year than in all of the decade of the 80’s.

My best-selling book to date was published in 1993, and continues to sell-

• We were reaching the end of the effectiveness of adult Sunday School. The official women’s organization of the Southern Baptist Church used the book a year or two later for their “study of the year” and the fir flew. I wish I had kept some of the not-so-nice comments I received.
• Small groups were becoming the future discipling method of the church. At the time there were a few books out about small groups and most new churches were still pushing adult Sunday School. Today, most church plants, including new Southern Baptist churches, prefer small groups that meet in homes over adult Sunday School. Websites such as http://smallgroups.com/ are now popular sites.
• The style of worship is drastically changing in growing churches. Just check out the church I attend off and on- Bay Area Fellowship. Concert driven worship is now prevalent in just about every thriving church in the U.S.

Now we are entering a dangerous, yet exciting, period in church history.  Things are underway (church planting and multiple sites) that could spell a religious awakening AND things are underway (terrorism and nuclear threats) that could spell trouble for institutional Christianity. Either way God and the Church will do well; but I do have worries for democracy.

Anyway, keep a sharp eye out for the yin and yang described in the above paragraph.  

By Bill Easum

Everyone knows how much and how fast everything is changing these days, or at least they should. But unless you have lived through the changes they may not seem so dramatic to you.

Last year I completed 50 years of ministry.  I preached my first sermon December 25, 1956 at Oak Hills Baptist Church outside of Austin, Texas. The text was John 3:16. It was an awful message, but it was my message and I can’t tell you what that hour meant to me.

In 1956:

·         most churches were still growing

·         Most pastors still hadn’t been to seminary

·         Most pastors were paid less than school teachers (average teacher’s salary was 5373.59)

·         the local church was often the hub of the community

·         people dressed up to go to church and found it impolite to talk in church (except the Pentecostals)

·         The cold war was in progress

·         The Middle East was embroiled in war (what’s new)

·         Very few women were pastors and most of those who were, were Pentecostal

·         No mainline church would be caught dead doing rock and roll worship

·         it wasn’t cool to cuss or call women a b…..( I still don’t think it is)

·         it wasn’t cool to ridicule Christianity, cool actually meant it was sort of chilly

·         there weren’t any Mosks in the country

·         Blacks (that was the preferred name then) had to drink out of separate fountains, set at the back of the buss, and enter through the backdoor (very sad)

·         No one had heard of terrorists or wormholes or space walks

·         9-11 was just another date in the calendar

·         TV was just catching on but you still had to view it through the snow

·         Very few homes had air conditioning except the window

·         We were just on the verge of the 60s but the church didn’t have a clue

·         The first Black person was allowed into my high school

·         Lawrence Welk was still the cat’s meow

·         Viet Nam was looming on the horizon

·         There was room for only four computers in the world (according to IBM chairman in 1943)

·         No one had heard of Iraq, Emergent, Multi site, religious right.

·         The internet wasn’t even a gleam in anyone’s eye

·         Commercial airline traffic was in its infancy

·         John F. Kennedy was a Senator that few people in my part of the world knew anything about yet

·         Motown was taking the country by storm

·         Email had never been heard of

·         Gas was 24 cents a gallon

·         A postcard cost a penny and a letter 3 cents

I could go on but you get the point- things have radically changed. Most of the basic things we use today weren’t in existence when I began my ministry.

The problem is most churches still have that 1950s look, even many of those that were started in the least twenty years.  Some people never learn.

I’ve tried to stay up with the change, in fact that has been the main stay of my ministry when I was a pastor and now as a consultant. I’ve spent hours browsing the headlines, reading hundreds of books a year, and listening to the voices of society as well as that still small voice.. I wish more people would listen to the sounds of change.

What do the above items say to you about the changes churches must address today in order to indigenous to the culture? If the word “indigenous” might be new to you why not search our site for the word www.easumbandy.com ?

On my next post I will share some of my comments and predictions about future ministry made back as far as 1993, 17 years ago, and see what has transpired since then.